Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-03

i
tain ranges stretched from the Rockies east
ward for more than 500 miles, extending as far
| south as Kansas and northward beyond the
present boundary Of the United States The
very warm and moist. WAS still tropical.
roamed
HERDS OF HUGE ANIMALS.
feeding upon the luxuriant vegetation Per-
haps the most remarkable of then. we're the
tremendous mammals belonging to the order of
which the vintatherum was a type. It WAS
nearly as big AS an elephant, but in appearance
somewhat between the rhinoceros and hippo
potamus, with three pairs Of horns on its head
and huge saber-ike tusks that lifted into sheaths
in the lower jaw.
More imposing yet was iss first cousin, the
loxolophodon. which was somewhat similar in
aspect and measured sixteen feet in length.
Bigger still were the brontotheridn, which
lived in great numbers on the eastern
hank OF the Rocky mountains. In that
region are found deposits containing
thickness, the successive strata being marked
ey distinct genera and species. The bronto-
therium had head like rhinoceros, with two
amense horns. 1t had plenty Of cousins as
big az itself.
THE MEaArHERrUM
Another extraordinary and very plentiful
beast at that period was the giant sloth. called
the megatherium, which was as large as two
elephants. 1t grew to be eighteen feet in
length and fed upon the foliage of trees which
1t tore up by the roots, seating ITSELF upon its
mighty launches and huge tail willie it en-
bsaced the trunk. Another strange creature
was the sivatherium, resembling an antelope
but as big as an elephant, with two conical
horns on the front of its head and two immense
spreading ones behind. Most enormous of all
was the dlnotheriUDl, the biggest land mammal
that eyor lived, which had trunk aud long
tusks tail man can stand upright inside its
skull.
For ages, while the vast lake above described
was hlling up with detritus, these great beasts
were getting mired and perishinR around its
swampy and palm-shaded borders, or their
bodies were swept into it by freshets. BY the
Time that the lake had become fairly filed I'D
the strata thus formed had reached n mile in
thickness and had turned to solid rock, with
bones OF the ancient animals referred to scat
tered all through it. Since that time water has
washed away portions of these immense de-
posts leaving the hillsides cut away as a cake
might be with knife, so as to show the geo.
logical history Of the formations and the sue
cesslve layers containing fossils of different
sorts. Among these water-worn cliffs the
paleontologist journeys in quest Oh the osseous
remains OF extinct giants.
MINING FOR THESE HUGE BONES
is slow and tedious work. They have usually
to be taken out Of the solid rock bit by bit to
be put together afterward. Often when a skel-
eton or portion OF one has been exposed,
plaster OF Paris Is poured over it aud permitted
to harden. SO as to prevent it from fracture
Then it is cut away beneath and removed bod
lily. Usually the bones arc giyer Goa. of glue
TO keep out the air, and any that are broken or
spiintered are bound NJ with twine in the most
careful manner. In this shape they are shipped
10 the museum where they are to be prepared
FOR mounting, and there sometimes months are
spent In chiseiing them out.
EVER SO MANY OTHER CREATURES
contemporary with these huge mammals of the
tertiary have been brought to light from the
same geological strata Among these are nu-
merous tapir-like and rhinoceros-lihe animals
ihere is also the limnofelis, Il carniyorous
beast nearly as big as lion, which must have
been very fierce and foi midab,e. there were gi-
Sannc armadllios and rodents of many species
here were giant beavers ana remarkable Car
nlrores called tillOdonts. which Irsembled ro-
dents III SOME respects, bat had skulls like
bears and long, pointed claws. The latter were
rs big as tapirs
WHEN cAMELs WERE IN THIS COUNTRY
Investigation of these same deposits has
proved that cameis were very plentiful in this
country during the tertiary epoch. Probably
they originated on this continent and made
their way hence into the so called old world.
from single hole called Antelope Well" or
the Union Pacific railway, Prof. Marsh dug out
within a space OF ten feet across by six feet
deep two kinds of rhiuoceros, u beast some
thlng Ike hog. two creatures allied to the |
camel and carniyore as big as tiger. In all |
fifteen foasll species were I, und IL that dig |
ginS, which doubtless once a m.re sink |
that entrapped the animals. At the same time |
was discovered li,liputian horse two feet high |
Ii had four toes and rudimrntary fifth toe.
Other strata have yielded a KIND OF horse az big
as goat with three toes, and finally the horse
OF today. which walks upon the nail % his mid |
die toe and stlll exhibits the last two vanished
ones IN the shape Of little splinter Of bone on
either side beneath the flesh. According to the |
story told by the deposits, the pig seems. in |
the course OF ages, to have made many attempts
TO become somewhat OF an improvement on his |
simple self. He has brapched out into MANY !
Developments, but all OF these, one of which
got to be nearly az big rhinoceros became
extinct sooner or latter. While the pig himself
has kept on almost unchanged
Those mighty mesozo.c hzards-the hypsir-
hophus, agathaumas, amphicnlias and CANA
rasaurus-are among the original discoveries
Of Professor E. ID. Cope. His lind also was tue
huge mammal with horns. yclept Ioxolopho-
don. The contributions which he has made to
archaeological science, however, are too vast
for brief summarizing.
Pa!eontology is a comparatively new science
1t is only within the last fifty years that science
has turned her magic lantern upon the living
past, showing TO mankind of the present as il
In series OF wondrous dissolving views the
countless tribes Of creatures that trod the
earth for myriatls OF centuries before the hu-
man race was born. RENE BACHE.
SCOTT AND VANDERBILT.