The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1922-04-28
SILVER SPRINGS PROVES REEVE
LATIoN TO A MUcH-TRAv-
ELED SCIENTIST
Continued from Page One)

center of the state, reached best by
auto. Indeed, one can't see much of
Florida except by auto. The roads
are wonderful, mainly brick and as
phalt. In many counties the speed
limit was marked thirty miles, but
we had a powerful car and a skilled
Ethiopian driver, and we gave very
generous measure.
From one of the phosphate beds |
secured perfect specimen of the
back, upper molar of an old, extinct
American elephant, the mastodon. l
brought it away, but it was no vest
pocket edition, about four by five
inches.
More Than Twenty Feet
But about Silver Springs. Before
launching out in the glass-bottomed
boat / observed large cypress tree.
She was a big one. | determined to
find her waist measure 1t was more
than twenty feet Then we launched
out upon the little lake of several
acres, with depth Of up or down to
eighty feet, with water so very clear
that the little fish and turtles and
even the smallest objects were as
clearly visible as If only air interven-
ed. Swarms of fish, little and big,
leaped hilariously for the bread we
flung to them. On one shore a huge
alligator lay snoozing in the hot sun,
and across at a dock steamboat was
tethered. In the warm water and on
the land were scores of nymphs and
mermaids with just a few ounces
more covering than Eve sported.
Some of them darted gracefully di-
rectly under our boat, but / modestly
watched the scores of boiling springs
shooting up from crevices in the
rocks and forming a rapid river navi-
gable for a regular line of steamers
mp to the very source 1 do not know
of another river in the world that is
navigable to its very tip.
Suddenly | discovered something.
in the pellucid water was a queer
looking object, uncanny and strange.
i observed it, indeed studied it care
fully and determined that it was no
part of the Ocala- rock that underlies
all this region. 1t was clearly a pet
rification. 1t was of the shape of
huge alligator, many times as large
and long, and strange to say it was
almost intact. About six feet of the
tail was detached, but lying directly
in line, and unfortunately the head
was gone.
Neck Joint Perfect
'The neck joint, however, was per-
feet and shapely. Making reasonable
deduction for loss of head and the
point of the TAIL the fossil must have
been in life more than thirty feet in
length. There it lay on the old PHO
Gene rock from which the boiling of
the water had separated it, just as
plain to view as if set up in mu-
scum. 1t required no stretch of i'm
agination to identify it as one of the
old saurian monsters that in ancient
times sported in the steaming waters
of the Pliocene
Among the ancient amphibian rep
tiles of that age, there was only one
to which it perfectly answered, that
was the itchyosaurus. needed no
exhaustive study to identify this as
fine petrefaction of one of those an
cient monsters. Presumably thou
sands of people have looked upon
this remarkable creature, but / am
unable to find any mention of it in
any of the geological reports of
Florida, nor is any hint of it to be
found in any description of Silver
Springs, though l have made careful
search of all those documents in the
public library of Jacksonville. 1t may