Viewing page 10 of 263

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Digging For Fossils.

[[image - lower third of person in boots digging with spade]]

[[image - whale like creature]]


PROFESSOR LAWSON'S OPINION AS TO HOW THE WHALE'S HEAD CAME TO BE ON TOP OF THE COAST RANGE

THE history of the Coast Range of California," said Professor Lawson of the State University, "Is that of a series of risings and submersions. Long ago, when the Sierra Nevada Mountains were firmly located where they are now, after having passed through the formation process of the Jurassic period, the coast of California was in a state of great disturbance.

"The whole range of country was constantly being upheaved and then lowered again into the depths of the ocean. From all we can learn this happened about seven times. The last time this happened it remained beneath the water for centuries and centuries, long enough for the sandstone to be deposited. As the different marine creatures died, the whale among them, the solid parts, such as bone, settled into the sand and became imbedded there. Then ages and ages passed until several feet of solid stone were on top of the whale's bones.

"When the last upheaval came the whole bottom of the ocean was lifted skyward and naturally the remains of all kinds of fish, etc., were taken along and left miles and miles inland from the water. That is the reason that we can go down into Monterey County and dig fish bones that are thousands of years old.

"The common supposition that a tidal wave once swept over the country and left the creatures to die on the mountain tops is only a supposition that has not the least foundation in geological fact."

[[article]]
A fossil whale's head, the remains of oysters and other things of the sea have just been unearthed in Monterey County, at a place 2500 feet above the sea level and eighteen miles inland from the present coast line.

Monterey County has furnished many strange bones of past life to the prying scientist, but nothing more curious than this has come out of her hills. Scientists agree that it is the most important find of its kind in recent years. The Jamesburg region, in which these fossil remains were discovered, contains an area about sixty miles square which has proved exceedingly rich in relics of ancient man and other animals.
Specimens found in the Santa Lucia
[[article cut off by tear in paper]]

[[article continues]]
finder of this valuable specimen, is a geologist by nature and spends nearly the whole of his time poking about among rocks and digging into the earth for curious specimens. Of book knowledge he knows almost nothing, and it is certainly a pity that he has found most of the fossils coming from the Jamesburg coun-
[[article breaks]]

STORIES OF THE GREAT [[cut off]]
At the Time of His Death, Last Month, He Was Said to
Explored the West With Buffalo Bill; Exposed the Carol- [[cut off]]