New-York tribune., 1922-03-19

l.. funds to nnance the expedition. The
ss. .a;.;ou. of course, is that now on it's way
biz. - to its lair the presumed plesiosaurus,
&C. F,..h has been reported by hunters to be
A. .;rc around in sub-Andean lake in Pata-
EssI Iais
Ess, vu.r aptly are the financing citizens termed
Ecs, 81 -,Ee sprited' Indeed, they are all of that
Al IN, service is worldwide. Their generosity
|on, * 70 Increase the scope Of human magma
fosI. which Of late years has been so narrowed
sss t., confined, drawn and quartered and cut
IL dried as to be almost charged off as a
k.,. II, seat. What with everything so pre-de-
Ia f-s;,ed. so pre-dgested and so pooh-poohed
Ecl.. T.. .ai1ens may be credited with the highest
rm Is,e If mental philanthropy in their efforts to
res. lsrs that it is not only the unexpected but
a.. T. impossible" that happens.
ees / Ard the expedition stands to win either
[ds.Inr II it finds a plesiosaurus or something
hukH HIrsly odd and prehistoric, fascinating vistas
tonk k;p be opened to the fancy. After that, who
|erA AaN say what fearful and wonderful crea-
(piY ,,es TIE out-of the-way and inaccessible cor
Bile a.s Of the world might hold? The makers of
Pds l,os again could decorate their charts with
Fds A.,r;fu and delightful monsters, which they
pra A,re wont to sprinkle about the unexpored
DE, A..rters Of the globe, and who could denv
Asr right? Travel and exploration would
Liz new lease on life and scientists would
Link from being in the least dogmatic
A,ser adventurers on the verge of a wilder
[az fw would plunge in, exclaiming: well, natu-
RI III history and the guide books say there's
III Ham nary stegosaurus a diplodocus in
8 Ase parts for millions of years, but hope-
Ii Hsuy] after that plesiosaurus down there in
r. HAagonia, you never can tell"
|N On the other hand, if the expedition doesn't
II Ind trace of plesiosaurus that does not go to
r. ArWe the lake is plesosaurus-less; that is no
\. frdence there is no such animal. Any variety
b. III things may have happened to the creature
/. lighted. He may be hiding out on the expedl-
f. lion. He may have moved to another lake, if
4 Mere is no sub-Andean lake shortage. He may
+ Lave sunk without trace 1t must be remem-
/ srd that it hunters who reported the
h neat marine lizard. If fishermen had told the
Il story, spreading out their arms in a vain at
T. ampt to measure the thirty feet of length of
j i tie pleasiosaurus that got away, there would
i tha great deal more room for doubt.
/ 4 No. you can't say there is no plesosaurus, fit
( nsarya though it would be. AS DR.. William
I. IN Hornaday, of the Bronx Geological Park
i. aid the other day, it is dangerous to make an
1. assertion that covers the whole world. $50
/ Enany seemingly impossible things have been
/ discovered in my own time" he declared, "that
I it makes fellow stop and not say 1T can't
l6e"
Gelett Burgess, for instance, had never seen
+ purple cow and never hoped to one
y Il Ind yet for the last couple of decades he
/ Night have seen purple okapi, which no one
Y ser had hoped to see before. The okapi is just
\ rs much of a ruminant mammal as the COW
\ 1h sides and face are puce, its neck and body
z u~pish and its limbs are transversely barred
\ sAh black and white. 1t has long and mobile
4 auule and blends with the forest. Can you
\ 1Nat it without breaking the Eighteenth
amendment? 1t is only since 1901 that trav-
1aers in Central Africa have been able to de-
pcrbe the okapi they have seen without being
greeted with bursts of raucous laughter and
Exposing their veracity and sobriety to serious
question:
Among other geological oddities accepted
y stmhentic in the last forty years or so. DR..
+ IHornaday mentioned the Alaskan brown bear,
FIhe great panda or parti-colored bear Of the
Shpuntains Of western China, the pygmy hip
FPopotamus and the dwarf elephant in the wlds
slof Central Africa and the Australian lung fish,
hlwhch has a traceable geneaogy of about forty
3 million years
n 1t seems that the lung fish was one of the
\ Imnyement inaugurated in that period Of
/ antiquity to take air straight and without
gater thus losing status fish and becom-
ing amphibians. Apparently the lung fish hes
tated and was saved, for after taking the air
1t went no further and was spared by evo
luton
The late Carl Hagenbeck once told me Of
strange black and white wild horse" DR..
aornaday remarked, (which natives had told
alm roamed the Cobb Desert in southern Mon
s0ha. He never completed his plans to hunt it.
But believe it's there
The ribbon seal is strange animal found
I N hanna Lake, in the interior of the Alaskan
pshlhsua. A landslide would make that lake
ano-locked, and thus marine creature
I ush1 be found under conditions strictly
snaogous to those under which the
Sesiosaurus was reported
The remains of large animals !:
! 'ach as the mylodon and the me- Z
sssherlum have been found in #:*
'Su1h America The attitude *:$= =&
be taken toward the ##sN
\ eAsiosau1ns is +bis }3%## #%*;#*s