Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1897-05-26
THE GIANTS OF OLD.
PREVIOUS ACES SUPPLY US WITH
 ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.


 ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.
 Lizards Three Times shs slzs of the Tar
 gsas Elephant Aad Turtle whoss shsEl
 Loolrsd LIks Hut-AEarsns Giants and
 ahe Remarkable Piassd Llzsrd.
 The belief in race of giants was once almost universal and held. until recent years. Even today large skeletons when found arc 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 c most amazing discovery was reported, which threw the scier. titic we=ld 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 emper- or Henry IL The bones were enor- nous. and it Is unnecessary to state, proved to have belonged to a hugsfosail elephant. As late as the fifteenth cen- tury a war of words was waged over find of large bones. cue party claiming that they belonged to the giant Terto- bochus. Tn 1857 Q giant was discovered in e5witzaEia11d. The council of Lzcarne requested learned scientific man, Pro- lessor Felix Platter of Basel to report upon 1t. and he not only announced the bones as part of a human giant, but made a complete restoration, showing the man 30 feet high. which the proud city adopted as On ancestor in the arms of the commonwealth. The design and some of tho bones can still be-seen in the college of Jesuits at Lucerns. Un. fortunately for the theory and much to the discomAture of the people who had raised to . high pinnacle this mighty ancestor. it wes found to be the remains of an elephant
 Nearly all the mastodon 4inds in this country were attributed to giants, but there is no evidence that . human giant ever existed over feet in heigEs, 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 s0me laborers in the Senalik hills of India were engaged upon Q government work when they came upon the remains of a turtle that proved beyond question that these anil mals had their giants in the days of old Tho shell which she men exposed might have bean used as 6 shelter for several men, and at first. before its bony nature was observed. it was thoughtrby the na- tives Co be hut of some kind Forth nately the bones were uniniured, and they were taken out and removed Co the British museum. where complete res toration of the animal may be seen. The length of the turtle was 10 feet, it's horizontal circumference 25 feet. and it's girth 16 feet, but it wae estimated by scientists that this was nos an adulk and that when fully grown this huge creature would display domehke back or 9 feet high. giving total length of 90 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 a pyg- my when compared to an ancestor that once wandered over England and vAri- ous portions of the world A number of years ago some workingmen were exca. vating and blasting in Q quarry near Maidstone, England. when some hones kmk Rstonishment on the part of the hnderS The skeleton was perfect. and an 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 es 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 meyer and sluggish and must have fallen an eaSy prey to the human hunters, if they ex. isted.
 The marine giants were even moro bizarre and remarkable than the land forms If we can imagine the little igu- ana heightened out to 80 feet. its beck spines changed to broad finhlce objects, VIC form some idea of the appearance of one of the small dinosaurs, Stsgosaurus ungulatus, one of the most uncanny and remarkable creatures ever found It 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 evi- dent that this strange creature could life itself up and sit like kangaroo. ress- ing upon its powerful tail, which, with its enormous spines, must have been . terrible weapon.
 A giant from America had skun that measured eight feet in length. AL most over the eyes were two large horns, third placed over the nose. The great length of the skull was given by huge crest that was protected by e ridge of long plates. The mouth of the tricera- tops was protected by horny beak. In life it must have presented a formid- able appearance, with body clumsy and low like that of hippopotamrs. . long tail like an aligator's, it's head calling to mind the rhinoceros. This monster was 30 feet in length and must have bean one of the strangest animals of its time. Philadelphia Press.
 aa4ka.- m,