Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-07-22
GIGANTIC MONSTERS
A Most Wonderful Collection Of Prehistoric
Animals
SECURED BY THE GOVERNMENT.
MINES OF HUGE Fossils FOUND IN THE
WEST. WHY THE GOVERNMENT HAS
DUG THEM QUITO Go TO

WASHINGTON, July 9.-Tbree week.
from now will be started for Washington
the most extraordinary procession of an
imals ever seen upon the face of the earth
upon which the ghosts of Barnum and
Forepaugh might gaze with as wide-eyed
Iastonishment as ever the spectacle of theiI
united shows excited in the Innocent minds
of rural adolescence. In this wonderful
procession will be gigantic reptiles ss big
| as goo1sizsd 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 elephants, sharks as large as the
hugest whales, other fishes clad in mighty
plates of armOr and countless specimens
more of equal straugeness and enormous
dimensions, such as actually inhabited the
world before man arrived in it. For nine
years past the government has been dig
ging up and putting together the skeletons
of these strange creatures, and now the
vast collection at present stored in New
Haven, Conn.,, is being got ready for ship
ment by rail to the national museum. The
whole of it would occupy fully one-half of
that institutions building here, so only
portion is to be Immediately forwarded, the
rest to follow as soon as quarters have been
established by congress for it's accommoda-
tion.
The business of digging for these tre-
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 eager
ly delve for relics of an epoch thousands of
centuries old. One of their chosen hunting
grounds is the region between the Rockies
and the Wasatch 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 antediluvian mammals gathered in
herds to crop the succulent and luxuriant
vegetation of what was then atropical cli-
mate in that region. They died natural
deaths, or became mired in the mud when
they went to drink, and the sediment slow
ly deposited in the water covered up their
bones aud preserved them from decay.
This sediment reached mile in thickness,
holding between its layers these ancient
skeletons, distributed like currants through
a cake. At length the water, draining Off,
left the land dry, and, in the case OF the
Wyoming lake referred to subsequent
floods washed away much of the sediment
previously deposited, leaving what are now
called Bad Lands" picturesque with cliffs,
peaks and columns carved out in fantastic
shapes and of variegated coloring.
Through such region the scientific ex-
plorer has gone with his eyes as wide open
for fossils as the gold hunter keeps his for
the shining metal. If from the face of
some rocky cliff he chances to see bone
project, exposed by the action of water
that has cut away the hillside, be sets a
party of men to quarryiDg with drill, blast
and pickaxe until whatever is there in the
way Of remains has been taken out. Pos
sibly some great deposit of prehistoric
m monsiers may bo struck in this way, in
which case tho find is kept as secret as pos
sibe, being regarded by the dscoverer as
his private mine. If he give it away rival
paleontologists would rush to the spot and
dig out all the animals for their own study
and glory. Professor o. G. Marsh, who
directed the gathering 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 re-
mark the other day that there was one
small valley be knew of where relics of the
ancient mosasaurus were so plentiful that,
passing through it recently, he noticed the
skeletons of six Of those mighty swim
ming lizards, each so feet in length, in
sight at one time.
For years the government has been en-
gagged in excavatipg these bones, which are
now 60 make part of what is destined to be
the greatest geological show on earth.