The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-02
THE CAVE OF THE DRAGON
KING.

Some one has said hat human i'm
agination was incapable Of picturing
a thing unlike anything that ever eS-
listed. In animal c%aricature the artist
in his widest phantasm. It was said,
neve departed from likeness to the
real of past or present: fms. wings,
claws. tusks, all his awful detail. were
but exaggerated or misplaced. never
beyond a recognizable likeness to some
animal that lived or had lived on this
earth.
The dragon SO familiar In Chinese
plastic and graphic art was sum-
moned to confound the philosopher.
1T mas lived" he answered. 1T could
not have been imagined"
What seems to be respectable au-
thority now claims to have
fossils Of a beast which in life might
have inspired the first artist to model
or picture the now conventional dra-
gon Of Chinese art. j.. O'Malley. L..
X. G. +. and S.. J.. L. NJ, writes In
terestingly Of this In the Shanghai
Far Eastern Rcctetc. DIR. O'Malley-
we have not decided his Latin let
ters,' but we chance the doctor-and
his wife. with Mr.. NJ. Hewlett. British
Consul at Ichang. and Mrs. Hewlett.
were %journeying through h country
Of the upper Yangtse seeking q cave
of which the Consul had heard vague
but enticing rumors. They found what
they sought near the town OF Pin
Shan Pa. on the Yangtse. a thousand
miles inland.
One Of the Chinese names or the
cave Is Chen Kan Tzu. and Dr. Mai
les notes that one Of the characters
which form the word k'an In Chinese
! Is the character used to indicate
dragon" The writer explains that
he makes no claim to the discovery
| Of the cave; the natives seem to have
known of it for centuries. and foreign
ers In recent years. but so far az the
present explorers could learn the local
| explanation OF the amazing and rock
like figures only recently uncovered on
, the caves floor was that they were the
work of mans hands, were chiselled
stone figures of the royal dragon. the
| Good Joss dragon. The writer says:
When with lighted lanterns We had
penetrated about "a hundred yards We
found ourselves walking along a ridge OF
rock In order to keep out OF the surround-
| Ing pools OF water. and II was the peeu!-
lar serpentins course Of this ridge which
excited our curiosity and led to a closer
examination. which revealed the fact that
we we're waking along the back OF what
we at fret supposed to be a chinese
dragon carved u stone. and that there
were six or eight OF these stone dragons
lying co'led together. Additional lights In
the shape Of Mares of bamboo rope and
the examination OF some loose pieces or
| scale Informed US that the supposed stone
| carvings were In reality fossils.
A hasty conclusion. perhaps; but
photographs. measurements and speci-
mems OF the scales Of the monsters are
now being examined by experts in the
British Museum.
As to the size of the dragons the
explorers could not be definite. though
a second visit was made for the pur-
pose. or this the writer says:
Tho measurements and facts ascertained
upon our return were a. follows: Length
q. the largest, fossil, was between so ana
| 20 feet from a point where the head was
! partially buried In the cave wall TO the
first poin. ~ contact with any Of tho
! other specimens. thus showing the length
TO he at least between 60 and 20 feet,
and IL seemed to US that the same repti'e
! extended for another 60 or 10 feet. bu;
owing II the termingling Of coils of
various reptiles al this point error is pos
Sihlc here.
TWO legs or paddles partially I'M
| covered. were observed about twelve
or fourteen feet from the head. and
another pair about forty or nifty feet
from the same point. a very good
dragon. We declare.
\ point Dr. O'Malicy does not m
phasi2c, but which to us seems inter
,sting and important. is that while
many foreigners have explored the
cave far beyond where his party found
the dragon no previous foreign eX-
plorers discovered the fossil. II fossil
1t 81. The writer dismisses this with
the surinise that 1T seems likely that
they have been recently uncovered.
probably by "a heavy discharge of
water through the cave
Yet with no dragon in sight the
place is sometimes called by the IA
tivrs Lung Wong Tung, cave of the
Dragon King"
4 pretty story: let us hope il is true.