Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-04-09

PHILADELPHIA. rrtt -
Midway in the Park we pull up at the
pleasant home of the gentleman who is
to show US to the top of Talbot Hill,
where Prof. Marsh, of Yale College, and
Prof. Cope, of the Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia, have parties at
work exhuming the recently-discover-
ed bones of animals, compared to which
in proportions and Importance the mas
todon sinks to insignifiance. Weat once
leave the road and make direct for the
wall of blood-red rock on the west side
of the Park, and short drive bringing
US to its base, we alight. Reaching the
summit, the long drawn breath of relief
is half choked by the indescribable
magniicence of the view, and for the
first time we appreciate the sublimity
and grandeur of the Sangre de Cristo
range, A few more steps, and we are at
the tent of Prof. Cope's party, and all
within and without are heaped-up bones
(rocks now,) and many Of them SO per-
fectly agatized that at a casual glance it
would stagger any but scientists belief
that they were ever covered with flesh.
AS seen here, however, it is SO palpably
apparent that, the seeming rock and
agate are bone, as to leave no room for
shadow of doubt, Before us are perfect
parts of skeletons, SO huge as to prepare
one for the belief that Noah's Ark was a
myth sections of vertebra three feet in
width; ribs fifteen feet long; thigh
bones over six feet in length-and the
five or six tons Of bones thus far shipped
East comprising only the parts of three
animals. In one pit, the diameter of
the socket of the vertebrse measured fif-
teen inches; width of spinal process,
forty-one inches; and depth of vertebr@,
twenty-nine inches. In another place
there was thigh bone six feet and two
inches in length section of backbone
lying just as the monster rolled over and
died, with eleven ribs attached ,..,,the
backbone twenty feet long, and from
sixteen to thirty inches deep, and the
ribs five to eight feet in length and six
inches broad. Just showing upon the
surface was part of a:thigh bone, twen-
ty-two inches in width and thirty in
length, and near it a nine. foot rib, four
inches in diameter, foot wide at six
feet, and where it articulated with the
vertebrse, twenty-three and one-half
fifteen feet in length. All over the hill,
we come upon little piles of broken
bones, which will require days of patient
labor and skillful handling to properly
set in place.
The first discovery of the fossils was
made in April last, by young graduate
of Oberlin College, who, teaching a
country school in the Park five days in
the week, spent his Saturdays about the
hills hunting deer, and occasionally get.
ting shot at grizzly. Immediately
upon satisfying himself of the character
of the discovery, the young man wrote
to his old Professor in Ohio, and sub
sequently to Prof. Cope, of Philadelphia
Hardly had the latter organized his par.
ty of exploration, before Prof. Marsh
had his, under the leadship of Prof
Nudge, of Kansas, duly equipped, and
by the middle of May both parties were
actively engaged excavating, setting ur
and preparing for shipment the bones
which Prof. Marsh declares are seven
million years old. The first animal dis.
covered was of entirely new genus and
species in scientific circles, and was
named the camarasuras supremus, from
the chamber or caverns in the centrum
of the vertebra. Of the first petrifac-
tions exhumed was a femur or thigh
bonesjX feet in length, scapula or should
er-blade five and-a-half feet long, sac
rum, or the part of the back over
the hips to four vertebre
united in one-forty inches. Vertebr@
Immediately in front Of this measured
in elevation two feet six inches, and the
spread of the diapophises was three feet.
Prof. Hayden, the widely-known chief
of the United States Geological Survey,
upon visiting this place and inspecting
these and other parts of the animal, de:
clared it his conviction that the beast
must have been fully hundred feet in
length. The thigh bone, measuring
some six feet, stood over the hips eigh-
teen to. twenty feet. The animal was
undoubtedly shorter of front than OF
hind legs, and Prof. Marsh thinks it
had the power to raise up like a kangaroo
on Its hind legs, and browse off of the
leaves of the trees from sixty to eighty
feet in height. The Professor also gives
it as his opinion that the "critter" fed
entirely upon grass and leaves, the YER
tebr@ efthe neck being some twenty-one
inches in length, and the spread Of the
diapophises three feet, this being under
stood as cervical vertebre. The skele-
ton is not completely exhumed, though
between 1900 and 5000 pounds of bone
have been shipped to Prof. Cope. A part
of the jaw of a laelaps trihedrodon, ten
inches long, and containing eight teeth,
varying from five to eight inches in
length, has also been shipped. Recent
ly a leg bone of this same animal was
exhumed, and found to measure a little
over four feet, and, with portion of the
head, all crushed into small pieces, sent
on to the Professor. A part of the femur
of another animal has been found, it
measuring six feet, but somewhat light.
er than the others. The vertebra are
three feet six inches in elevation. show
ing very tall but not SO heavy a brute
as the camarasuras. When found, it was
s lying on the right side, with vertebr@
and ribs of that side in place, the ribs
measuring over six feet in length, and
the pongs where they join the back fif-
teen inches in width. Many of the bones
OF the camarasuras are misplaced and
broken up, quite pile being found at
the spot where several of the teeth of the
. trlhedrOdon were discovered, thus in
dicating the preying of the one upon the
other. While the general estimate of
these petrifactions among American
biologists is seven million years, Eng
!lsh scientists declare them fourteen mil
lion years old. Both the camarasuras
and the trihedrodon were of the jurassic
period, being found in beds which, ac-
cording to Prof. Marsh, correspond with
the Wealden beds of England. All this