The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-01-20
THE NEW ORLEANS DEMOCRAT SUNDAY JANUARY 90 1873

CATION that Mr. Woodlands monster was +
large meat and tint-eatng auadruped.
Inc contents OF the stomach also give us
an insight into its habits. There is no ami
mai now living which eats minerals and
meats Unfortunately, and we may assume
! that 1t Is highly Improbable that such was
the habit of Mr.. Woodlands beast. As it's
| stt mach contained over 300 tlints and only
one /. utnan being, 1t is evident that it greatly
prefer cd fiints as steady diet naIi proha-
| OF a preln storic man, and was in the act of
| devo,iring his entire stock Of flint
weapons. wren the man appeared and
tried to save his property. In order to
swallowed the man. and then took a few
mouthfuls Of flint knives, just by way of n
! relish. While it thus appears that the animal
could eat human beings, it les also plain that
| Its natural diet was arrow heads and Jack
Knives and the fact that its Eyvorite food was
| manufactured by human hands showed that
the beast must have lived in close proximity
to man, il not upon terms of Intimacy Wits
him Thus we deduce from the contents of
its stomach the proof that it was dormeeti-
Gated or semi domesticated ANIMAL fIvipg
chiefly upon flnts.
We are nov. in a position to decide that Mr.
Woodlands animal was q gigantic goat The
modern goat is the only tLnrnesticatpf a,ladr,a-
ped that can eat both minerals and meats
and whose favorte food Is jack knives and
other hard and manufactured substances
Doubtless Mr.. Woodlands fossil goat differed
in other respects besides it's size from the
goats Of the present period; but that it was q
true goat the presence of three hundred and
two flint arrowheads and fifteen flint jack
knives in its stomach clearly attests. 1t
is highly probable that it's great size
free and abundant diet of flint 1t is
well known that the more indigestible
the food upon which a goat is fed, the more
rapidly it grows Goats which browse upon
,11,jI
those which are fed upon tomato-cans grow
large and vigorous. Flint is much harder than
tomato-cans. and hence it is better suited to
the deep wants of Il goats nature. The goats
must have been much larger than are the
goats of the tomato-can age. Still it is doubt
full if goat of the existing species would
grow. to the. length of fifty, feet even If fat
tened exclusively upon, fints. and we must
longed to II species now wholly extinct
The self-restraint evinced by Mr. Woodland
in the discovery of his gigantic goat must not
be permitted to pass without comment. He
did not attempt to invade the domain of
science and to volunteer an opinion as to the
precise nature Of the animal, but he simply
mentioned certain of it's pecnliarities, and
mOdeStly left science to ascertain that it was
4; goat. In the enumeration of the contcuts of
its stomacrhe was thorough and exact He
said it contained one hundred and two fints
careless man would have said one hundred
nints. and al unprncpled man would have
thought nothing Of adding half dozen to the
number Mr. Woodland is plainly incapable of
telling q lie for the sake Of n few flints and we
cannot withhold our confidence from such a
man. Moreover, instead Of filling the ami
mails stomach with dozen different and SEN
satonal articles, he filled it exclusively with
two kinds of flint weapons and a single hui
man being. A man who can discover SO prob
able an animal, and with so much originality
and sef-restraint, presents a pleasing con-
trast to the discovcrers of Cardiff duplicate
giants and impossibIy- intricate Mississippi
monsters. With little judicious encourage
q collection of fossil animals far surprising
the best efforts of the most imaginative geoIo-
gists that ever explored the coal-bin or traced
the footprints of creation in the old red grind
stone rocks.