The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-10-27

and Twenty-one Feet TnH-Dinosanr
 Hunting.
 Tn the Field Columbian Museum in
 Jackson Park experts are putting to-
 gether the framework of the largest an
 imal remains which have been found.
 It is the skeleton of the giant dinosaur,
 the largest in existence, which Prof.
 Elmer s. Riggs, of the museum recent
 ly uncovered in western Colorado
 From calculations made from the in-
 complete skeleton it is figured that the
 animal represented by the two thigh
 bones, the vertebrae, and the six ribs
 was seventy-flve feet long and twenty
 one feet high. Out of these the skele-
 ton will be completed and put together.
 Hunting the dinosaur in the year 1900
 A. D. is a different sport to what 1t
 would have been in the time when the
 Rocky Mountain region was marsh
 and these tremendous vegetarian bird
 lizards thrashed the Slimy lakes into
 muddy foam. Professor Riggs found
 the pursuit to be pastoral by compari-
 son with this antediluvian possibility.
 The animals habitat, through geologi-
 cal changes, is hard to trace, and when
 the likely spot is discovered the search
 may be a good deal like trying to dig
 woodchuch out of hole that sn' t
 there. Professor Riggs has a story about his find.
 A year ago last spring, while the pro- lessor was making preparations for his usual summer tour after specimens, he turned his attention to a locality in Col
 <,,yo 1o xuoicI1 lo1oor Iaa bnar1 a oOOd field for fossil hunters. Corresponding with a Colorado man about this place, the western friend mentioned a field which he said was more accessible and newer than the one which Professor Riggs had in mind. It had been discovered by an amateur scientific club in a neighboring hamlet, but they had not recognized it's importance. The infor- mation given in this correspondence was meagre and Professor Riggs did not pay much attention to it at the time, for he decided to go to Wyoming that year instead of to Colorado. Pro- lessor Riggs passed that summer look ing for fossils in Wyoming. Last win ter, however, when he began to think of plans for his trip in 1900, he recalled the correspondence with the Colorado man and communicated with him again.
 It was in June, 1900, that Professor Riggs, accompanied by three compan- ions, struck into the mountains from the little Colorado village which they had made the base of their operations, and in which lived the members of the local scientific club which had first marked the region of fossil remains which he intended to explore. The pro- lessor took a camping outfit tools, pro- visions for several weeks and cook.
 Week after week of tramping over the hills and mountains followed, and through the valleys in the neighborhood of the different spots where the camps were pitched from time to time the party searched. Fossil remains were found. Some good specimens had been secured and the three months which | Professor Riggs had allowed for the | trip was almost gone, when one day | H. w. Meinoke camp to camp and said | that he had discovered the end of what | to be a dinosaur bone pro- ! truding from the debris near the base | of peak some distance from the camp. | The end had been broken off, and these broken fragments, scattered over the :, ground, had first attracted MT. | Meincke's attention. They had been traced to their source, and he had | found the big bone imbedded in the hill- side.
 The next day some of the party went to the spot and laid bare the thigh bone of dinosaur The end had been bro- ken off, and the size of the original to T ly, though it was seen to be large one. Professor Riggs had been waiting on F another find, and he decided to finish his work at that place. Therefore the new "rnine'' was abandoned for almost a week. But when the other job was finished the professor thought he would better make a more exhaustive search near MT. Meinckes find. Digging into the foot of the cliff, 1t was only short time until some of the vertebrae were uncovered, and in excavating to remove these the ribs, and, finally, far ther back in the hillside, the other thigh bone were found.
 It was when this last thigh bone was laid bare so that it could be measured that the importance of the find was made certain The length of the thigh bone of Professor Marsh's dinosaur was six feet two inches. MT. Meincke's find measured six feet ten inches.
 News of the discovery reached the village despite efforts to keep it secret, and first among those who visited the mine" were members of the scientific dub of the little town, who had trav- sled over that same territory repeatedly II quest of fossils. In their wake came other residents of the village in large numbers, and the diggers were consid- ,rably hampered by the sightseers.
 The bones were packed carefully in cement and burlap and removed by wagon to the railway station, from which they were started to their desti- nation at Jackson Park. The work of them and getting them in shape to be placed on exhibition has )een progressing favorably, but it will )e weeks before the restored skeleton 1 an be placed in the museum.
 Scientists have not been agreed as to ust what classification should be made if the dinosaur. To a great extent | hey are i'll the position of the blind | nen who disagreed as to the form of ! ; he elephant. Some of the animals | we're carniyerous and others herbiver- us; some were aquatic and some ter esJrlaI; some leaned to lizard forma-