Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-10-06
FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS.
Wonders Within the Nevada Peni-
tentiary walls.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.

Inc state PRISON OF Nevada Is sltlat-
ed in Eagle Valley, which is between
the Sierra Nevada mountains on the
west and Carson river on the east, and
4 is about a mile and half from Carson
City, the capital of the state. The
prison yard is quarried out from the
lace OF one OF the numerous sandstone
hills or knobs that intersperse the val.
ley. In excavating this soft, clayev
sandstone for the yard floor, hemi-
sphere has been cleared off of about
100 feet in radius. A clifl-like wall is
thus formed, which curves in and meets
the line OF the main penitentiary build
lngs at the eastern and western extrem-
tiles. This wall, the parapet on which
the guards make their rounds, varies in
height above the floor of the prison
yard irregularly from ten to about forty
feet, according to the contour of the
hill. AS work in the quarry has adj
vanced, fossils of various kinds have
been brought to light The kind found
in greatest abundance is the mussel or
fresh water clam. The presence of
this fossilized shelItish, however. has
excited no special interest, as it is found
alive in the Carson river, but short
distance from the quarry. Petrefac-
tons of pine cones, of worms now living
in the neighborhood, and of indigenous
sagebrush ard greasewood are also
found in considerable numbers and
well preserved in form. Occasionally
immense bones have been dug out of
| the rock, bat no care has been taken
( to preserve them. Not one of these
can now be had-which is greatly to be
regretted, as few of these mammoth
fossil remains might be of imnortant
aid as supplementary data to deter
mine the nature of the prodigious
beasts that made certain tracks in the
prison yard.
1t cannot be expected that conyicts
would know much about or care much
for such things and until the advent
of the present Warden, William Gar
rard, the officers of the penitentiary
have felt hardly more interest in the
subject than the prisoners themselves.
1t may be, however, that these valuable
specimens, so full of suggestions to the
scientific inquirer, have been allowed
to disappear partly because there pres
ervation Is not altogether an easy mat
ter. Some of the fossils lately extract
ed must be treated with the utmost
care to prevent their crumbling. the
sandstone in which they are found be-
ing damp and soft when first dug up
and falling to pieces when made dry by
exposure to the air Some marvellous
stories are told by the conyicts who
have been working in the quarry for
the last ten years. They tell of one
bone OF some monstrous animal that
roamed these regions untold ages ago,
that was as thick as q large man is
across the shoulders. Seeming incredi-
bic on It's very face and having its origin
in such questionable source of author
ity this story would not be listened to
were 1t not that signs exist which make
1t probable, that after all, they may be
telling nothing more than the unvarn.
ished truth. In the state museum at
this place there is n perfect shank bone
Of some extinct COW or horse of which
nothing is known in the earliest history
Of "Washoe."
But to substautiate lin speculation,
at any rate) the traditions Of the oeni- |
tertiary, | shall give you description
of what, so far as | have been able to
learn, are probably the most remarka-
bic fossil tracts ever yet discovered. A |
lady tourist from the East VINO was
very lately investigating objects of sci |
entific interest on the Pacific coast, was
50 much impressed with the scientific |
importance of what she saw here that !
she ordered plaster-of-paris casts made |
of the imprints at her own expense. |
These have been made and sent to her |
at Louisville, KY, where, no doubt, they |
will give rise to much learned furore. |
The Megatherium foot prince are near
ly circular IN outline and bear no re-
seniblance to the track made by any |
known animal that | am aware of, |
except that of the elephant.
And this resemblance is in shape |
only, the former being i'm
mersely larger than the latter. The
tracks are seven III number--that is,
there are seven that are visible How
mary more might be found can hardly |
be speculated upon, as they terminate |
with the walls of the quarry. They are
made in seam of what was plastic |
sandstone long ago, or mud which |
marked the interval of two strata of ma
tive rock; and they make an impress
sion from an inch and half to two |
inch's deep. They are nearly round,
and Measure a shade more than TWEEN
ty-fou inches in diameter.
! Measured these tracks and found |
| the seps of the great beast to b. quite |
regularly taken. The distance between |
any two successive tracks ON either side |
is eigt feet; the distance between the |
foremost and hindmost of any set of |
four tacks found to be fifteen feet;
hence the maker of the track cannot |
have been less than twenty feet in |
length 1t also must have been a |
| quadriped, as the tracks forming "A |
ldoublo of direction are wide apart, five |
feet two inches transversely from the |
outer ines of the impressions; the bi- |
ped mixing tracks almost directly one !
in iron of the other. | examined an
other lind of fossil tracks on the ground |
floor oithe prison yard which are hard