The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-11
FINDING DEAD ONES.

The pewspaper brethren are getting much amusement writing about Ra- meses II. as some call him. or Methu- saleh. as he Is termed by others, who has lately died at the tender age of one thousand years-estimated. It is true that this second edition of Ra- meses was nothing but a toad. but for all that he has been quite prominently in the public eye for two or three years. The story in brief Is that a miner in Montana. digging in the sand stone some five hundred feet beneath the surface of the earth. found the toad comfortably embedded in a pocket of the rock where he had been sleeping during . period estimated at ten cen- turtles. He revived and was sent to the Bronx Zoo in New York. Such is the story of the find. and The Kansas City Journal thus levitales about him:
 When Rameses first hopped out into the a,s sunlight of the primsyal America. his final rest. He CRameses) was a frisiy little thing of bare 100 years when Lief. the viking from the icy fortunately overlooked Rameses. For nearly half thousand years Rameses continued to be overlooked and Am- erica was discovered once more. this time by Columbus. but fate seemed bent on keeping Rameses in the back ground. as 1t were. and stiil another 500 years. In round numbers, elapsed sS Sef0re amsn ss sans snas R9ss Was ferred celebrity of being the oldest toad alive. ..epectacled savants dis puted learnedly regarding his age and and earth which had been heaped upon him like Pelion on Ossa, finally reach . Ing the conclusion that Rsmeses was at least 1000 years old. Then in the very Hush and moment of his fame he was ruthiessly snatched away. The combination of a thousand years of Montana and year or so of New ity. probably aggravated by unassimi- lated geography, hastened the end.
 But poor froggy Is dead, more's the pity. It is sad to reflect that he couldn't remain a few centuries longer It is barely possible that If he could have been allowed to remain in the salu- brious air of Montana be might have hopped and sung-do toads sing ?-for untold ages to come. the wonder and admiration of future generations if they could know all about him. but 1t was not to be. The air, the noise perhaps the wickedness--of giddy Co., tham were too much for him and he departed. If there's any place where good toads go when they hand in their checks this one is doubtless hopping about and enjoying himself as he did, say one thousand years ago when he was a kid.
 We are not saving how the scientists assume to fix the date when toady suddenly found himself buried beyond the possibility of escape. They calcu- late such events by the formation of the stones and other deposits, and whether they get the dates correct or not makes no difference so far as the layman Is concerned. for he must take their estimates on faith and make the best he can of it. It must be ad- mltted, though, that the estimate in this case Is unusually moderate. If they had said one million years in- stead of one thousand we should have had no choice but to accept it.
 And speaking of estimating time in connection with archaeological mat ters reminds us of a reported find up in Wyoming. That region. by the way. must have been famous spot in the early period of the earth's existence. If we may judge from the remains of animal life that are occasionally brought to light. The one we now have reference to was dug from the sandstone formation in a valley in Wy oming and was In pretty good condi- ton, considering all the circumstances They gave him the name of duck bill ed dinosaur." and tell us that he stood fully eighteen feet high and of cor