Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-03-28
THE GIANTS OF OLD.
PREVIOUS AGES SUPPLY Us WITH
ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.


ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.
Lizards Three Times the Size OF the Lar
rest Elephant and Turtle Whose Shell
Looked like Hut-sIarine Giants and
the Remarkable Plated Lizard.
The belief in 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 a most amazing discovery
was reported, which threw the scien-
tiflc world of the time into great excite
ment It was said that the body Of Pal
las, the son of Eyander. had been dis
covered beneath the tomb Of the emper-
or Henry Ill The bones were enor-
NOUS, and it is unnecessary to state,
proved to have belonged TO huge fossil
elephant. AS late as the fifteenth CEN
fury war of words was waged over
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 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 30 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 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 shell which the men exposed might
have been used as shelter for several
men, and at first, before its bony nature
was observed, it was thought by the ma
tiYes to be hut of some kind. Fortu-
nately the bones were uninjured, and
they were taken out and removed to the
British museum, where complete res
toration of the animal may be seen. The
length of the turtle was 10 feet, its
horizontal circumference 20 feet, and its
girth Is feet, but it was estimated by
scientists that this was not an adult,
and that when fully grown this huge.
creature would display domelike back
or feet high, giving total length of
30 feet.
One of the common animals in equa-
torial South America and in Central
America is the lizard, iguana, which at
tains length of or feet and is con-
sidered large lizard, but it was pyg-
my when compared to an ancestor that
once wandered over England and vari-
Gus portions of the world. A number of
years ago some workingmen were exca-
waiting and blasting in a quarry near
Maidstone, England, when some bones
were uncovered that caused profound
establishment ON the part of the finders
The skeleton was perfect, and as it was
lifted out, bone by bone, their amaze
ment increased, and the news was spread
all over the country, attracting large
numbers of people When the bones
were placed in their proper position,
they were found to be the skeleton of a
gigantic lizard that when alive must
have been three times as bulky as the
largest living elephant and stood upon
its hind legs like a kangaroo, tearing
down branches from the highest trees.
Such an animal was slow mover and
sluggish and must have fallen an easy
prey to the human hunters, if they ex-
listed.
The marine giants were even more
bizarre and remarkable than the land
forms. If we can imagine the little igu-
ana heightened out to 80 feet, its back
spines changed to broad fnlike objects,
we form some idea of the appearance of
one of the small dinosaurs, Stegosaurus
ungulatus, one of the most uncanny and
remarkable creatures ever found. 1t is
called the plated lizard, and the best
skeleton was found on the eastern flank
of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the
plates with which this armored lizard
were protected were two or three feet
in diameter and the spines over two
feet in length. From the fact that the
hind limbs were the largest, it is evil
dent that this strange creature could lift
itself up and sit like kangaroo, rest
ing upon its powerful tail, which, with
its enormous spines, must have been
terrible weapon.
A giant from America had a skull
that measured eight feet in length. Al
most over the eyes were two large horns,
a third placed over the nose The great
length of the skull was given by huge
crest that was protected by ridge of
long plates. The mouth of the tricera-
tops was protected by a horny beak. In
life it must have presented formid-
able appearance, with body clumsy
and low like that of hippopotamus, a
long tail like an alligator's, its head
calling to mind the rhinoceros This
monster was 20 feet in length and must
have been one of the strangest animals
of its time. Philadelphia Press.
Sitting Up Late.
There is nothing SO tends to shorten
the lives Of old people and to injure their