The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-11

o,ousss ne would paste strips OF cOtfOu
cloth across the exposed surfaces 10 hold
the mass together. one such mass con-
famed a part Of a skull and several verte-
oIae' II weighed 600 pounds. To get this
OUT, a tunnel was dug beneath II ana
boards being placed under il al length Il
was ltted out entire Most OF the frag-
ments secured were so shattered as 10 Sc
mOiItInless. put bones going far toward
making up two skeletons were eventually
transportation. O'
=, In this shape. the bones reached the Ma
uohai Museum- The task of Separating
Inem from the matriX was extremely arr
uuOuS- Under the direction of Mr.. Lucas.
men Mighty skilled in this kind OF work
atsdched tne masses, one at a time with
cnlsels and other tools The work had ia
pe zone with the utmost delicacy and care.
IN spots, the fossil bone was so weak that
glue water had TO be poured upon IN bc-
ing permitted to saturate the s11bsta noe
ana dry before operations were continued.
mere the shattering was very bad, LIQUID
suces. Some of the bones were in scores
OF pieces, especially those Of the neck, and
htd 10 be put together like mosaic
,,,eiI %. % tns Two skeletons came out very
except 10 give suggestions, being in a
9Oof state The good one had the shoul-
uer blades almost intact, and the bones
OF DOth lore legs, upper arm, ulna and
Idulous. The fingers were lacking of
course. The skull was not complete, what
remaining OF II consisting of the back
the under jaw. But there was no diff
Guilty in plecing IL out after the pattern
furnished by the head of Kochs sea ser
peht, which was a first rate one. There
We're number of loose teeth and twenty
tnree consecutive vertebrae running from
the skull backward. Also there were sew
eral Verteorae of the tail. Oddly enough
the Vertebrae of the zeuglOdon's tail We're
bigger than those of its body proper, the
largest of them measuring a foot and a
haII IN length. II had nfty-fOur verte-
4 -au fetr mn 1,.,.
diloWed IN the restoration. Exactly what
the correct number was could not be dis
covered, no entire backbone having been
round up 10 date; but f1fty-fOur is a fair
allowance for a modern whale.
one of the difficulties in restoring this
monster was that no creature now exist
ing IS very near to- il in structure While
unquestionably a whale, il bears striking
marks OF affinity with the seals. Where
a vertebrae was lacking, IL was supplied
easily enough, and the same thing was
done in the case Of a missing rib. The
ribs OF this animal, by the way, were Of
very peculiar shape, expanding and be-
coming larger toward the ends. At length
in the manner described, the artificial
skeleton was made complete in all its
parts.
The final result looks so like a real
skeleton that nobody save a naturalist
would suspect its artificial character. 1t
is work of wonderful ingenuity. Each
Vertebrae is a box consisting OF a frame
of wood covered with wire cloth. This
had, to begin with, the general shape of
the bone to be copied. The box was over
laid with a coat OF PAPER mache which
could be modelled so as to obtain the ex-
act form and contour desired The papier
mache employed was money pulp from the
treasury-ground-up notes and certificates
Withdrawn from circulation. Thus this
restored monster may be said in a sense
10 represent value Of a great many
thousands of dollars in what once was
cash. The pulp was mixed for use with
plaster and glue to the consistent of
still dough. 1t had to be applied in thin
coats, because if put on too thick 1t would
mildew and spoil
The head was problem. All that was
at hand was the back part of the skull in
fragments and one side of the lower jaw
entire. The difficulty was TO build up
head into which all the fragments should
mt properly in their correct relation. Here
was where the excellent skull of Kochs
sea serpent came in, figures of II being
readily obtainable. The framework of the
head was begun with two narrow boards
extending from the back to the tip of the
nose. The final modelling was done with
papier mache.. The teeth were cut out of
wood and covered with papier mache
When they were set in the jaws the skull
was complete 1T was attacked to the neck
by hitting 1t over a section of iron pipe
that was fastened in the foremost verte-
brae.
,r1 The yertabrae we're strung on double
IRON rod. Difficulty was caused by the
fact that some of the originals from
winch they were copied had been warp
ed and crushed out of shape. Accord
trimmed and altered, building on a little
mere. and cutting off a little there until
they were in proper alignment Between
the vertabrae Of any mammal are always
disks of cartilage. These were supplied
to the restored ZeuglolOn with circular
sections Of half-inch plank. The RIBS
were sawed out of thick boards, trimmed
to shape and finally modelled with PAPER
mache. They were attached to the YER
tabrae with wires, and We're further Sc
cured by boiling them to bands Of iron.
This is easy to describe; it was the work
OF weeks. The shoulder blades and leg
bones were cut out and modelled in like
fashion, and fastened to the ribs and the
iron bands sustaining the ribs. The back
hone was made in four sections for the
sake of convenience
1t is believed that there were several
species Of zeuglodon, but fossil material
of good quality is so scarce as to render
determination of this question impos-
sible for the present. The most interest
ing query now is as to whether the crea-
ture had hind legs. Next autumn Mr.
Schuchert viii visit Mississippi again for
the purpose of digging up more bones
with view to arriving at a solution of
this problem.