The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-04-21
Fossil Remains In New Jersey,

The State was the roaming ground
at different periods of creatures of won
derful make up and form. Within a
few years, geologically speaking, the
jersey forests resounded with the shrill
footing OF gigantic elephants. A Warren
county farmer in draining an old swamp
1ound the remains of number of those
huge creatures-an adult and several
young. Some of them were found up
right in the soil, while others were
bent and twisted, showing that they
had probably ventured into the bog in
search of food, and had been engulfed
oy the treacherous marsh, and, unable
to extrlcate themselves, had crowded
together, thus fastening their fate by
adding to the weight, and were slowly
entombed alive. Even the food they
had eaten was found hardened where
the capacious stomach had been, show
ing the vegetation they lived upon.
One OF the most wonderful animals
found on the ancient shores of our neigh
boring State is known as the Liodon, a
land animal of gigantic proportions.
Professor Cope, who has unearthed
many OF them, says the .Liodon must
have been abundant, and it's length
could not have been far from eighty
i've feet; certainly not less. Its phys
iogomy was rendered peculiar by long,
projecting muzzle, reminding one of
that of the blunt -nosed sturgeon of our
coast; but the resemblance was de-
stroyed by the correspondingly massive
end of the branches of the lower law.
Though clumsy in appearance, such an
arrangement must have been effective
as ram, and dangerous to his enc
mics in case of collision. Professor
Cope once found the. wreck of an
individual of this species strewn
around a sunny knoll beside a bluff and
his comic snout pointing to the heavens
formed fitting monument The Lio-
don dyspelor was probably the longest
OF known reptiles, and probably equal
to the great tinner- wales of modern
oceans. The circumstances attending
the discovery of one of these will ALWAYS
be pleasant recollection to the Profess
sor. A part of the face, with teeth, was
observed projecting from the side of a
plum by companion i'll exploration,
Lieutenant James II. Whitten, u. S.
A., and they at once proceeded to fol-
low up the indication with knives and
picks. Soon the lower jaws were un-
covered, with their glistening teeth,
and then the vertebra and ribs. Their
delight was at its heightwhen the bones
OF the pelvis and part of the hind limb
we're laid bare for they had never been
seen before in the species, and scarcely
in the order. While lying on the bot
tom OF the cretaceous sea the carcass
had been drawn hither and thither by
the sharks and other rapacious animals,
and the parts of the skeleton were
displaced and gathered into a small
area. The massive tail stretched away
into the bluff, and, after much labori-
GUS excavation, a portion of it was left
to more persevering explorers.
Other monstrous creatures having the
form of snakes, and allied to the boa of
to-day, were found in the swamps and
shallow water near Harrisonville. In
the waters of Burlington County fish |
might have been seen, related to the
salmon, but thirty feet long and having
teeth larger and more ferocious than
those of the tiger Over Hornerstown
and Mount Holly veritable dragons
scared with bat-like wings, thirty feet
across. Indeed, they were the bats of
that eventful era. Shark River-so
named from the numbers of large fossil |
sharks teeth that are exhumed there
swarmed with monster man eaters more
than 100 feet in length.
To even enumerate other creatures
that make up the stony history of Jer-
sey would require volumes, but perhaps
the above few examples will serve to
show her claim to be up with the age in
historic remains.-N. Y Sun.