The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-22
NEW YORK A LONG TIME AGO
The Story That the Fossils Tell of
Prehistoric Manhattan.
New York Herald.)

tNeW YORK tttrdId.J
Nothing more fascinating and in
structive could engage the minds of the
millions inhabiting this city than the
word picture drawn by Professor Ar
thur HOilicE of the department of
geology, Columbia. university, of the
weirdly singular state of these parts
/ ZOO, 900 to 10000, 600 years ago. Fan
tastic as this representation seems, it
I is neither a creature of the imagina-
tion nor tale built up on unsubstan-
/ tai foundations It is the result of Ia
bOTiOus investigation in the calm
realms of science where fertile flights
of the fancy have no place and hasty
assumptions are abhOrred Of all things.
Such an atmosphere is ill calculated to
encourage the romancer.
Here, at a stretch of time so far back
! in the remote history of this remote
planet that the human mind is hardly
capable of grasping the immense dis
/ lance, there prevailed strange cOndi-
/ tons, the mere Thought of which quite
bewildeTs one. The period may have
been 1000, 600 or 10, 900 600 years ago.
Biologists find Il impossible to convey
an idea of a certain age in a given
number Of years on the style of the
calendar. 1T was millions of years
ago is Professor HOllick's express
sion.
Hereabouts there spread forests of
gigantic trees. The far-famed red
wood tree of California with its occa-
sional girth so large that a stage and
I horses may pass through cavity cut
in it. IS a very mild specimen. COM
pared to the redwood tree that flourish
ed in what is now the upper part of
Greater New York, in New Jersey and
in all the contiguous country. This was
in what is known to biologists as the
cretaceous period, when there was no
frost or snow or change Of seasons.
Perpetual summer smiled upon the
land. Untold ages came and went and
still others succeeded them. Strange
trees and strange vegetation of other
kinds such as are now utterly extinct
grew luxuriantly But they did not
grow IN silence. Innumerable monster
reptiles and reDtilian birds, twenty to
thirty feet long and ten to twelve feet
high, came into being and waTred and
lived where now the tranquil rivea
shore and farm and town dot the map.
= g q
Some of these were carnivorous. sati-
ating their appetite on their mates or
other reptiles or fish; others were her
bivorous. dining off the tall grass or
the thick, green leaves that darkened
the forest. Those fierce. huge animals
left remains which are found in the
bad lands of Wyoming and Dakota.
The more modern animals had not yet
been evolved. It was mostly an age
OF queer reptiles, partly bird. partly
fish, partly reptile. but there were
drOves of kangaroO-like animals and
OppOssums and pouched rats. Here they
fought secure from human mOlesta-
ton. for man was still TO appear upon
the scene.
Several thousand specimens Of fossil
leaves and plants, gathered during the
last five years on Staten island, in New
Jersey and nearby, are the evidence
upon which Professor Hollick bases his
IL
Jersey of the inconceivably distant
past. Many Of these are now IN Co
lumbia university, and are like SO many
documents which unerringly tell of
their times. BY still other recent dis
coveries Professor Hollick IS enabled
TO give the fun and graphic descrip-
ton here set forth
The plant fossils are of many varie-
ties, and their general character is
somewhat similar to vegetation in Aus
tralia at the present day. though tha
precise species are entirely extinct. Fig
and cinnamon trees grew here in great
abundance, as well as. peculiar kinds
of the eucalyptus. magnolia, sassafras.
oak. willow, tulip. evergreen, juniper
and a host Of other trees. There are
still other forms of vegetation repre-
santed in the fossils which cannot be
nothing like uhem now anywhere in
the world.
The starting point of. Professor Hol-
ticks investigation lay, as he explained
to the writer, in the knowledge that on
the mainland of New Jersey. on a part.
Of Staten island and at Martha Vine
yard, there stretches a series of strata
representing cretacecus formation.
largely consisting OF plastic elays.
These latter are of the kind used for
bricks OF pottery AMI. apart 1rom their
commercial use, seem undressing
enough. But there was the best ground
for believing that they were full of
fossils, such as would open up like 50
many volumes the story of what hap
pened here in bySone epochs which left
no other record save that imbedded IN
the recesses of clay OF rock.
During the cretaceous period. which