Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-12-01

Nudge. They were from eigh. to ten
found weathered out by the wind and
rain. forming 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
lection that are as perfect as when
they were in the fish. and the enamel
are as large as your outstretched
hand"
"But how do you laow they were a
hundred and fifty feet long. ?"
by very simple calculation. Take
the jaw of one of the allied sharks OF
to-day the carcharias-as model, and
arrange these fossil teeth in seven or
eight rows in an imaginary jaw, or one
made of plaster. and you will have u
jaw large enough to hold several men.
and to give it proportionate length
will require the number of feet men,
toned in all likelihood.
A fire collection of fossil fishes, the
best in the city. and probably in the
country, is owned by Dr. Newbury. OF
Columbia College. and the In &c sharks
teeth eln be seen at the Museum in
Central Park. DIR. Sir John Hunter, OF
the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
London, in describing a specimen OF
medium size. says: 1.-The length of the
base OF this tooth from the carchdrotton
megaiodon (Agassiz) is four inches
eight lines; that of the longest of its
sides. five inches ten lines; with it is
placed tooth OF an unusually large
specimen of the largest known living
species of cay'cbnrias, 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
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 John comparison was from
the miocene tertiary for nations OF
Malta, and was third smaller than the
largest found in America. Prof.
Agassiz 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 serrations
of the trenchant edges are as perfect As
when first deposited. Ii a longitudinal
section is removed from one or the
basal angles, the thin layer of eDam-
eled dentine viii be found intact. In
tine fossil sharks tooth, or gioSso petra.
this enamel is composed of animal SUBJ
stance and calcareous earth, and is
nearly in the same quantity rs the re-
cent. but the central part of the tooth
has its animal substance in state of
mucous interspersed in the calcareOus
matter The teeth We're formerly
found in great number by Prof. Holmes
near Charleston. S. c.
You mentioned fossil whales" the
reporter remarked; do you capture
them with gun cotton or the ham,
mer2''
IL have excavated a good many with
a 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 ont. You
see 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 TODAY, and so plenty
were they at one time that the planters
Of Alabama were obliged to burn the
vertebra as 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 aud monster
slcths were indigenous to American