The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-10
The Ruler Of tho Jurassic.

The Ruler Of the Jurassic.
In a relatively remote age, when
the Rocky Mountains were bordered
on the east by the see, what We know
as Wyoming teemed with a prodigious
vegetation and an imposing fauna.
The whole region, productive beyond
our modern comprehension, was not
yet infested by the lesser and more
frivolous achievements Of nature. Man
had not yet been invented, and for the
most part great creatures possessed
the land. Huge winged lizards and
grossly improper birds, the prototypes
Of the Sirens, disputed the heavy air,
and all nature testified to the strenu-
oeity of the ~cyolopean contest which
.frenzied all her children.
The great predatory saurians had
things pretty much their own way.
These were mostly marked by the hard-
ness of their faces and the ~softness OF
their ~indecently tumefed bodies. They
lorded it over all the other v~ertebrates,
and fattening hideously upon the multi
tude exposed helplessly to their greed
made themselves a n and an
Offence to the whole cosmos.
The faculty Of our admirable Museum
Of Natural History has long devoted the
most intelligent and painstaking study
to the reconstruction Of all this pre-
adamite era. Some Of our most public
spirited and liberal minded men have
given freely Of their lean to support
the scientific side Of the work and have
made possible its really great achieve
ments, while the greatest Of living
Scotchmen, by the judicious distribu-
ton Of $4,000 worth Of indifferently
established diplodocuses, has gained
more fame for his p~roclivity to polite
knowledge than that amount OF money
ever before commanded in history,
As the acquaintance Of the faculty
with the monstrous remains Of these
prediluvian oppressors became more
accurate it vas observed that many, If
not indeed all, had succumbed to vio-
lence. Such was the nature OF the
deterioration which these persons had
undergone that it was apparent that
only a more powerful and wonderfully
endowed creature could have caused it.
However they might have differed
among themselves, they were incapa-
Bile of inlicting such damage upon each
other. Hence, following the usual
course of scientific r~atiooination, the
deduction was inevitable that there
would be revealed presently the remains
of q greater saurian.
The faculty in the field was advised
Of this expectation, and the vast diluvial
strata 81 Wyoming were efpIofed with
greater zest than ever. The justiica-
ton came sooner than the most Opt
mistie had dared to hope. There was
uncovered in a particularly rich bed of
las Ia geologic coincidence which it Is
quite beyond US to explain) the most
extraordinary saurian that has ever
been divulged. 1t was not that 1t mate
rally excelled the others in its dimen-
sions, but that Its pecuiarities denoted
It as SURPRISING all other creatures in
its powers Of offence. AS opposed to
the hard face, 80 characteristic Of it's
predecessors, this monster appeared to
have developed the soft head and dis
guised All appalling jaw, bristling with
the most unspeakable teeth. A glance
at the unprepossessing front, with it's
f~orbidding armament Of destruction,
was sufficient to explain what had hap
pened to contemporary saurians and
vindicated tho scholarly aoumen which
had deduoed from premises not too
abstract 60 startling a conception.
3 The authorities Of the Museum OF
Natural History have named their
latest triumph OF research Tyranno-
saurus r~ooseveltius, a most happy
inspiration in archaeological terminol-
ogy as well as a graceful compliment
to an illustrious a The remains are
being shipped from Wyoming. and we
may hope to see them adjusted and set
up during the approaching season, when
they must necessarily prove the most
interesting and instructive display that
has ever been afforded to u people.
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