The Penn's Grove record., 1884-03-15

One of the most remarkable fishes is
found m the ~cretacenus beds, and is al
lied to the salmon ot to day. The heaG
Is about the sizs 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 eact
side of the end of the muzzle. II il
called scientifically the portheus, anC
many specimens we're found by the late
Professor Nudge. They were from
eight to ten feet in length. One fint
specimen was found weathered out by
wind and rain from a mound on the
bank of the Solomon river, Kansas.
Numerous other species have been found
in the desert tracts neal Fort Wallace,
Kansas, on the shore OF the great creta-
ceous sea that once was there.
"What was the largest fish of these
ancient seas?" asked the reporter.
1.-THE sharks were probably the larg-
est" vas the reply. "Here isl tooth"
taking one from a drawer. "You see il
is almost as large as the palm of your
hand; in olher respects it is similar to
those OF the existing genera of sharks.
1t has the same serrated edges and the
fine polish. Now, if You take the jaw,
as l have done, of an existing shark,
and arrange these gigantic fossil teeth
similarly, you have a mouth large
enough to drive a horse and cart in,
and the length of the animal, if pro-
portioned like our sharks of to-day,
vaYYrA have la,r lnu11aanII 1-a- ~
hundred and twenty feet. Fine speci-
mems of these teeth can be seen in the
halls of the Philadelphia Academy of
Science. Probably the finest collection
in the country is owned by Professor
Holmes, in Charleston, S. G.. This is
the best locality for them, the beds
there being great burying grounds for
the creatures of this lost age. In re-
ferrlng to a tooth smaller than this, Sir
John Hunter, Of the College of Physi-
clans and Surgeons, OF London, said
the length of the tooth from the Car
charodon Megal oden (Agassiz) is four
inches eight lines; with it was placed a
tooth of an unusually large specimen of
the largest known living species of Car
charais, 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 was from a shark about
twenty feet long. The fossil shark, If
bearing the same proportion to the
teeth, must have been over sixty feet
long. The fossil tooth, used in Sir
Johns comparison, was from the mio-
nar1a farfIoru FArY0af,oYna pF NoIfn and
a third smaller than the largest
found IN America. Professor Agassiz
made similar comparisons with like re-
suits. The teeth, although underground
for u~nnumbered ages, still in many
cases retain their beautiful polish, and
the fine serrations of the trenchant
edges are as perfect as when first de-
posted, as you can see by this speci-
men. If a longitudinal section is re-
moved from one of the basal angles,
the thin layer OF enamelled dentine will
be found intact. In the fossil sharks
tooth, or glosso petra, this enamel is
composed of animal substance and cal
cereoIs earth, and is nearly In the same
quantity al the recent, but the central
part of the tooth has its animal sub
stance in a state of mucus ~interspersed
III the calcereous matter.
Though whales are not fishes, they
are included in the game of the geology
cal fisherman. In wandering through
Georgia, / was at one place struck with
the peculiar stumps that a man had
used to make a fence of, and without
approaching them closely L asked him
how it happened that they We're so reg
ular in shape. Then he informed me
that they were not roots, but bones, and
upon examination l found that they
were parts of the vertebre of fossil
whales that had existed here at the
time, The plantation was the bottom
of the Atlantic. Theyhad been plowed
up in great numbers, and as nothing
could be done with them they were
piled up to make fences of. Whales
nave been found on the hills in the
vicinity OF Lake ~Champlain, and an en-
terprising sho wman once secured the
bones OF one and laid them out, ex-
hibIting them as a sea serpent"