The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-10-31
Swallow Turns 1t on the Big
Bone Found at Glen
dive.
Belonged to q Huge Reptilian
Whose Blood Was
Cold.
8e Had for Companions Immense Tur
ties and Enormous Reptiles. Some
Furnished with Wings.

To THE INDEPENDENT: II You will in
iuige me in a few more words about the
interesting bono described in THE INDIE
PENDKNT by MI. Secretary Ramsey, l will
10 brief in settling a matter of great i'm
portaucs to science and humanity. Some
have supposed this bone belonged to a
human being some sixty feet in height,
which. II true, would be a grand departure
from what we had believed to be settled by
both revelation and science. Genesis
teaches us that man was created last OF all
he animals, and science has shown nothing
O the contrary. But, if this vertebra calne
from a human being, who lived IN the
pretaceous period, many species OF both
animals and plants came into existence
hitter he did. Science. however, up to the
present time, has not proved the existence
Of human beings prior to the end OF the
tertiary period, nor the coming OF any
other animal since man made his appear
ance upon the earth.
But an examination of this vertabra
proves beyond all doubt and question that
it is not the bon of q human being nor OF
any other animal nearer related to nan
than an alligator. It did not even belong
- duy 6ullA WhlSF ouShoAS - ySAA6f
nor even to any animal that lays eggs and
matches them by Incubation; but to an ami
NAL as low in the scale of being as a lizard,
and which laid its eggs in the warm sands
and left them to hatch by the heat of the
the sun. II. as ARassiz said. he could
identify the species of a fish by a single
scale, it ia much more obvious, we can
identify an animal by a single bone. more
certainly. if a vertebra, and far more GER
tainly still, if it be a tooth.
To illustrate our point: There ia a large
tooth in the show window of Messrs. Cans
d Klein, on the corner of Broadway and
Main streets. Although no one has seen
the animal to which this tooth belonged,
still comparative anatomy teaches us it be-
longed to an animal as large as and similar
to the elephant in general characteristics
Sc the same science teaches us that the YER
zebra lying in the same window of Messrs.
Cans Klein belonged to a reptilian as much
like an alligator as any living animal in
general appearance, but much larger than
any reptilian now living, 1t belonged to
one of the numerous species of huge rep
tilians which lived in the region east of the
Rocky mountains after that range was ele-
waited above the Pacific ocean. He had for
companions fifty species of huge turtles,
more than one hundred kinds of enormous
ieptilians, some furnished with wings, and
many strange birds, some having heads and
teeth like reptilians.
Such was the character of the animal,
whose Done is named above, and such were
his numerous and yoracious companions.
numerous fossils found in the same rocks
whose age is we'll known. This one bon
proves that its owner was q very large rep
tile; his teeth were eonloal at each end ant
were set in the jaws without prongs or divi
sion: his heart had three cavities only, two
a~uricles and one ventriole; his blood wal
cold; he breathed by lungs; his species wal
propagated by eggs laid in the SAM and
left to hatch by the heat of the sun; hi
body was covered with scales. and he ooule
live in the impure air Of his times. That
single Joint of the backbone proves all thiI
and numerous other characterization of thu
animal which might be mentioned.
Some may wish to know how this bone
proves all this, since it looks very mucl
like any joint of the backbone of any ami.
NAL, save it is a little lRrer than common
1t has one single characteristic which provei
all that l have said. One of the faces wher
this vertebra joined its follow is ooucay'
and the other face is convex, a Characters
tic foundi in the vsrtebra of no animal bu'
o reptilian. 1t is true that the vertebrae OF
some fossil re ptilains have both ends con
cave, as do some birds and all fishes, Blu
one race concaVe anu bne other CONVEX !
absolute proof the bone belonged to a rep
tile. The vertebre Of mammals, including
man, have bot hfaoes alike. So our Rian
was a gigantic saurian.
The question whether any human bein
liynd in the cretaoeous age is of such vita
Importance that / i have deemed it neoessar,
to make the proof very strong in this case
Many other proofs might be presented: bu
those above are absolute and conclusive.
q. G. SWALLOW.
HELENA, Oct. 80, 1899.