The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-13
BONES FOR UNCLE SAM.
WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF PRE-
HISTORIC ANIMALS.

Gigantic Beasts of the Past-Reptiles
One Hundred Feat in Length and
Dragons Extraordinary - Mines of
huge Fossils in the West.
From the Washington STAY.
Four weeks from now will be started for
Washington the most extraordinary pro-
cession OF animals ever seen on the face of
the earth, upon which the ghosts of Barnum
and Forepaugh might gaze with as wide
eyed establishment as ever the spectacle Of
their own united shows excited in the inno-
cent minds of rural adolescence. In this
wonderful parade will be gigantic reptiles
as big as Rood-sized houses, some of them
100 feet In length, flying dragons with
25-foot spread of wings, huge
birds with teeth, mammals two or
three times as great in size as ele-
phants, sharks as large as the hugest whales,
other fishes clad in mighty plates of armor
and countless specimens more of equal
strangeness and enormous dimensions, such
as actually inhabited the world before man
arrived IN it.. For nine years past the gov
ernment has been digging up and putting
together the skeletons Of these strange
creatures, and now the vast collection, at
present stored In New Haven, Conn, is be-
ing got ready for shipmen. by rail to the
national museum. TIE whole of 1t would
occupy fully Oue-half of that institutions
building here. and SO only portion Is TO be
immediately forwarded, the rest to follow
as soon as quarters have been established by
congress for its accommodation.
DIGGING FOR THE FOSSILS.
The business of digging for these ire
mendous fossils is carried on pretty much
like any other mining In various parts of
the west there are great deposits OF them,
into which the scientific enthusiasts eagerly
delve for relics of eDochs thousands OF CEN
turtles old. One of their chosen hunting
grounds is the region between the Rockies
and the Wasstch mountains. Ages ago the
upheaval of these hills by geologic action
cut off the portion of what had been sea
between these ranges from the ocean and
the water thus shut away formed many big
lakes. A typical one of this sort existed in
Wyoming, and around it the mighty ante
dlluvian mammals gathered in herds 20 crop
the succulent and luxuriant vegetation of
what was then a tropical climate in that re-
gion. They died natural deaths or became
rn1red IN the mud when they went TO drink
and the sediment slowly deposited in the
water covered up their bones and preserved
them from decay. This sediment reached
mile in thickness. holding between its layers
these ancient skeletons distributed like cur
draining off, left the land dry, and, in the
case of the Wyoming lake referred to, sub
sequent Hoods washed away much Of the
sediment previously deposited leaving what
are now called bad Neutrality-suspicious.
with cliffs, peaks and columns carved out
in fantastic shapes and of variegated color
ing.
HUNTING FOR THE BONES.
Through such a region as this the sclen-
a., II II, L
open for fossils as the god hunter keeps his
for the shining metal. II from the face of
some rocky cliff ne chances to see bone
project, exposed by the action of water that
has cut away the hillside, he sets party of
men to quarrying with drill blast and
pickax until whatever is there in the way
Of remains has been taken out. Possibly
some great deposit Of prehistoric monsters
may be struck III this way, in which
case the find is kept as secret as
possible, being regarded by the
discoverer as his private mlne
If he gave it away rival paleontolo9ists
would rush to the spot and dig out all the
animals for their own study and glory.
Prof. o. G. Marsh, who directed the gather
ing of the government collection referred
to, has such mines Of his own all over the
west. from which he can draw to order the
most astonishing variety Of gigantic
creatures. He made the remark the other
day that there was one small valley he
knew OF where relics of the ancient mosas-
aurus were so plentiful that, passing
through 1t recently, he noticed the skee-
tons of six of those mighty swimming liz
ards, each eighty feet in length, in sight at
one time.
IMBEDDRD IN THE ROCK.
Usually these amazing fossils are found
imbedded in solid rock After thew have
been roughly Quarried out the sandstone or
other matrix inclcsing them is carefully
chiseled away from the bones. The latter are
given coat Of glue to keep out the decom-
posing air, and any that are broken or splln-
tered are bound up with Irvine, after which
they are packed for shipment. When one
one OF these beasts of antiquity died, its car
cass being covered up with sediment that
afterward became stone, the skeleton was
apt to be preserved entire and with its parts
In position already for mounting in a mu-
scum. There was new reptile found in
Wyoming the other day in such a COM
plese state, which has been named the
"brontoSaurus." 1t was GO feet long, stood
10 feet high when alive, and weighed
twenty tons. Cast in the rock from which
1T was taken was perfect mold of one of
its eyebells With which it looked upon the
world 100000 years ago. 1t had a very
small head, long ard flexible neck. a
short body and huge tail. In the same
neighborhood has also been discovered re-
Gently another reptilian monster called the
"triceratops," which had an enormous bony
frill around the back of its neck. This sur
prislng development, measuring feet
across, was intended for the attachment of
great muscles that we're necessary for hold
ing UP the huge head. The animal, though
tremendously massive, was only 80 feet
long; but it was covered with plates of
armor and had sharp and horny beak
not to mention horn on its nose and an..
other on its fore head, the latter 216 feet in
length.
In Colorado have been found great de-.
poslts Of the bones of "titanosaurs. the big
gest land animal that ever existed. They
grew to be sixty-fve feet long and stood
forty feet high when erect upon their hind
legs Instead Of browsing, as did the bron-
tosaur and tricsratops, upon the luxnriant
aquatic vegetation around the lake borders
they fed upon the foliage Of trees on the
mountain sides. Likewise did the 'iguano-
don" several times as heavy as an elephant
which had nipping beak like turtles.
and also walked erect, using its huge tail for
a support and towering to the hight of forty
or fifty feet.
THE MESOZoIC EPOCH.
In the mesozoic epoch, or "age Of reu.
tiles, when the creatures described lived.
these and other similar herbivorous ami
mails were the biggest Of the beasts. One
OF them, the 'atlantosaur,n was 100 feet
long, its thigh bones. many of which have
been found, measuring eight feet IN length
nd fornT ,fr-E v-. s,,o1 -.