The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-05

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cutting and sharp claws on the front feet
that were evidently designed for tearing
ont the eyes of victims or adversaries.
Hardly less formidable and equally large
was the stegosaur. which was sneatneu
IN arrnor-plates from two TO three feet IA
width and employed as a weapon Oh
offense its powerful tail, armed near the
end on both sides with sharp spikes two
feet long. This animal walked erect also,
and one of its peculiarities was great en-
largement OF the spinal cord at the lower
end of the back. In fact, this expansion
of brain material. intended to provide LOT
the wagglng Of the mighty spiked tan,
was ten times as big as the brain IN the
skull itself. Equally large and dangerous
were the "megalosaur" and the dino
saur," their jaws armed with huge saber-
like teeth. which went about on
their hind legs looking for some
thing TO devoar. Against such fear
full foes what chance had the peace
ful ''cetiosaurusY and .'elasmosaurs.
dwelling in marshes and shadows. with
the bulk of six or eight elephants? Never
theless, some of the herbivorous land rep
tiles referred TO, like the gigantic horned
and armored "ags.haumas." could make
a good fight with the carnivores, and were
so well able TO defend themselves that they
lived and multiplied in the same regions
with the latter. But most of these vege-
table feeders had no other means of de-
fence than kicking, which they could do
with some effectiveness with their hinder
limbs, fifteen feet or 50 in length.
Specimens of all these are included in
the collection that is to be brought here
for permanent exhibition. OF course, they
represent but few of the countless species
OF giant beasts that roamed over the earth
IN droves during this vanished epoch.
That was the age when reptiles ran crea-
ffs@1 ell 4nxsl hi
seas, few through the air, climbed trees.
and did everything that mammals do
nowadays. There were bird reptiles and
reptilian birds Some had wings for iiy-
ing with a spread of TWENTY-FIVE feet
veritable dragons. in fact. Others, forty
feet in length, had paddles for swimming
like a whale. These latter lived in the seas,
though occasionally they came on shore.
It is known from their petrihed droppings,
which are plentiiully found today, that
they lived upon fish. One species dived
TO great depths in The ocean, and was most
rapacious and predatory. IL had enor-
nous eyes to see With in deep water, its
head resembling an alligator's. Another
with very long NICK inhabited the shoals
and preyed upon the fishes of the shadows.
The first serpents. too, belonged in the sea
and grew to be forty feet long They had
no poison, but were constructors, like the
boa. There were many kinds of crocodiles
fifty feet from snopt 20 tail. whereas the
biggest ones now are not more than fifteen
feet. During the same period lived the
birds with teeth, which were only dis
covered few ycars ago. Biggest of
these was the "hesperornis, which stood
six feet high and had only rudimentary
wings. 1t did not fly, therefore. but was
simply swimmer and diver, subsisting
on fish. The "ichthyornis" was somewhat
similar in appearance and habits, but not
much larger than b pigeon. 1t is supposed
that these strange waterfowl were wiped
out by the giant swimming lizards, eighty
feet long and clad in bony armor plates,
which resembled the modern conception
of the sea serpent. The turtles should not
be forgotten, which attained length of
twenty feet and measured seven feet in
height.
1t is not only the age of reptiles, how
ever, that Is represented by the unpar-
alleled collection described. Before that
came the epoch of fishes, when they ran
the world and had all creation pretty much
to themselves. OF this era likewise the
government has gathered together a vast
quantity of fossil relics. The face OF the
earth did not look then at all as it appears
now. Most of what are now called the
continents had not been upheaved above
the ocean; nearly everywhere was sea,
with comparatively small land masses
elevated out OF it. The atmosphere was
hot. moist and loaded with car
bonic acid so as TO be unbreath-
able. In the waters swan enormous
armored fish, such as the "dinichthys,"
which was fifteen feet long and had such
tremendous jaws and teeth that il could
would a radish. Later on came sharks of
the fiercest type, which must have been as
much as seventy feet in length at least.
The biggest tooth of a man-eater of today
is about an inch long, while the teeth of
these ancient shar ks, which are found in
enormous numbers, measure more than
six inches. That was the golden age of
the scaly tribe.
The giant reptiles that appeared on the
scene in the subsequent epoch were re-
markable for the smallness OF their brain
cavities. In some of them the brain was so
small that il could have been passed with
out injury through all the vertebre of the
spinal column down as far as the begin
ming of the tail. All of them were wiped
out of existence by the great cataclysm
which upheaved the Rocky mountains.
the Alps and the Himalayas and brought
to close the "Mesozoic epoch" Then
came the age of mammals, at the end of
which We are now, man being the last ar
rival on the scene.
The age of monsters has pretty nearly
passed away. only few remaining, like
the elephant and the whale. Small ami
mails with plenty Of sense will always sur
vive stupid giants in the long run because
they require less food and know hest how
TO avoid danger. Observe, in illustration.
how the doom of extinction has fallen up-
on the gigantic mammals which roamed
over the earth in myriads only so short a
time ago, comparatively speaking, as the
beginning of the present era, called the
Cenozoic. There was the ''dinoCeras, -
which lived in herds about the lakes as
the deposits showing as an elephant, but
in appearance somewhere between the
rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, with
three pairs OF horns on its head and
huge, saber-hka tusks that fitted
into sheaths in the lower Jaw. More
imposing yet was the "tinoceras. some
what similar OF aspect and sixteen feet
long. Not less impressive was the tine
gatherium,' or giant sloth, as large as two
elephants. which attained measurement
of eighteen feet, and procured the leaves
on which 1t fed by seating itself upon its
mighty launches and uprooting great
trees. OF the "dinotheriumn no compiete
skeleton has been discovered, but it was
doubtless the biggest land mammal that
ever lived. A fiil-grown skull of this
earliest Of proboscidians which had long
tuSks. as well as trunk, measures tive
feet from the point of the lover teeth to
the top of the head. The "brontops. " of
elephantine size, had a head like a
rhlnoeeroS, with huge horns Quite
ms remarkable was the 'sivatherium"-
beast like an a telope but big as an
elephant, with Nv b conical horns on the
front of its head and two immense spread
ing ones behind Among birds were
waders ten feet in height. such as the
"dinornis" and "gaStornis Contem-
pory with them were the mammoth and
the mastodon, the woolly rhinoceros,
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