Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-01-26


himself looked intently toward the
door, and slowly sank back. dead.
Interesting Fossils in Nevada.
The state prison of Nevada is situated
in Eagle Valley, between the Sierra
Nevada Mountains on the west and the
Carson river on the east. The prison
yard is quarried out from the face of
one of the numerous sandstone knobs
that intersperse the valley. AS work
in the quarry has advanced, fossils of
various kinds have been brought to
light. Occasionally immense bones
have been dug out Of the rock, but no
care has been taken to preserve them.
Some Of the fossils lately extracted must
be treated with the utmost care to pre-
vent their crumbling, the sandstone in
which they are found being damp and
soft when first dug up, aud falling to
pieces when made dry by exposure to
the air. They tell of one bone of some
monstrous animal, that roamed these
regions untold ages ago, that was as
thick as large man across the shout
ders. In the state museum at this
place there is perfect shank bone Of
some extinct COW or horse, of which
nothing is known in the earliest his
tory of Washoe.
But to substantiate the traditions of
the penitentiary, l shall give you de-
scription OF what are probably the most
remarkable fossil tracks ever discov-
cred. The megatherium footprints are
nearly circular in outline, and bear no
resemblance to the track made by any
known living animal except that of the
elephant and this resemblance is in
shape only, the former being immense
ly larger than the latter. The tracks
are seven IN number that is, there are
seven that are visible. They are made
in seam of what was plastic rand
stone long ago, or mud which marked
the interval of two strata or native
rock, and they made an impression
from an inch and half to two inches
deep. They are nearly round, and
measure shade more than "a inches
in diameter.
/ measured these tracks, and found
the steps of the great beast to be quite
regularly taken The distance between
any two successive tracks on either
side is s feet; the distance between the
foremost and nindmost of any set of
four tracks found to be Is feet; hence
the maker of the tracks cannot have
been less than 90 feet in length. 1t also
must have been quadruped, as the
tracks forming double line of direc-
ton are wide apart, 5 feet 2 inches,
transversely from the outer lines of the
i'm pression; the biped making tracks
almost directly one in front of the
other.
/ examined another kind of fossil
tracks on the ground floor of the prison
yard. These are numerous, and ex-
tend conspicuously across the yard, ex-
cept where in places they have been
obllterated. In shape, but not in size,
these bear strong resemblance to the
human foot. They sink deeper into
the clayey mud than the others by half
an inch. Across what may be called
the ball of the foot the measure Is
eleven inches and half, across the
center nine inches, and across the heel
seven inches. From the center Of the
foot to the bulge Of the heel there is an
inward curve las OF the instep, the mar
rowest part of which measures five
inches across. The transverse distance
between two parallel lines making the
outer limits of these tracks two feet
six inches; hence this monster must
have been of the four-footed sort. The
prison yard is marked by a number OF
i'm prints, the most noticeable OF which
is that of a mammoth four-toed water
fowl. The tracks made are rectangu-
lar, and measure ten inches on either
line.-San Francisco Chronicle.
Miss Clara Louise Kellogg says that
of her many admirers, Mr.. W hitney is
the only one she could unhesitatingly
call cher fate, He had only known
her fifteen days when he proposed and
she accepted.
A Canadian journal has figured out
that the population q the United
States increases more, every five years,
than that of Canada has increased
since the beginning ofsettlement there;
1t Isl somewhat dramatic manner OF
stating one Of the contrasts which the