Rock Island Argus., 1896-11-21
THE GIANTS OF OLD.
PREVIOUS AGES SUPPLY US WITH
ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.

Lizards Three Times the siss Of the Lay
eest Elephant and Turtle whose Shell
Looked Like . Hut-Marine Chants and
the Remarkable Plated Lizard.
The belief in a race Of giants was
once almost universal and held until
recent years. Even today large skeletons
when found are sometimes reported as
being those of giant human beings. This
was especially true Of the period about
the tenth and eleventh centuries, and
in the latter most amazing discovery
was reported, which threw the scien-
tific world Of the time into great excite
ment. It was said that the body of Pal
las, the son of Evander. had been dis
covered beneath the tomb of the empe--
or Henry III. The bones were enor-
nous, and it is unnecessary to state,
proved to have belonged to a huge fossil
elephant. As late as the fifteenth GEN.
tury a war of words was waged over a
find Of large bones, one party claiming
that they belonged to the giant Teuto-
bochus. In 1857 giant was discovered
in Switzerland. The council of Lucerne
requested a learned scientific man, Pro.
fessor Felix Platter of Basel, to report
upon it, and he not only announced the
bones as part Of human giant, but
made a complete restoration, showing
the man 20 feet high, which the proud
city adopted as an ancestor in the arms
Of the commonwealth. The design and
some of the bones can still be seen in
the college of Jesuits at Lucerne. Un-
fortunately for the theory and much to
the discontinue of the people who had
raised to high pinnacle this mighty
ancestor, it was found to be the remains
of an elephant.
Nearly all the mastodon finds in this
country were attributed to giants, but
there is no evidence that human giant
ever existed over feet in height. and it
is extremely doubtful if this height was
ever attained.
Giants other than human are very COM
mon in all branches of the animal king
dom-giants in every sense when COM
pared to their pygmy representatives Of
today. Some years ago some laborers in
the Senalik hills of India were engaged
upon a government work when they
| came upon the remains of a turtle that
proved beyond question that these ami
| mails had their giants in the days of old
The she'll which the men exposed might
have been used as q shelter for severa
| men, and at first, before its bony nature
| was observed, it was thought by the ma
tives to be hut of some kind. Fortu
nately the bones were uninjured, ant
they were taken out and removed to til,
British museum, where a complete res
toration of the animal may be seen. Th,
length of the turtle was 10 feet, it
horizontal circumference 30 feet, anG if
girth 10 feet, but it was estimated b,
scientists that this was net an adult
and that when fully grown this hug
creature would display domelike bacl
8 or 0 feet high, giving total length C
90 feet.
Ono of the common animals in equa
torial South America and in Centra
America is the lizard, iguana, which at
tains a length of or feet and is con
sidered a large lizard, but it was pye
my when compared to an ancestor tina
once wandered over England and vari
Gus portions Of the world. A number @
years ago some workingmen were exca
waiting and blasting in a quarry nea
Maidstone. England, when some bone
were uncovered that caused profoun
astonishment on the part of the finders
The skeleton was perfect, and as it wa
lifted out, bone by bone. their amaze
ment increased, and the news was sprea
all over the country, attracting larg
numbers Of people. When the bone
were placed in their proper position
they were found to be the skeleton Of
gigantic lizard that when alive mus
have been three times as bulky as th
largest living elephant and stood upo
its hind legs like kangaroo, tearin
down branches from the highest tree
J Such an animal was q slow mover an
sluggish and must have fallen an eas