The Saint Paul globe., 1897-06-07

the case may be, a certain sea monster
which has suddenly become popular in
a small way. basked in the Colorado
sun and swan in the Colorado sea. It
may seem strange to think Of a sea in
a region where little besides cactus and
sage brush viii grow without irriga-
tion; for it must be remembered that
the eastern half of Colorado is in the
region formerly known as the Ameri-
can desert. But at the time of which I
am writing, Colorado was not a mile
above the sea as it is now, and the
mountains which We are so pround of
as they hold their caps of eternal snow
far above the clouds, were only in their
childhood Our Western states formed
the floor of a vast sea- dotted here
and there with islands. On these ISL
ands lived the huge dinosaurs, which
the researches of Profs. Marsh and
Cope have made familiar to u.s. And
in the waters about these islands swan
the monsters such as the one [ am
writing about
This one, which has been presented
to the University of Denver, was about
twenty or twenty-five feet long-rat ther
short for one of his family Some of
his relatives were seVenty-five feet in
length He was more slender than a
lizard but not quite as slender as the
modern serpent. He had two pairs of
limbs but they were very short and
could be used only a s paddles for SWIM
ming. The humerus, radius and ulna,
and the corresponding bones of the
hind limbs were reduced in length to
such an extent that the fingers and
toes made up the greater part of the
length of the limbs. The limbs were
somewhat like the fippers of a seal,
only weaker and less useful. Nearly
half the length of the body extended
back Of the hind legs in the form of a
long tail fiattened laterally and was
used as sculling organ. If one will
think Of our common water dog or
mud-puppy much elongated and the
limbs much shortened one will have a
very good miniture of our sea monster.
But the same fortune came to him
that Overtakes his betters, he died. Ma
ture buried him in the sands of that an
Cient sea and her workmen busted
themselves through long ages heaping
over his grave hundreds and thousands
of feet of sand and clay. Then came
the hardening of the sediments into
rock; the upheaval of the land and the
draining of the lakes and inland seas
formed by the raising Of the land; and
the turning Of the bones into stone De-
to try to estimate the years? Ten thou
sand or q million-we can realize
neither. Enough to say that time has
passed sufficient to cut away the thou
sands of feet of rock and again expose
the bones Of our monster! The place
which so long ago was an ocean bottom
is now a sheep pasture a mile above
the level of the sea.
"At this point let US drop the ancient
history Of our reptile and take up his
modern history. Some time ago q Mex
ican herdsman rode into Flagler. Cal.
and reported that his horse fell over a
leng string Of heavy bones Mr.. Kee-
gan, a resident of Flagler, heard the
story and thought the bones might be
Of scientific interest. He drove to the
place and found the vertebral column
lying on the ground where it had been
left by the decay of the rock. The head
had evidently been exposed first and
was nearly all destroyed About four
feet of the tail was still buried in the
rock This was removed and all the
bones preserved.
while the bones were in the posses
sion Of SIr. Keegan they were examined
by several biologists and the place of
their preservation also examined These
men reported that the place was so
near the division between the cretacous
and the tertiary rock that they could
not determine whether the animal was
of late cretaceous or early teriary form
They also confessed themselves unable
to refer the animal to any species. Last
winter Mr.. Keegan's son became inter-
ested in the study Of geology in Den
yer university, and through him we
obtained the gift Of the fossil There