The Red Cloud chief., 1881-12-22

~haso suo bIioii oouy was COsereu Win
rhomboidal scales. Another. called
the rhizodus, was a carnivorous fish ol
great size They arc found in the
lime stones and mari that undcriie the
| coal formation, and with them are
found ferns. land plants. frcshwaier
shells and crabs. showing that the local
ity where they were discovered vas an
estuary. So perfectly are some o!
these fishes preserved that every bone.
and ven the softer parts. can be cx-
amined, especially in the macropoma,
a magnificent fish resembling our carp.
In nearly all examined the air bladder.
or q body that took its place. is found.
and is always torn. IL evidently enabled
the fish 70 regulate its b%uoyancy. SO
that it could move with equal facility in
either very deep or shallow water. One
OF the most remarkable fishes is found
in the cretaceous beds, and is allied TO
the salmon of to-day. The head is
about the size of that of a grizzly bear.
short and blunt like a bulldogs, with
short, cylindrical teeth like those Of a
tiger. and equally as large. Two pairs
of them cross each other on each side
of the end OF the muzzle. II is called
scientifically the P%ortheus. and many
specimens we're found BY the late Prof.
Nudge. They were from eight TO ten
feet in length. One fine specimen was
found weathered out by the wind and
rain. forming n mound on the bank of
the Solomon River. Kansas. Numerous
other species were found in the desert
tracts, near Fort Wallace, Kansas, on
the shores of the great ~cretaceous sea
that once was there. What is the
largest fossil fish known? The sharks
from the tertiary period are probably
the largest. Some OF them were pos
sibly one hundred and fifty feet long.
l have some of their teeth in my col
they were in the fish, and the enamel
is as rich u ever Some OF the teeth
are as large as your Outstretched
hand"
"But how do you know they were a
hundred and fifty feet long.?"
by a very simple calculation. Take
the jaw of one of the allied sharks of
to-day the cdrchariGs-as n model, and
arrange these fossil teeth in seven or
eight rows in an imaginary jaw, or one
made of plaster, and you will have a
jaw large enough to hold several men,
and TO give it u propOrtionate length
toned in all likelihood"
A fine collection of fossil fishes, the
best in the city. and probably in the
county, is owned by DIR. Newbury, OF
Columbia College. and the large sharks
teeth can be seen mt the Museum in
Central. Park. DIR. Sir John Hunter, of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
London. in describing q specimen of
medium size. says: 1.-The length of the
base OF this tooth from the carcharOdon
nHgaIoIon (Agassiz) is four inches
eight lines; that of the longest of its
sides. five inches ten lines; with it is
specimen Of the largest known living
species of carckdrias, the length OF the
base of which Is one inch eight lines,
and that Of the longest of its sides two
inches three lines. This tooth is from
q shark about twenty feet long. The
fossil shark. If bearing the same pro-
portion to the teeth, must have been
Over sixty feet long" The fossil tooth
used in Sir Johns comparison was from
the miocene tertiary for nations of
Malta, and was n third smaller than the
largest found in America. Prof.
Aga>siz made similar comparisons
with like results. The teeth. al
though under ground for untold
ages. still in many cases retain their
beautiful polish, and the fine s~errations
of the trenchant edges are as perfect as
when first deposited. If q longitudinal
section is removed from n OF the
basal angles, the thin layer of enam-
eled dentine will be found intact. In
the fossil sharks tooth, or gIosso Detrd,
this enamel is composed of animal sub
stance and c~alcareous earth, and is
nearly in the same quantity rs the re-
cent. but the central part OF the tooth
has its animal substance in a state of
mucous in~terspersed IN the calcareous
matter. The teeth were formerly
found In great number b yProf. Holmes
near Charleston. S. G.
"You mentioned fossil whales" the
reporter remarked; lido you capture
them with gun cotton or the ham,
mer?"
81 have eXcavated a good many with
q pick-ax." was the reply. "They are
found in Georgia and Alabama in the
tertiary beds-not in hard rock-and
are comparatively easy to get out. You
gee the plantations near the coast are
the beds of the old sea, that has reced-
ed and exposed the animals that have
been buried in the bottom. The i'm
mense size of the bones show them to
have belonged to animals much larger
than those of to-day, and so plenty
were they at n time that the planters
Of Alabama were obliged to burn the
vertebra IS we do stumps. to get rid
of them, and many built fences of them.
The sections make good garden seats.
1t was a wonderful age when these
creatures lived, in which such animals
as the camel, rhinOceros and monster
slOths were indigenous to American
sOl."-N. Y. Sun.