The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-01-15

l have sent for, show that those hid
eous creatures were at enc time nu-
merOuS along the coast. l suppose
that the new skeletons found are
similar to the New Jersey serpent
skeleton l have in a corner of my
study.
THE SKULL OF THE FIRST MAN,
"This skull" said Prof. Cope, re-
turning to the object which he was
holding in his fngers-"this skull is
remarkably similar, in miniature, of
course, to the human skull. The
brain space is remarkably large, and
is, in fact, several times larger than
the brain space Of any of the skele-
tons of animals of the same period
Of time. The characteristics of the
formation Of the human skull are
clearly defined, so clearly as to bere-
markable. The teeth are almost the
same as human teeth, while
the jaw has many strong
points of similarity. I consider this
skull as the earliest indication of the
existence of man. 1t is new spe-
cies of a familiar class, and has
hitherto been unknown to scientists.
The connection between man and
this animal, it seems to me, must
have been very close, although, of
course, nine men out of every ten
would raise dispute. No animal
at that time, except this peculiar
species, had a head like that of a hui
man being, and the brain space, con-
trasted with the brain space of other
animals, or even Of the monkeys Of
to-day shows a vast superiority of
intelligence. But come up stairs and
look at a newly-found skeleton of a
different kind"
The professor led the way through
a door into the next house, 2,102
Pine street. The hallway was half
filled with boxes of bones and skel-
etons Of animals of bygone days,
while in rooms on either side the
open doors disclosed rows upon rows
of boxes, small and large, piled
against the wall in apparent disor-
der. 1t was a house full of bones.
Grinning skeletons met the visitor
at every turn, while if he were to
carelessly lean against a pile of boxes
the chances were that he would have
found a preserved snake hanging to
his clothes when he moved away.
Passing through the room where the
rhinoceros and elephant skulls
doomed up CHASTITY and grim in the
uncertain light of eurtained win
dow, the professor led the way to the
third floor, on which was situated
his study, place filed to overflow
ing with books, papers, statues,
skeletons and bones. From there
he went to the work-room. where
two or three men were busily en-
gagged in shipping and digging off
the rock encasing a number of
newly-arrived fossils.
SKELETONS OF EXTINCT MONSTERS.
A curious-shaped skull rested on
one side of the table. A solid bone.
about eighteen inches in length and
varying from al inch and half to
six inches in thickness, projected
from just in front of the nasal bones.
the eye-sockets being in turn a short
distance behind them. This formid
able-lookingI bone was nearly fiat
on the under side, but ran to sharn
edge on the top, thus giving the ami
mal-a new species OF the crocodile
tribe-a terrible weapon for attack.
and a strong, sharp p1ow for seeking
food in the bottom of a river. In
the ordinary crocodile the nose is at
the extreme end of the projecting
snout, but in this animal, which
dates back beyond all known speci-
mems and is the only one in the
world yet discovered, the nose and
the eyes were close together. The
animal was about twenty feet in
length and was covered with impen-
etrable plates of bone or hardened
scales. The jaws opened under the
eyes and were armed with teeth can
able Of doing terrible execution.
Another newly-discovered 2nd
curious skeleton IS that of an
animal that had the body of a hoo
the five tOed foot of al elephant
tnnth of 4 OeocaTv and q Jo,c,..1'