The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-11-01
A PREHISTORIC GOAT.

iOOblDB ~ ttlo present 6ltuatlOH.
A PREHISTORIC GOAT.
An Animal that Lives OH Eien aud Siin-
erals.
It is not every Uhe who Is able to dis
cover u really meritorious monster. The
majority of persons who engage in this
business either dicover great deal too
much or not half enough. 1t is painful
TO see discoveries that might otherwise
be very successful, marred by lack of
self.restraint on the part of the discov.
ere:s. Take, for example. the recent
monster discovered In the Mississippi.
Had the person who first saw this com.
plicated beast been contented to mako 1t
an enormous lizard. and to exhibit it as
the sole survivor of the megalosaurians,
he would have deserved respectful atten-
ti0n but he IVES go ;;iiw:sa as to give
it the beak of bird. the head of bull,
and n body composed of half o dozen
othor animals, thus bringing his mon.
ster into incredalous contempt. On the
other hand, the poverty of Imagination
shown By the man who hns Just discov.
cred second Cardiff giant is equally dis.
creditable. Originality, combined with
jud'cious self.restraint, Is the quality
that makes successful discoverer, and
it is huniiliating to be obliged to confess
that these qualities are extremely rare.
Mr. Henry WoodGrd, Of the Indian
Territory, has just discovered a fossil
which reflects great crodit upon him.
He was digging In marshy place. when
his spade struck large bone. Further
search proved that this bone was q gigan.
tic skull, and that 1t belonged to an ami.
NAL Of enormous size. Mr.. Woodard
excayated thirty feet of this novel ami
NAL, and when he ceased digging he had
only reached the locality of its stomach,
so that its entire length must be at leas.
fifty feet. He found that the beasts
teeth were of the kind known among
dentists as cernivorous teeth thus show
ing that the monster when living was
accustomed to eat meat. In the cavity
of the stomach he found to entire skele-
ton of man, together with one hundred
and ten flint arrow points and fiftSea
flint knives. A more merito5ious anima,
has seldom if ever been exhumed.
1t is said of N. Cuvier the eminent
bone expert, that If any one showed him
an entire animal he could take it apart
and count all the bones without the aid
of slate and pencil. This anecdotc
proves at once Cuvier's stupendous learn.
ing and the wonderful accuracy of
science. If we study the bones and 9TH
er things exhumed by Mr.. Woodard in
the light of scientific principles we shall
be able to form oil sorts of conclusions in
regard to the nature of the animal. And
first, we learn from the great size of the
skeleton that the animal was, n large one.
1t had .eeth. and hence It was not bird
and the fact that it had four legs, also
points to the same conclusion. The pat.
terri Of its teeth shows that !: was car
nivorous, while the presence of flint
arrow points in the stomach, show that
IL was also mineraliyorous. Thus we find
at an early stage of the investigation,
that Mr.. Woodard's monster was q large
meat and fire-eating qundruped.
Tho contents of the stomach also give
us an insight into its habits. There is
no animal now living which eats miner
ais and meats indiscriminately, and we
may assume that it is highly improbable
that such was the habit of mr. Woodard's
beast. AS its stomach contained over
three hundred fiints aud cnly one human
being, it is evident that it greatly pre-.
ferred fints as steady diet. In ali pro-
liability, the beast made its way into the
house of prehistoric man, and was In
the act of devouring his eutire stock oi
flint Weapons when the man appeared
and t.i I'd to save his property. In order
to avoid an argument, the beast doubt.
less swallowed the man, and then took O
few mouihfuls of. flint knives, Just by
way ofa relish. While it thus appears
that the animal could eat human beings
it is also plain that its natural diet was
arrow heads and jack-knivas; and the
::,cG that its favorite food was mauufac
| tured ~ human hands shows that the
beast must have lived in close proximity
to man, If not upon terms of intimacy
| with him. Thus we deduce from the
contents of its stomach the proof that i
J was d0mesticated or semi-domesticatet
arimal, living chiefly upon flints.
| We are now in q position to decid,
that Mr. Woudard's animal was eigan
tic goat. The modern goat is the only
domesticated quadruped that can en-
both minerals and meats, ard whose fa
vorite food is jack knives and other hare
and manufactured substances. Doub.
less Mr.. Woodard's fossil goat differed
+, ~ other respects besides its size from
the goats cf the present period bu
that 1t whs true goat the presence O
three hundred end two flint arrow head
and fifteen flint jack knives in its stom
sch clearly attests. Il is highly probn
tie that ita great size was, In q larg
measure, due TO free and abundant die
of flint.