Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-06-05

objections, it appears to me-, to this
theory, viz: snakes, large and small,
abound in Madagascar while there are
none in New Zealand; crocodiles, scor--
pions, centipedes and lizards make the
former place agreeable and pleasant to
ramble in; the reverse is true of the lat
ter. New Zealand is remarkably healthy
and Madagascar is remarkably un-
healthy, etc.
But to return to my big bird. In a
history of Madagascar, taken principal
ly from materials and papers sent here
by missionaries to that island in the
early part of this century, it is said: ga
bird of the ostrich kind is reported to
frequent the most desert places of the
island,' and adds that the story which
Marco Paulo refers to may not be with
out foundation" The story is briefly
this: 'The people of the island report
that at certain seasons of the year
an extraordinary bird comes from
the southern regions, and that it was
SO large and strong that it could seize
an elephant in its talons, lift it in the
air and dash it to the ground in order
to kill it and cat it. The quill part of
the feathers was said to be two hand
breadths' wide.n The people call this
bird the &c 'Rukh.'' So much for Marco
Paulo. Now, in an Arab or Persian
dictionary, "Rukh" is defined as the
name of monstrous bird which was
powerful enough to carry off a rhinoce-
ros, and the editor of ''Marco Paulo'
said that "the existence of such bird
was universally credited in the East"
Now, it is proved by these recent dis
| coyeries that such a monstrous bird did
,.oo11x- CT fhD,rh 1a,. bn
fables say, and the elephant story
would, of course, be exaggerated. though
if our own eagle can carry off lamb or
a child to his inaccessible nest, do not
see why a SO much larger bird could not
carry off proportionately larger ami
NAL, and this same epiOr7ais 71,aGa1,atS
probably furnished or was the original
| roc of Sinbad the Sailor, so that there is
| most likely, at least so far as the bird
is concerned, grain of truth in that
fanciful and fascinating narrative. We
now know, at any rate, that a bird did
| exist large enough and strong enough
to have carried Sinbad long distance.
The rocks of Madagascar are chiefly
primitive, huge masses of granite and
sycnite, pure quartz, large blocks of
| exquisite rose-colored quartz, chalce-
| dony, marble, also sandstone and lime
stone, some volcanic rocks and coral.
One writer speaks of finding piece of
| limestone containing fossil which he
supposed to be flattened serpent; it
was probably one of the coiled ammo
mites which used to be taken for SER
pents.
The animals of the post pliocene were
First, there were marsupials or kanga-
roo-like forms only of great size. Think
| of q jumping, kangaroo-like creature
| with head between three and four feet
long, and the rest in proportion. An
other branch of this family is supposed
| to be related to that peculiar animal
called the native devil of Van Dienan' S
Land, only much larger, one tooth be-
| ing two and a quarter inches around.
| Australia claims the most old-fashioned
| animals animals nearer old types.
| 'The animals and plants both have an
! aspect like the Eocenc tertiary. and
! very low forms Of man exist on that
part of the globe" while the natives of
New Zealand, only two miles away, are
unusually intelligent, we'll developed
physically and and quite poetical in their
ideas. Many birds with long tongues,
enabling them to suck honey from flow
ers with deep cups, have died out since
the advent of bees, introduced by white
people-the bees lie concealed in the
flowers and sting the birds. The ma
tives say they are being crowded out by
| civilization i'll like manner.
/ There were also in these times gigan-
tic sloths. ant-eaters and armadillos.
Fancy sloth eighteen feet long, with
a thigh bone three times as thick as an
| elephants, and with forefeet a yard
long and the toes armed with strong,
curved claws. 1t has been shown as
far as may be, that this huge creature
sat upon its launches and stiff tail, and
grasped the limb of q tree with its pow
erful arms and either tore it up by the
roots or wrenched OF the branches and
fed upon the twigs and leaves. There
were armadillos more than nine feet
long (the utmost length of modern
armadillo is about three feet and the
modern animal has an advantage over
it's giant predecessor i'll having jointed
bands in its shell so that it can roll it.
self up) Other animals We're the woolly
rhinoceros, Irish elk, with wide branch
ing horns, ten feet from tip to tip, deer,
a horse. (you see we are coming near
to man, only q few thousand years., the
urus, or wild bull, which lasted till after
man came and down to the twelfth
century, and the European bison, OF
auochs, which played with the masto-
dons and mammoths, and still lives
though there is only one place where it
can be found, and that is in the province
of Lithuania in Europe, where it is pre-.
served by protective laws. In this
country the Rocky Mountain sheep,
sometimes called big horn from its i'm
mense horns, is now rarely seen and
then only in the widest and most inac-
cessible spots.
The bones of man have also been found
in some cave deposits of the post-plio-
Gene, but at what time he made his ap-
pearance is still matter of conjecture
In Asia, also, sometimes called " the
cradle of the human race" a great
many bones of extinct animals have beer
found, also fossil ferns, corals, etc. Il
is very singular how in all parts of the
world nature has, as it were, many du-
plicate leaves, giving a clue to many
mysteries; now, for instance, in thi:
part of Michigan carboniferous lime
stone crops out, and sometimes we fine
fragments containing crinoidal stems
(stems of stone lnies), and in many 9th
er portions of the globe this same lime
! stone is found with it's peculiar fossils
Of course, wherever it is found it shows
that the rocks belonged to tho same age
in the history of the earth; that is, were
) formed during the same epoch Mrs
s. Fl. Ballard, Grand Rapids, Mich., !,
N. 7. Graphic.
Drinking Ice Water.
There is no more doubt that drinking
! 4