The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-08-02
A MEsozoIC NIGHTM ARE.
What Comes of Reading Heavy Scie entifc
Works in Midsummer.

WnaU zones OF Read1ng heavy Scle nt1hc
Works in Midsummer.
New Orleans Picayune.
How ones thoughts ramble over the wide
fields OF knowledge-my eyes grew heavy,
the book feel from my hands, I blew out the
light and turned over for comfortable nap.
was no longer in the carbonrferous forests
wherethe vegetation grew rank and Dense
The towering ferns were the same, conifers
and calamities still recalled the coal pro-
ducing period, but my lepiodendra and
sgillari@ were gone, cycads were everywhere
with their umbrella-shaped tops dropping
gracefully.
/ was alone in the Triassic and Jurassic,
and crept through the dense underground
like some unprotected thing, for nature had
given me no weapons of lf-defense. was
at the mercy of the huge reptiles that took
the Mesozoic Age by storm. Timidly moved
like microlestes and sneaked into existence
before my time-perhaps promise of some
thing better.
What fear paralyzed every, faculty Of my be-
ing? The sky was darkened by flying
monsters whose immense batlike' wings
measured fully twenty-five feet from tip to
tip-such roaring, rushing clouds of animated
life, now crawling like bats, now darting
through space, exacting tribute by force Of
tooth, claw, and wing.
The terrible laelaps, the giant kangaroos,
threw their huge bodies forward by tremen-
dous leaps to crush me like some puny worm.
The ichthyosaurs padded shoreward and ad-
justed the lenses of their saucer-shaped eyes,
while they snapped their hungry jaws in
very uncomfortable manner.
The megalosaurs, giant lizards, crushed the
teeming life of the vegetable world, with
bodies plated and armored with scales as
large as a bushe! measure always rejecting
in the sunlight hundred gorgeous rainbows-
the fsh-like covering was as formidable as the
steel on an armor-plated ship of war.
became capital prize in the lottery Of
existence, a doux bouchee for these monsters,
that wished to flavor the taste of reptilian
types by the addition of a little mammalian
sauce made SO many narrow escapes my
good fortune made me reckless. wandered
too far from my secure retreat.
Twas pinioned to the earth by strange
force, stronger than the force of gravity. 1
could not move, but stared In helpless agony
at the terrific monster that darkened the air
above me. Its legs seemed as tall as the Eiffel
tower, and worked on jointed sections In a
vertical direction. 1t lowered its colossal
body and complacently eyed me, while two
gigantic antenne like fans sawed the air and
produced disturbance of the elements.
imagined a look of contempt hovered in
the facets OF its protruding eyes. even ina
gined the horrible thing winked at me. OF
this could not be certain, for / could not
discover the presence OF any nictating mem
brane. Perhaps 1t was debating-my insight
fcant size was an olive to whet the appetite of
this bon vivant. shuddered. A long tube
slowly descended. At first thought 1t was
the neck of some stray waterspout. 1 found
to my horror that 1t was peculiar mechani-
cal contrivance.
1t inclosed lancets and saws with reverted
edges. gave great scream of agony-the
spear-shaped lancet pierced my side-ah such
narrowing feelings as the rentless saw lacerated
the flesh to increase the flow of blood. |
heard the valves OF a great pump glide
smoothly up and down-all my blood was as
sending in steady stream-I watched the
corpuscles roll over each other like so many
rubber balls.
know not how long remained In this sus-
pended state of animation-then the thought
came to me that life could exist without cir
culation or blood. These scientific reflections
had only an ephemeral duration--a fearful,
awful sound reverberated through the depths
of space-another fright seized me-perhaps
some mesoZoic monster more dreadful than
the last was going to place all that was left of
me in one corner of its bicuspid or molar
The sound was unearthly-I never knew
how, or why, the hair stood straight on my
head and gently elevated my Uranium from
the slowly forming humus. The heavens
seemed to tremble as the trumpet notes climb
ed with rasping sound to shriller screams.
/ actually felt relieved for s'rumor stated''
that Gabriel's trumpet. had been stolen and
there would be no resurrection OF the dead
even welcomed the final day of Judgment as
relief 1t is true that felt rather ashamed
to rise with not an ounce of blood In my body,
l seemed so transparent In the heavenly light.
was just preparing to make my best bow
when the trumpet must have been struck with
dynamite-for it gave one unearthly growl
that must have come from the lowest depths
of Tartarus. l aWoke with start and looked
wildly around-it was Jones' Lake Charles
saw mill whistle calling the hands from refresh
ment to labor. The terrible monster was