The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-16
OF A BURIED CITY
REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES IN
 STATE OF coAHUlLA, MEXICO
Evidence That Populous Towns Were Wiped Out by Prehistoric.
 Flood. s.3
,ity of Mexico Special to Chicago chron-

City of Mexico Special to Chicago chron-
 icle.
 pr. Nicholas Leon, the archaeologist and. .enthn0logist of the National Museum of Mexico, has returned to the City of Mexicof after a stay of two weeks in the State of Coahuila, where he made a num- Der of important investigations of the re- fnarkable finds of the remains Of cities and animals of antediluvian times. In giving an account of the trip for the first time today the doctor said:
 ;.srhe discoveries that have been made at Paradon, in Coahuila, are the most extraordinary of their kind that have been made in Mexico and very possibly anywhere in the world. The excavations that have been made so far show that a large city was buried not far from the present town of Paradon by an immense amount of earth, which was evidently washed down from the mountains by flood How long ago the catastrophe oc- cured cannot ase yet be determined. Portions of buildings so far unearthed show that the scity-at least the largest of the cities that was covered by the de- bris of the flood, there being at least three cities destroyed-was very exten- sive., The indications are that there were many massive structures in the fallen city and that they were of class of archi- lecture not to be found elsewhere in Mex ico. According to the estimates the scientists under whose directions the ex- cavations are now being made the city in question had population of at least 50,0O0.
 All Inhabitants Killed.
 l'The destruction which was wrought by the flood was complete. All the inhabi- tants of the cities were killed, as we'll as all the animals. Skeletons of the human inhabitants of the cities and of the ami maIs are strewn all through the debris from depth of three feet. showing that all the debris was deposited almost at once Measurements show that the ot- bris is on an average sixty feet deep where the largest of the cities stood.
 Most remarkable of the minor finds that have been made at Paradon Is that of the remains of elephants. Never be- fore in the history of Mexico has it been ascertained positively that elephants werc ever in the service of the ancient inhahi- tants. The remains of the elephants that have been found at Paradon show plainly that the inhabitants of the buried cities made elephants work for them. Elephants
 were as much in evidence in the streets of the cities as horses. Upon many of the tusks that have been found were rings of silver. Most of the tusks encountered so far have an average length, for grown elephants. of three feet and an average diameter at the roots of six inches. Judg- ing from the remains of the elephants So far unearthed. the animals were about ten feet in height and from sixteen to | eighteen feet in diameter, differing very little from those at present in existence.
 No Connection With the Deluge.
 "The flood which destroyed the ancient cities did not have any connection what ever with the deluge. as far as what can be learned by scientific investigations is concerned. The Coahuila flood was con- | fined entirely to the district In which the cities that were destroyed stood. The | flood resulted from an immense cloud burst, perhaps the most extraordinary that the world has ever known, from the bursting of some great natural reservoir in the mountains or from some cause as yet inexplicable. The suggestion which has been made by some investigators that the cities were destroyed by land slides does not hold good, according to the Government geologists at work on the subject"