New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-09-08
seems to have been gradually sinking,
the debris washed down from the neigh.
boring hills being washed into 1t, until

seems to have been gradually sinking,
the debris washed down from tho neigh.
boring hills being washed into 1t, until
to-day we have as a result a bed of stone
hundreds of feet thick, composed of
hardened, triturated, pulverized rock.
Iron enters into the composition of the
stone, but in an oxydized state, which
gives the stone the color for which it is
so highly priced, and the quality Of dura-
bility. There is another strip of similar
rock, beginning at the Palisades and ex-
tending southwest through New Jer-
rey into Pennsylvania, and then run
ming to the westward and far into
the State of Virginia. This rock belongs
to the Triassic period Of the age, the
other periods being the Jurassic and
Cretacious. There is no doubt that the
long strip of rock last described also
marks the position of an ancient valley
to which the sea had free access. In
this brown stone we find the remains of
reptiles, and the first traces discovered
in America were found at the Portland
quarrles, in Connecticut. A prominent
plant of the Reptilian Age was similar
to what we call the sage palm, though il
is not palm. It is very interesting
plant, because it combines the PECULIAR.
ties of three tree families, having the
habits of the palm, but having its great
fronds rolled at their cxtremities as in
the fern, and having the texture of the
trunk similar to the structure of tho
conefer or pine. 1t is what is known as
the synthetic type, and the cycad, as it
is called, was the characteristic plant Of
the Reptilian Age.
The Age Of Reptiles could very truly
be called the Age of Mollusks, but we
designate it by the former title because
the reptile represented the highest type
of animal life then existing. The bivalycs
were very different from any living repre-
sentatives, one for instance being conical
in form and having cap at the top.
Some of the univalves were foot in
diameter. The largest mollusks in all
ages have been the ccphalopods, or
devil-ishcs, and in the Rcptilian Ago
they were wonderful creatures. Their
shells were of almost all conceivable
shapes, coiled, spiral and twisted. The
diameter of our pearly nautilus is six
inches, but these old ancestors some
times attained diameter of three feet.
Then we have a few fishes in this age
the first appearance of the modern fish
with bony skeleton and mcmbranous
scales. The lecturer here used the Ian
tern to show the reptiles of the age.
First he showed the so-called "bird'
tracks of the Connecticut Valley, one
impression being twenty inches long.
Another track showed fat glove-liKc
tracks in an European slab, attention
being directed to mud cracks in the
stone. The icthyosaurls, q swimming
reptile, having long pointed head, and
long, slender tail, with lippcrs as pad
dlcs-a watcr-brcathing lizard, thirty
feet long, was next described. The
next view was Of skull of q carnivcr-
GUS land lizard. A view of the ptero-
dactylus, or flying lizard, having web
similar to that OF the bat, extending
from the little finger Of the forearm to
the ribs, was thrown on the screen. An
other lizard, the masosaurus, was de-
scribcd as having been 100 feet long.
An animal with q scrpcnt's head, a
swan-lil1e neck and short tail was
named the plesiosaurus. Then there
was a true crocodile, similar to that of
the Changes. An animal, the mcgalo-
saurus, about the size Of tho OK, with
powerful forelcgs and a crest upon the
shoulders, was projected upon the
screen, and from its build must have
been tyrant Of the age, the lion Of the
period. Then there was bird with
sharp claws and feather for every Joint
of its long tail. Numerous other views
were shown, the lecturer concluding
with a picture Of the Portland quarry.