Milford chronicle., 1931-08-14
SCIENCE FINDS THINGS IN
WYOMING

Government scientists who are
constantly looking over some of
Uncle Sans interesting territories
make some queer finds. Many of
these finds have been made in Wy
Oming and other western states and
are of great interest to scientits.
In the current issue of the National
Republic in accounting in an inter-
esting way what some of the gov
ernment scientists have discovered
in our western states, Lucy Sala-
.manca says, in part:
ACROSS the plains of Wyoming
a little hippopotamus was running
for very life. Past palm trees and
tropic blossoms he sped, until he
reached the fringes of a vast lake.
But humble as his slim, fleet body
was in action, he reached those
friendly waters ust too late. A boil
ing, seething mass of lava was upon
him, burying his young body hung
rily and flowing on.
"Now all this occurred, mind you,
in the state of Wyoming. But it hap
pened many millions of years ago.
In fact, some forty millions of years
were to elapse between the death of
the little Wyoming hippopotamus
and the appearance of the first man
upon the face of the earth. Yet l
have fingered the unfortunate little
hippopotamus who was that distant
day sacrificed to science and looked
upon the ashes of that bed of mol
ten lava. For DR.. Charles w. Gil
more has brought back to Washing
ton entire the skeleton of this pre-
historic animal and the skeletons
of many of his contemporaries of
that day when a great EOcene Lake
lay in the valley of southwestern
Wyoming and crOcOdiles, tiny horses
no larger than a small dog, and
other strange creatures disported
themselves in the shade of tropical
vegetation.
To-day, the Bridger Basin, in
southwestern Wyoming, is known
as the 'Badlands.' 'Mauvais Terres'
the Canadians called it, and the
name has stayed by the region.
Bleak, desOlate, devoid of vegeta-
tion, the Badlands are yet not with
out a strange, compelling beauty of
their own. They extend along the
southern borders of Wyoming, to
the west of the Rockies, on a high,
treeless plateau, from which rise
wastes of naked stone that lift into
terraced lodges and fantastic tur-
rets, or sink into gray hOllows where
salt and bitter waters have collect
ed.
"The manner in which scientists
were first attracted to this peculiar
region is interesting. Professor o.
C. Marsh, a paleOntologist of Yale
had heard many wierd
tales out of the West. Trappers and
suuatters told of strange bones and
grinning skulls peeping from can
yon walls, which remained untOuch-
ed by the Indians who thought them
the bones of their ancestors. The
bones were exposed in the rocky |
cliffs as erosion and weathering |
gradually wore away the surround |
ing hills. Dr. Marsh led an eXpedi-
ton into the region in 1870 and |
many thereafter, returning from |
each trip with many valuable and |
highly interesting evidences of pre-
historic life, dating to the Eocene |
age of existence-an age marked by |
the first appearance of the ancestor |
Of our modern horse. DR.. Marsh's |
expeditions were financed by the |
United States government and sent |
out under the Geological Survey.
"By means of his finds scientists 7
were able to fill in a geologic period |
Of time about which little had here
tofore been known, especially on the |
American continent. True. in all |
parts of the world scientists had |
continued to unearth the remains of |
gigantic or diminutive prehistoric |
and their many finds had |
been contributing to the general |
picture of past ages which was be-
ing pieced together painstakingly |
by biologists and paleOntologists in |
all quarters of the globe. Such men
as Cuvier, Huxley, Darwin, Marsh, |
Cope, Leidy, Owen, Buck
land and many others had done |
much to reveal the flora and fauna |
Of remote ages. OF the millions of |
those 'unnumbered, unremembered |
tribes which the earth had gather
ed to her breast again and yet
again. they had uncovered not a
lew. For among the countless null
.itudes of living animals that played
heir part and passed away, nature
has thoughtfully embalmed many
'or our instruction. In the oOzy |
beds of old seas and primeval lakes
vast numbers of fossilized remains
nave been uncovered after millions ,
If years, during which time sea and
AXE beds had slowly been raised up !
and made into dry land"