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[[captions partially cut off]] SCELIDOSAURUS [[/partially cut off]] OR BIG LIMBED LIZARD 20 FEET LONG [[captions partially cut off]] GREAT GROUND SLOTH [[/partially cut off]] OR MEGATHERIUM AMERICANUM. LENGTH 18 FEET. ANCIENT ANIMALS, FAR LARGER THAN THE ELEPHANT, RECONSTRUCTED BY THE LATE PROFESSOR MARSH. try he did not have sufficient knowledge of their position, surrounding formations and other conditions to be able to determine their approximate and scientific value. That Monterey County has long been known by scientists to be wonderfully rich geologically is attested by the following extract from a letter written in 1877 by Professor H. D. Long of the State University: "I have never seen a section of country so rich in fossil remains as Monterey County, nor one so easy to study. The part lying in the neighborhood of the Corral de Tierra contains strata whose relative position is so plain to even the slightly practical eye that 'he who runs may read' its geological history. "I note in that vicinity five fossil-bearing strata: the lowermost being of an average thickness of five feet and containing remains of at least four mollusks, cypoena and unio being represented. Above this I found, in very soft sandstone, many univalve shells of the type of barnacles, contained in a stratum about one yard in thickness. Superimposed upon the latter is a stratum, of thickness varying from seven feet to sixty feet, almost entirely made up of casts of unios and pecteus in 'dog-tooth spar' (crystallized carbonate of lime). This stratum I consider as the most remarkable of all, both on account of its immense thickness and the enormous number of shell-casts that are contained in it—not less, I should say, than 10,000 per cubic foot. Above the last described stratum there exists a layer of reddish sandstone one and one-half feet in thickness, containing remains of two of the before-mentioned bivalves. "Last of all and latest in its formation is the familiar white, soft material called 'chalk-rock' by the farmers, but which, in reality, is no more chalk than a brick is chalk. It is simply hardened clay, as may be felt by applying the tongue, substances composed of or containing clay always sticking to that member. The rock is white, with a conchoidal fracture, and is of light specific gravity. In some localities the color shades somewhat, but still the rock possesses nearly the same characteristics. In the tertiary epoch, when this clay rock was soft clay growing in thickness by deposition from the overlying sea or lake, many shells of turritella and fewer of a small mollusk, with a few scattered specimens of a univalve almost microscopic in size, became imbedded therein. Afterward, both before and since the hardening of this clay, the surrounding country has been subject to many upheavals and disturbances which have resulted in the extensive fracture and variable dip of the stratum, the latter varying from 12 to 40 degrees. All these strata belong to the tertiary. "This is merely an outline of the discoveries I have made in this hitherto neglected field. Of the fifteen or more species of fossils, I have identified nine—all belonging to the department of mollusks." Recent discoveries have shown the field to be both larger and richer than formerly known, the already discovered fossils ranging from microscopic remains of diatoms, sponges and other organic structures to those of mammoth prehistoric animals. Professor Marsh's letter was published in a Buffalo newspaper. The account of how the stone man was made had the effect of stimulating the manufacture of giants, and to the astonishment of every one half a dozen Cardiff giants were being exhibited around the country within a year. Recently the practical joker who made the giant told the story of his deception for the first time. Killed a Prehistoric Giant. Years later marvelous accounts came from Nevada of the discovery of human footprints in the sandstone strata at Carson City. Each of the prints was from eighteen to twenty inches long, about eight inches wide, having the exact shape of a moccasined human foot. There were regular right and left tracks, with a distance between them of from eighteen to nineteen inches. They were at once proclaimed as the remaining evidences of a race of giants which once inhabited the Pacific Coast, and the undoubted authenticity of the impressions on the stone induced not a few men of scientific pretensions to take this view. Such a discovery at once aroused the keen interest of Professor Marsh, but after an examination of the prints he came to the conclusion that they were not made by men at all. He read a paper on the subject to the National Academy of Sciences with which he presented a carefully drawn picture of the huge skeleton foot of an extinct sloth found in the same general region and in the same geological horizon. A comparison of this with the outline of the footprint showed conclusively that it was a sloth and not a man that [[cut off by torn edge of paper]] [[rectangular box composed of diamonds below article]] AMERICAN SCIENTIST, PROF. MARSH the Most Distinguished Geologist in the World: Won Fame When 31 Years Old, [[word missing]] Giant: Explained the Carson Footprints, and Reconstructed Ancient Monsters. [[/rectangular box]]
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Complete copy of article here: http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18990409.2.209.15#
