, 1877-10-13
THE BONES OF MONSTERS.
WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES IN THE SAND
STONE R0CHS OF COLORADO.

1 WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES IN THE SAND
. STONE RocKS OF COLORADO.
Nature has borne strange children In
her day" says Shakspear, and he is not
far wrong If We may Judge from some re-
cent discoveries IN the rocks Of our neigh
borhood. While exploring some rocks in
the white sandstone hog hack Of the ere
taceous period, near Morrison, Bear Creek
the same stratum as at Colorado Springs
a few yards west Of old Colorado CITY
we came suddenly upon a hinge rertebr,e,
lying rs II we're e:i:ved out in bas relief on
a slab of sandstone. II was so heavy that
1t required two men to lift it. Its Cir
cumference WAS thirty three inches. We
stood for some moments looking In aston
lshment at this prodigy, and then hunted
around for more relics. Presently one of
the party, h,tle IN advance, cried out,
why, this beats all - At his feet Law a
huge bone, resembling Hercules war
club, ten inches Ill diameter by two feet
long On digging beneath it number
OF smaller veitebIa;e We're discovered,
and at the base of Il cliff two enormous
fragments, remindin. one of the broken
columns ot Some ancient temple, or
couple Of SIM logs, lay on the ground,
possible thigh bones, fifteen inches diam
eter at the butt end and in cliff above
them WAS another fragment sticking out
OF the rock like stump of a tree. With
the help of Sledgc- hammer and cruwbar
the rock WAS removed around it, and un-
derneath lay some ribs three inches in
diameter with other bones
The rocks III the vicinity We're full Of
fragments. Selecting one Of these, We
lifted of Il large cap Of sandstone above it
and disclosed Il perfect shoulder, uina and
radius, of another somewhat smaller ami
NAL, the thickness of the bones averaging
about five OF siX inches. This, lying as it
were like beautiful sculpture on the
sandstone, We succeeded IN removin. ex-
actly rs We found it. Several smaller
bones OF ANIMALS of various sizes were
discovered, but as the sun was fast setting
behind the mountains We deferred remov-
ing our trophies till the following day.
During the night 1t showed heavily, but
next morning we sccceded in dragging our
prizes on a temporary sled down the cliff
to the road, and bringing home to the
nei9hboring village 4 wagon load of bones
and depositing them in a shanty, prepar-
atory to packing them off East to Professor
Marsh Of Yale College for identification.
The monster to whom the bones belonged
could not have been less than sixty or even
eighty feet long. In the cliff above these
bones, impressions Of leaves We're found
dakota group) of dicotyledonous trees
of very singular shape, some resem-
bling Tyre, and others the leaves of the
tulip tree, willow, conifers etc These
trees grew probably on the shores of small
islands III the cretaceous ocean In which
the marine monsters roamed, and not far
off oysters (ostrea congeta), CLAIMS (nocer-
amus), Faculties and ammonites, and 9TH
er marine shells were found IN abundance.
Along the shores of this ancient sea
sguatted and lept the dinosaurs or the
Terrible lizards, one Of whom, the loelaps,
was a feet long, From the length of his
hinder legs, il is supposed that he was
able to walk upright like biped, carry
ing his head T. feet III the air. There
was another still larger, 81 feet long, and
OF the same habits I'm the air overhead,
huge bat-like creatures (Pterodoctws),
combining a lizard, crocodile, and bat,
tapped their leathery Wings (25 feet from
tip to tip} over the sea, plunging every
now and then into the water for fish.
There were birds too Il diver (PelPer0r
nis) FIVE and one half feet high, and some,
strange 10 say, with spinal vertebrate like
a fish, and armed with pointed teeth i'll
both Jaws. Enormous tortoises and tur-
ties were the boatInen of the age. Ons
discovered by Cope, IN Kansas, was fif-
teen feet across the end Of one fipper to
the end Of the other. Huge CLANS aiss
Law scattered over those ancient shores
twenty-six inches In diameter. Our saurl-
an did not fall short Of the biggest of these
he could not have been less
than sixty or seventy feet long, and prob
aby either 4 mOsasaurus or lizard allied
to the clasmosaurus.
Theoe In which these creatures lived
was gradually enclosed by the upheayal
of the sea bottom on the west, and soon
became almost an inland sea. As the ele-
vation continued and its area was con-
tiacted, ridges would rise, isOlating por-
tons OF the sea into salt lakes and impris-
oning the life III them. The stronger soon
DESTROYED the weaker, till the water by
evaporation becoming shallOwer, all life
FINALLY died, became skeletons, and, In
course Of ages, fossils in sandstone--Er-
-~-~~-O<----
LAGRANGE, of the San Francisco Mint,
is getting the business men of that city to
sion \ netitinn to have him retained III