Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
BONES OF THE PAST.
Great Collection of Prehistoric
Skeletons for Uncle Sam.
GIGANTIC BEASTS AND REPTILES.
Mines Of Large Fossils and What Has
Been Dug Out Of Them.
FLYING DRAGONS AND HUGE MAMMALS
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE pIsPATcH.l

me most extraordinary procession OF ami
mails ever seen on the face of the earth,
upon which the ghosts of Barnum and Fore.
paugh might gaze with as wide-eyed aston
lshment as ever the spectacle of their own
united shows excited in the innocent minds
of rural adolescence. In this wonderful
parade Will be gigantic reptiles as big as
Eood-sized houses, some of them 100 feet in
length. fiying 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
srmor, 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 Government 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 being got ready for
shipment bV rail to the National Museum.
The whole Of it would occupy fully one-haff
of that institutions building here, and so
only a portion is to be Immediately for
warded, the rest to follow as soon as
quarters have beer established by Congress
for its accommodation.
Mining for the Fossils.
The business of digging for these
tremendous fossils is carried on pretty
much like anv other mining. In various
parts of the West there are great deposits
Of them. into which the scientific enthusiasts
delve for relics of epochs 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
reolocic action cht of the portion of what
had been sea between these ranges from the
ocean, and the water thus shut away formed
many bag lakes \ typical one of this sort
existed in Wyoming, and around it the
mighty antediluvian mammals gathered in
herds TO crop the succulent and luxuriant
regctation Of what was then a tropical eli
mate in that region. They died natural
deaths. or became mired 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 a mile in thickness, hold
lag between its LAYERS these ancient skele-
tons, distributed like currants through q;
cake.
AT length the water, draining of, left the
land dry, and, in the case Of the Wyoming
LAKE referred to, subsequent floods washed
away much of the sediment previously de-
posted, leaving what are now called bad
Ianls'-picturesqu with cliffs, peaks and
colInns carved out in fantastic shapes and
yanegated coloring.
Work of the Scientific Explorer.
Through such a region as this the scien-
tdic explorer travels with his ewes as wide
oxen for fossils as the gold hunter keeps his
1ar the shining metal If from the face of
some rocky cliff he chances to see bone
project, exposed by the action of the water
that has cut away the hillside he sets
party Of men to quarrying with drill, blast
and pickay until whatever is there in the
way Of remains has been taken out. Posi-
hlv some great deposit OF prehistoric
monsters may be struck in this way, in
which case the find is kept as secret as
possible, being regarded by the discoverer
~ his private mine If be gave it away
rival palaeontologists would rush to the
spot and dig out all the animals for their
own study and glory.
Prof Q. Q. Marsh, who directed the gath
ering of the Governments collection refer
rcd 10, 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 the relies Of the ancient mosasau-
rus were so plentiful that, passing through
il recently, be noticed the skeletons of six
Of those mighty swimming lizards, each 80
feet in length, at one time.
Animals Imbedded in Rock.
Usually these amazing fossils are found
Embedded in solid rock. After they have
been roughly quarried out, the sandstone or
oiher matrix enclosing them is carefully
chiselled away from the bones The latter
are given a coat of glue to keep out the de-
composing air, and amy that are broken or
Splintered are bound up with twine, after
which they are packed for shipment. When
one of these beasts of antiquity died, its
carcass being covered up with sediment that
afterward became stone, the skeleton was
apt to be preserved entire and with its parts
in position, all ready for mounting in mu-
scum.
There was new reptile found in Wyom-
ing the other Gay in a very complete state
which has been named "brontosaurus 1t
was 60 feet long, stood 10 feet high when
alive, and weighed 20 tons. Cast in the
rock from which il was taken was perfect
mold of one Of its eyeballs with which ii
looked upon the world 3 1000, 600 years ago.
1t had very small head, long and flexible
neck, short body and huge tail. In the
same neighborhood has also been discovered
recently another reptilian monster called
The "Triceratops," which had an enormous
bony frill around the back of its neck This
surprising development, measuring six feet
across, was intended for the attachment of
great muscles that were 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 another on
it's forehead, the latter two and half feet
in length.
Deposits OF Gigantic Animals.
In Colorado have been found great de-
posits Of the bones of "titanosaurus, the
biggest land animals that ever existed
They grew to be 80 feet long and stood 40
feet high when erect upon their hind legs
Instead of browsing, as did the brontosaur
and tricera6Ops, upon the luxuriant aquatic
vegetation around the lake borders, they
led upon the foliage of trees on the noun
tain sides Likewise did the 'iguanodon, -
several times as heavy as an elephant which
had nipping beak like turtles and
also walked erect, using its hinge tail for
support and towering to the height of 40 or
80 feet.
In the Mesozoie epoch, or cage of Rep
tiles, when the creatures described lived
these and other similar herbivorous ami
mails were the biggest of the beasts One of
them, tie ''Atlantosaur, was 100 feet long,
its thigh BONE many of which have been
found, measuring s feet in length and 25
inches through. 1t would seem as if such
monsters as are above described need have
feared no living foes, but. in fact they were
common prey to great numbers of frightful
carnivorous reptiles smaller in size but of
tremendous activity and fierceness, which
fed upon these unwieldly vegetable-eating