The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-11-18
ANCIENT JEWELLERS IN THE VALLEY

The vale in which the brilliant city
of Paris now stands was once d lake
or estuary, whose shores were fringed
with forests of palms Strange ami
mails, whose species have long since
passed away sported in it's waters,
while huge crocodiles lurked among
the thick reeds and large water-lilies
watching for their prey.
The valley is known in geology as
the Paris BASIN just as the cores
ponding formation in the Thames is
named the London basin. They both
belong to the Tertiary period, so called
because it was the third in the three
great systems of rock formation; the
rocks being composed of the sedi
mentary deposit of water, and not, as
in those of the first ages, produced by
the action of fire; those in the vicinity
of Paris being in strata, or layers, con
tanning alternately fresh water and
marine shells, showing that the valley
of the Seine was at one time a fresh
water lake. and, at another, an arm Of
the sea.
At Montmartre, a hill a little to the
north of Paris, there are extensive
quarries Of gypsum, the material
known to us as plaster of Paris. Gyp
sum is composed of sulphate of lime
deposited by fresh water; and in dig
ging these quarries a great number Of
skeletons of various animals were dis
covered, some of them being nearly
perfect, having been preserved by the
gypsum which had hardened about
them Cuvier, the great French natu
ralist, restored them, and we car
have a distinct idea of what these
strange creatures were like, in every
particular except their color-that, O
course, we can not tell.
At the commencement of the Ter
tiary period, the heat, though not Sc
intense as it had been in the proceed
ing ages, when the. tepid swamp'
teemed with montrous reptiles, wa.
still as great in England and France
as it is now in the tropics. But the
temperature was slowly cooling, anC
the forests of palms we're mixed witt
trees which still flourish in these eli
mates, such as the oak, wych elm, al
der, cypress, walnut and others. The
gigantic saurians of the red sandstone
age were extinct and appeared NJ
more in the earth, and there grew intC
life the great pachyderms, or thicl
skinned animals; instead of the drag
on-lille pterodctyl, the air was fille(
with quails, woodcocks, and curleWs
and all nature wore new aspect.
The animals which were so abun
dant in the Paris basin belonged
chiefly to two general the palace
iberia, or ancient animals, aid the an
oplotheria, eF unarmed animals; thes'
latter We're so called from the Greel
words for "unarmed" and for beast,
because their teeth were arranged ii
anAeven line all around, just as il
man, the canine teenth not projectin'
beyond the others, as they do in ami
mails which can bite and tear, so tina
they were defenseless. There wer,
several species of palaeotheria tn
largest, or great palaeotheium, bein
about the size of horse, but 1t wa
much heavier and clumsier, having
very thick body, supported on shor
stout legs, and its feet were divide
into three rounded toes. Its head wa
large and was provided with shoI
trunk or proboscis, like that of tn
tapir and altogether It formed lin
between that animal and the rhin'
cerus. and probably resembled thel
in It's habits.
The anoplGtheria also comprise
several Species, differing. greatly fire.
each bther. The largest was aDo1
me size of an ass, but, theagh, b
longing to the pachydeTmata, Il
anoplotherium was like no one al
NAL now existing, for, while in son
respects it resembled the hippef
tamus, its skull partook of the chi
acter of that of the horse and Ats |
per lip was divided, like the camel
~ and the bones of the feet, viii
9TFAyere separated into two toes shea
Y ed in hoofs, were like those of
hog. The body was about four IL