The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-03-30
GIANTS OF THE PAST
PREVIOUS AGES SUPPLY US WITH
ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.

ENORMOUS FOSSIL BONES.
Lizards Three Times the Size of the
Largest Elephant and n Turtle
Whose Shell Looked Like n Hut.
The Remarkable Plated Lizard.
The belief in race of giants was
Dnce almost universal. Even today
large skeletons when found are some
times reported as being those Of giant
human beings. This was especially
True of the period abut the tenth and
eleventh centuries, and in the latter
most amazing discovery was reported,
which threw the scientific world Of the
time into great excitement. 1t was said
that the body Of Pallas, the son Of
Evander, had been discovered beneath
the tomb of the Emperor Henry III.
The bones were enormous and proved
TO have belonged to huge fossil ele-
phant AS late as the fifteenth century
n war OF words was waged over a find
of large bones, one party claiming that
they belonged to the giant Teutobochus.
Switzerland. The council OF Lucerne
requested a learned scientific man, Pro-
fessor Felix Platter Of Basel, to report
upon it, and he not only announced the
bones as part of human giant, but
made a complete restoration, showing
the man twenty feet high, which the
proud city adopted as an ancestor in
oPf Tnf
tunately for the theory and much to the
discontinue of the people who had
raised to q high pinnacle this mighty
ancestor, it was found to be the re-
mains Of an elephant
Nearly all the mastodon finds were
attributed to giants, but there is no evil
1ence that human giant ever existed
over eight feet in height, and 1t Is ex-
tremely doubtful if this height was
ever attained.
Giants other than human are very
common i'll all branches of the animal
kingdom-giants in every sense when
compared to their pygmy representa-
sives of today. Some years ago some
iaborers in the Senalik hills Of India
work when they came upon the re-
mains Of turtle that proved beyond
question that these animals had their
giants in the days Of old. The shell
which the men exposed might have
been used as shelter for several men,
and at first, before its bony nature
was observed, it was thought by the
- 10 l., So l..
tunately the bones were uninjured, and
they We're taken out and removed to
the British museum, where complete
restoration of the animal may be seen.
The length of the turtle was ten feet,
Its horizontal circumference twenty
five feet and its girth fifteen feet, but
it was estimated by scientists that
this was not an adult and that when
fully grown this huge creature would
display a dome-like back eight or nine
feet high, giving a total length Of
twenty feet.
One Of the common animals in equa-
torial South America and In Central
America is the lizard iguana, which
attains length Of four or five feet
it was a pygmy when compared to an
ancestor that once wandered over Eng
land and various portions Of the world.
A number Of years ago some working
men were eXcavating and blasting in
quarry near Maidstone, England, when
some bones were uncovered that caus-
ed profound establishment on the part
civ
feet, and as it was lifted out, bone by
bone, their amaZement increased, and
the news was spread all over the coun-
try, attracting large numbers of peo-
pie 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 as bulky as the largest living ele-
plant and stood upon its hind legs like
a kangaroo, tearing down branches
from the highest trees. Such an AMI
NAL was a slow mover and sluggish
and must have fallen an easy prey to
the human hunters, if they existed.
The marine giants were even more
bizarre and remarkable than the land
iguana heightened out to thirty feet, its
back spines changed to broad fnlike
objects, we form some idea Of the ap-
Dearance of one of the small dinosaurs,
Stegosaurus ungulatus, one of the most
uncanny and remarkable creatures ever
found. 1t 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 ar
mored 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 1t
is evident that this strange creature
could lift itself up and sit like kan
CARGO, resting upon its powerful tail,
which, with its enormous spines, must
have been u terrible weapon.
A giant from America had skull
that measured eight feet In length. AL
most over the eyes were two large
horns, a third placed over the nose. The
great length of the skull was given by
a huge crest that was protected by a
ridge Of long plates. The mouth Of the
tricaratops was protected by horny
beak In life 1t must have presented q
formidable appearance, with a body
clumsy and low like that of hippo
potamus, long tail like an alligator's,
its head calling to mind the rhinoceros.
This monster was twenty-five feet in
length and must have been one Of the
strangest animals Of its time<
Perpetuating the Species.
There is stringent law In Japan
that when one camphor laurel is cut
down another must be planted In its
place The tree Is hardy and long lived,
attaining to an enormous size. 1t Is
covered with a small leaf Of a vivid
green color. The seed, or berries, grow
In clusters, resembling the black cur
=