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 3 1924 003 685 645 
 
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 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http ://www. arch i ve . o rg/detai Is/cu31 924003685645 
 
ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
Phororhacos, a Patagonian Giant of the Miocene. 
 
 From a drawinr/ by Charles R. Knight. 
 
ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 An Account of Some of the 
 Creatures of the Ancient World 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC A. ^UCAS 
 
 Director, American Museum of Natural History 
 
 AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 4 
 
 NEW YORK, 1913 
 
 Printed for the Museum 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 As Mr. Lucas has, in substance, written 
 elsewhere, not so very long ago Dinosaurs 
 were terrible reptiles indeed, whose very names 
 were quite sufficient to deter the average 
 person from making their acquaintance. To- 
 day, thanks to museums, and especially to the 
 American Musemn of Natural History which 
 has ever striven to popularize science, these 
 great creatures of the past are so well known 
 that their discovery is an item of ordinary news 
 and their names are as familiar in our mouths 
 as household words. The Hall of Dinosaurs 
 is known to all and the huge skeletons are 
 among the exhibits that are most popular with 
 the children. With the ever growing interest 
 in the creatures of other days, there has been 
 a general desire to know more about them. 
 We have had many calls in the past for a popu- 
 lar book on extinct animals, but hitherto — for 
 many reasons — ^have been unable to supply 
 the demand further than to issue a few leaflets, 
 such as those on Dinosaurs and that on the 
 Evolution of the Horse. 
 
 In the meantime. Animals of the Past, pub- 
 lished twelve years ago, went "out of print," 
 the plates became the property of the author, 
 and by his courtesy the work is now issued as 
 a Museum Handbook at a moderate price. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY 
 
 Use of scientific names, xvi; estimates of age of earth, xvii; 
 restorations by Mr. Knight, xviii ; Works of Reference, xiz. 
 
 I. FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 
 
 Definition of fossils, 1 ; fossils may be indications of animals or 
 plants, 3 ; casts and impressions, 3 ; why fossils are not more 
 abtmdant, 4; conditions under which fossils are formed, 6; 
 enemies of bones, 6; Dinosaurs engulfed in quicksand, 8; 
 formation of fossils, 9; petrified bodies frauds, 10; natural 
 casts, 10; leaves, 13; incrustations, 14; destruction of fossils, 
 15 ; references, 17. 
 
 II. THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 
 
 Methods of interrogating Nature, 18 ; thickness of sedimen- 
 tary rocks, 20 ; earliest traces of life, 31 ; early vertebrates 
 difficult of preservation, S2 ; armored fishes, 33 ; abundance 
 of early fishes, 35 ; destruction of fish, 26 ; carboniferous 
 sharks, 29 ; known mostly from teeth and spines, 30 ; refer- 
 ences, 32. 
 
 III. IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 
 
 Records of extinct animals, 33 ; earliest traces of animal life, 
 34 ; formation of tracks, 35 ; tracks in all strata, 36 ; discov- 
 ery of tracks, 37 ; tracks of Dinosaurs, 39 ; species named 
 from tracks, 41 ; footprints aid in determining attitude of ani- 
 mals, 43 ; tracks at Carson City, 45 ; references, 47. 
 
vi , CONTENTS 
 
 IV. RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 
 
 The Mosasaurs, 49 ; histoiy of the first known Mosasaur, BO ; 
 jaws of reptiles, S3 ; extinction of Mosasaurs, 55 ; the sea- 
 serpent, 56; Zeuglodon^ 58; its habits, 59; Koch's Hydrar- 
 chus, 61 ; bones collected by Mr. Schuchert, 63 ; abundance 
 of sharks, 64 ; the great Carcharodon, 65 ; arrangement of 
 sharks' teeth, 67 ; references, 68. 
 
 V. BIRDS OF OLD 
 
 Earhest birds, 70 ; wings, 71 ; study of young animals, 73 ; 
 the curious Hoactzin, 74 ; first intimation of birds, 76 ; Arche- 
 opteryx, 77 ; birds with teeth, 78 ; cretaceous birds, 79 ; Hes- 
 peromis, 80 ; loss of power of flight, 81 ; covering of Hesper- 
 omis, 82 ; attitude of Hesperornis, 83 ; curious position of 
 legs, 84 ; toothed birds disappointing, 85 ; early development 
 of birds, 86 ; eggs of early birds, 87 ; references, 88. 
 
 VI. THE DINOSAURS 
 
 Discovery of Dinosaiu- remains, 90 ; nearest relatives of Dino- 
 saurs, 91 ; relation of birds to reptiles, 92 ; brain of Dino- 
 saurs, 93 ; parallel between Dinosaurs and Marsupials, 95 ; 
 the great Brontosaurus, 96 ; food of Dinosaurs, 97 ; habits of 
 Diplodocus, 99 ; the strange Australian Moloch, 100 ; com- 
 bats of Triceratops, 101 ; skeleton of Triceratops, 102 ; Thes- 
 pesius and his kin, 104 ; the carnivorous Ceratosaurus, 106 ; 
 Stegosaurus, the plated lizard, 106 ; references, 109. 
 
 VII. READING THE RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 
 
 Fossils regarded as sports of nature. 111 ; qualifications of a 
 successful collector, 112; chances of collecting, 114; excavar 
 tion of fossils, 115 ; strengthening fossils for shipment, 117 ; 
 great size of some specimens, 118 ; the preparation of fos- 
 sils, 119; mistakes of anatomists, 120; reconstruction of 
 Triceratops, 121 ; distinguishing characters of bones, 132 ; 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 the skeleton a problem in mechanics, 134 ; clothing the bones 
 with flesh, 1S7 ; the covering of animals, 127 ; outside oma^ 
 mentation, 139 ; probabilities in the covering of animals, 130 ; 
 impressions of extinct animals, 131 ; mistaken inferences 
 from bones of Mammoth, 133 ; coloring of large land animals, 
 134 ; color markings of young animals, 136 ; references, 137. 
 
 VIII. FEATHERED GIANTS 
 
 Legend of the Moa, 139 ; our knowledge of the Moas, 141 ; 
 some Moas wingless, 143 ; deposits of Moa bones, 143 ; le- 
 gend of the Roc, 144 ; discovery of iEpyomis, 145 ; large- 
 sounding names, 146 ; eggs of great birds, 147 ; the Patago- 
 nian Phororhacos, 149 ; the huge Brontornis, 150 ; develop- 
 ment of giant birds, 153 ; distribution of flightless birds, 154 ; 
 relation between flightlessness and size, 156 ; references, 156. 
 
 IX. THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 
 
 North America in the Eocene age, 160 ; appearance of early 
 horses, 163 ; early domestication of the horse, 165 ; the toes 
 of horses, 166 ; Miocene horses small, 167 ; evidence of gene- 
 alogy of the horse, 170 ; meaning of abnormalities, 170 ; 
 changes in the climate and animals of the West, 174 ; refer- 
 ences, 176. 
 
 X. THE MAMMOTH 
 
 The story of the killing of the Mammoth, 177 ; derivation of 
 the word " mammoth," 178 ; mistaken ideas as to size of the 
 Mammoth, 179 ; size of Mammoth and modern elephants, 
 180 ; finding of an entire Mammoth, 183 ; birthplace of the 
 Mammoth, 184 ; beliefs concerning its bones, 185 ; the range 
 of the animal, 186 ; theories concerning the extinction of the 
 Manmioth, 188 ; Man and Mammoth, 189 ; origin of the 
 Alaskan Live Mammoth Story, 190 ; traits of the Innuits, 
 193; an entire Mammoth recently found, 194; references, 
 195. 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 XI. THE MASTODON 
 
 Differences between Mastodon and Mammoth, 198 ; affinities 
 of the Mastodon, 200 ; vestigial structures, 201 ; distribution 
 of American Mastodon, 203 ; first noticed in North America, 
 204 ; thought to be carnivorous, 206 ; Koch's Missourium, 
 208 ; former abundance of Mastodons, 209 ; appearance of 
 the animal, 210; its size, 211 ; was man contemporary with 
 Mastodon ? 213 ; the Lenape stone, 215 ; legend of the big 
 buffalo, 216 ; references, 218. 
 
 XII. WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 
 
 Extinction sometimes evolution, 221 ; over-specialization as a 
 cause for extinction, 222 ; extinction sometimes imaccounta- 
 ble, 223 ; man's capability for harm small In the past, 224 ; 
 old theories of great convulsions, 226 ; changes in nature slow, 
 227 ; the case of Lingula, 228 ; local extermination, 229 ; the 
 Moas and the Great Auk, 232 ; the case of large animals, 
 233 ; interdependence of living beings, 234 ; coyotes and 
 fruit, 236 ; Shaler on the Miocene flora of Europe, 236 ; man's 
 desire for knowledge, 238. 
 
 XIII. A RETROSPECT; DISCOVERIES OF THE 
 PAST TWELVE YEARS. 
 
 Ancestors of the Elephants and Manatees. Dinosaurs, 240; 
 Ankylosaurus, an animated citadel, 241 ; Tyrannosaurus, 
 the most formidable beast of prey, 241 ; Brachiosaurus, the 
 tallest reptile, 242 ; the AsphaJt Trap of La Brea, 243 ; 
 geography of the past, 244. 
 
 Index 251 
 
NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The original drawings, made especially for this book, 
 are by Charles R. Knight and James M. Gleeson, 
 mider the direction of Mr. Knight. The fact that the 
 originals of these drawings have been presented to and 
 accepted by the United States National Mnsemn is 
 evidence of their scientific value. Mr. Knight has 
 been commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution, the 
 United States National Museum, and the New York 
 Museum of Natural History, to do their most im- 
 portant pictiU/es of extinct animals. He is the one 
 modem artist who can picture prehistoric animals 
 with artistic charm of presentation as well as with full 
 scientific accuracy. In this instance, the author has 
 personally superintended the artist's work, so that it is 
 as correct in every respect as present knowledge makes 
 possible. Of the minor illustrations, some are by Mr. 
 Bruce Horsfall, an artist attached to the staff of the 
 New York Museum of Natural History, and all have 
 been drawn with the help of and imder the author's 
 supervision. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Phororhacos, a Patagonian Giant of the Miocene 
 ¥rom, a Dravamg by Charhs J2. Kniffht 
 
 Fig. Page 
 
 1. Diplomystus, an Ancient Member of the 
 
 Shad Family 4 
 
 Fhrom the fish-hed at Oreen Biver, Wyoming. From a 
 specimen, ia the United States National Museum. 
 
 2. Bryozoa, from the Shore of the Devonian 
 
 Sea that Covered Eastern New York . 10 
 From a specimen im Yale University Musewm, prepa/red 
 by Dr. Beecher. 
 
 S. Skeleton of a Radiolai-ian Very Greatly En- 
 larged ....... 17 
 
 4. Cephalaspis and Loricaria, an Ancient and 
 
 a Modem Armored Fish . . .24 
 
 5. Pterichthys, the Wing Fish . . .82 
 
 6. Where a Dinosaur Sat Down . . .38 
 
 7. Footprints of Dinosaurs on the Brownstone 
 
 of the Connecticut Valley . . .40 
 From a slab in the mimmum of Amherst College. 
 
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Fig. P*g« 
 
 8. The Track of a Three-toed Dinosaur . 47 
 
 9. A Great Sea Lizard, Tyhsaurm Dyspelor . 52 
 Prom a drammg h/ J. M. OUeaon. 
 
 10. Jaw of a Mosasaur, Showing the Joint that 
 
 Increased the Swallowing Capacity of that 
 Reptile 54 
 
 11. Koch's Hydrarchus. Composed of Portions 
 
 of the Skeletons of Several Zeuglodons . 62 
 
 12. A Tooth of Zeuglodon, One of the "Yoke 
 
 Teeth," from which it derives the name . 69 
 
 18. Archaeopteryx, the Earliest Known Bird . 70 
 From the specimen in the Berlin M/aaewm. 
 
 14. Natui'e's Four Methods of Making a Wing : 
 
 Bat, Pteryodactyl, Archaeopteryx, and 
 Modem Bird 72 
 
 15. Yoimg Hoactzins 75 
 
 16. Hesperomis, the Great Toothed Diver . 82 
 From a drammg hy J. M. Gleeson. 
 
 17. Archaeopteryx 89 
 
 Ai Restored hy Mr. Pyoraft, 
 
 18. Thespesius, a Common Herbivorous Dinosaur 
 
 of the Cretaceous . . . .90 
 
 From a drammg hy Charles B. Knight. 
 
 19. A Hind Leg of the Great Brontosaurus, the 
 
 Largest of the Dinosaurs . . .96 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xui 
 
 Fig. Page 
 
 20. A Single Vertebra of Brontosaurus . . 97 
 
 21. Moloch, a Modern Lizard that Surpasses the 
 
 Stegosaurs in All but Size . . . 100 
 From a dramng hy J. M. Oleeson, 
 
 22. Skeleton of Triceratops .... 103 
 
 23. The Homed Ceratosaurus, a Carnivorous 
 
 Dinosaur ...... 106 
 
 From a Arawmg hy J. M. Oleeson. 
 
 24. Stegosainrus, an Armored Dinosaur of the 
 
 Jurassic ...... 108 
 
 From a drawmff by Charles B. Kmght, 
 
 25. Skull of Ceratosaurus . . . .110 
 From a specimen in the United States National Museum. 
 
 26. Triceratops, He of the Three-homed Face 126 
 From a statuette by Charles B. Knight. 
 
 27. A Hint of Buried Treasures . . . 137 
 
 28. Relics of the Moa 140 
 
 29. Eggs of Feathered Giants, jEpyomis, 
 
 Ostrich, Moa, Compared with a Hen's 
 Egg 148 
 
 80. Skull of Phororhacos Compared with that 
 
 of the Race-horse Lexington . . 151 
 
 31. Leg of a Horse Compared with that of the 
 
 Giant Moa 152 
 
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Fig. P»ge 
 
 82. The Three Giants, Phororhacos, Moa, Os- 
 
 trich 158 
 
 83. Skeleton of the Modern Horse and of His 
 
 Eocene Ancestor . . . . 161 
 
 84. The Development of the Horse . . 168 
 
 85. The Mammoth 176 
 
 From a drawing hy Chwles JS. Knight. 
 
 86. Skeleton of the Mammoth in the Royal 
 
 Museum of St. Petersburg . . .183 
 
 37. The Mammoth 196 
 
 As engraved hy a Primitive Artist on a Piece of Mam>- 
 moth-Tusk. 
 
 88. Tooth of Mastodon and of Mammoth . 199 
 
 89. The Missourium of Koch . . . .207 
 
 From a Tracing of the Figwe Ill/usWaimg Koch's De- 
 scription, 
 
 40. The Mastodon 210 
 
 From a d/rcmvng hy J. M. Oheson. 
 
 41. The Lenape Stone, Reduced . . . 219 
 
INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANA- 
 TORY 
 
 At the present time the interest in the ancient 
 life of this earth is greater than ever before, and 
 very considerable sums of money are being ex- 
 pended to dispatch carefully planned expeditions 
 to various parts of the world systematically to 
 gather the fossil remains of the animals of the 
 past. That this interest is not merely confined 
 to a few scientific men, but is shared by the gen- 
 eral public, is shown by the numerous articles, 
 including many telegrams, in the columns of the 
 daily papers. The object of this book is to tell 
 some of the interesting facts concerning a few of 
 the better known or more remarkable of these 
 extinct inhabitants of the ancient world; also, 
 if possible, to ease the strain on these venerable 
 animals, caused by stretching them so often be- 
 yond their due proportions. 
 
 The book is admittedly somewhat on the Knes 
 
 XV 
 
xvi INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY 
 
 of Mr. Hutchinson's "Extinct Monsters" and 
 "Creatures of Other Days" but it is hoped that 
 it may be considered with books as with boats, 
 a good plan to build after a good model. The 
 information scattered through these pages hoA 
 been derived from varied sources ; some has oj 
 necessity been taken from standard books, a 
 part has been gathered in the course of museum 
 work and official correspondence; for mv£h, the 
 author is indebted to his personal friends, and 
 for a part, he is under obligations to friends he 
 has never met, who have kindly responded to his 
 inquiries. The endeavor has been conscientiously 
 made to exclude all misinformation; it is, never- 
 theless, entirely probable that some mistakes may 
 have crept in, and due apology for these is here- 
 by made beforehand. 
 
 The author expects to be taken to task for 
 the use of scientific names, and the reader may 
 perhaps sympathize with the old lady who said 
 that the discovery of all these strange animals 
 did not surprise her so much as the fact that 
 anyone should know their names when they were 
 found. The real trouble is that there are no 
 common names for these animals. Then, too. 
 
INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY xvii 
 
 people who call for easier names do not stov to 
 reflect that, in many cases, the scientific names are 
 no harder than others, simply less familiar, and, 
 when domesticated, they cease to be hard: witness 
 mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, boa con- 
 strictor, all of which are scientific names. And 
 if for example, we were to call the Hyracothe- 
 rium a Hyrax beast it would not be a name, 
 but a description, and not a bit more intelli- 
 gible. 
 
 Again, it is impossible to indicate the period 
 at which these creatures lived without using the 
 scientific term for it — Jurassic, Eocene, Plio- 
 cene, as the case may be — because there is no 
 other way of doing it. 
 
 Some readers will doubtless feel disappointed 
 because they are not told how many years ago 
 these animals lived. The question is often asked — 
 How long ago did this or that animal live ? But 
 when the least estimate puts the age of the earth 
 at only 10,000,000 years, while the longest makes 
 it 6,000,000,000, it does seem as if it were hardly 
 worth while to name any figures. Even when 
 we get well toward the present period we find 
 the time that has elapsed since the beginning of 
 
xvlii INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY 
 
 the Jurassic, when the Dinosaurs held carnival, 
 variously put ai from 15,000,000 to 6,000,000 
 years; while from the beginning of the Eocene, 
 when the mammals began to gain the suprem- 
 acy, until now, the figures vary from 3,000,000 
 to 5,000,000 years. So the question of age will 
 be left for the reader to settle to his or her satis- 
 faction. 
 
 The restorations of extinct animals may be 
 considered as giving as accurate representations 
 of these creatures as it is possible to make ; they 
 were either drawn by Mr. Knight, whose name 
 is guarantee that they are of the highest quality, 
 or by Mr. Gleeson, with the aid of Mr. Knighfs 
 criticism. Thai they are infallibly correct is out 
 of the question ; for, as Dr. Woodward writes 
 in the preface to " Extinct Monsters," " restora- 
 tions are ever liable to emendation, and the pres- 
 ent . . . will certmnly prove no exception 
 to the rule." As a striking instance of this, it 
 was found necessary at the last moment to 
 change the figure of Hesperornis, the original 
 life-like portrait proving to be incorrect in 
 attitude, a fact that would have long escaped 
 detection but far the Pan-American Exposition. 
 
INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY xlx 
 
 The connection between the two is explained on 
 page 76, However, the reader may rest as- 
 sured that these restorations are infinitely more 
 nearly correct than many figures of living 
 animals that have appeared within the last 
 twenty-five years, and are even now doing 
 duty. 
 
 The endeavor has been made to indicate, at the 
 end of each chapter, the museums in which the 
 best examples of the animals described may be 
 seen, and also some book or article in which fur- 
 ther information may be obtained. As this book 
 is intended for the general reader, references to 
 purely technical articles have, so far as possible, 
 been avoided, and none in foreign languages 
 mentioned. 
 
 For important works of reference on the 
 suhject of paleontology, the reader may consult 
 "A Manual of Paleontology," by Alleyne Nich- 
 olson and R. Lydekker, a work in two volumes 
 dealing with invertebrates, vertebrates, and 
 plants, or "A Text-Book of Paleontology," by 
 Karl von Zittel, English edition, only the first 
 volume of which has so far been published. An 
 admirable book on the vertebrates is "Outlines 
 
XX INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY 
 
 of Vertebrate Palaeontology,'' hy Arthur 
 Smith Woodward. While these are now 
 somewhat out of date, there are as yet no 
 general works to take their place. Note- 
 worthy hooks recently published are "The 
 Age of Mammals in Europe, Asia and 
 North America," hy Henry Fairfield 
 Osborn, "A History of Land Mammals in 
 the Western Hemisphere,'' hy W. B. Scott, 
 and "Dragons of the Air," hy H. C. Seeley. 
 Of a popular nature is a new edition 
 of "Extinct Monsters and Creatures of 
 Other Hays," hy H. N. Hutchinson, and 
 "Mighty Animals," hy Miss Jennie Irene 
 Mix, intended especially for the young. 
 Interesting hooks on the collecting of fossils 
 are "The Life of a Fossil Hunter," by 
 G. H. Sternberg, and "Hunting Extinct 
 Animals in the Patagonian Pampas," hy 
 F. B. Loomis. No account is taken here 
 of the numerous technical papers, dealing 
 with new species, or increased knowledge of 
 the structure, habits and relationships of 
 long known species that appear in scientific 
 journals or are issued hy our larger mu- 
 seums. 
 
ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 
 
 " Horn of a thousand snakes each one 
 Was changed into a coil of stone." 
 
 Fossils are the remains, or even the indica- 
 tions, of animals and plants that have, through 
 natural agencies, been buried in the earth and 
 preserved for long periods of time. This may 
 seem a rather meagre definition, but it is a dif- 
 ficult matter to firame one that will be at once 
 brief, exact, and comprehensive ; fossils are not 
 necessarily the remains of extinct animals or 
 plants, neither are they, of necessity, objects 
 that have become petrified or turned into stone. 
 Bones of the Great Auk and Rjrtina, which 
 are quite extinct, would hardly be considered 
 as fossils ; while the bones of many species of 
 animals, still living, would properly come in 
 that category, having long ago been buried by 
 natural causes and often been changed into 
 
2 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 stone. And yet it is not essential for a speci- 
 men to have had its animal matter replaced by 
 some mineral in order that it may be classed as 
 a fossil, for the Siberian Mammoths, found en- 
 tombed in ice, are very properly spoken of as 
 fossils, although the flesh of at least one of these 
 animals was so fresh that it was eaten. Like- 
 wise the mammoth tusks brought to market 
 are termed fossil-ivory, although differing but 
 little from the tusks of modem elephants. 
 
 Many fossils indeed merit their popular ap- 
 pellation of petrifactions, because they have 
 been changed into stone by the slow removal 
 of the animal or vegetable matter present and 
 its replacement by some mineral, usually silica 
 or some form of Ume. But it is necessary to 
 include ' indications of plants or animals ' in 
 the above definition because some of the best 
 fossils may be merely impressions of plants or 
 animals and no portion of the objects them- 
 selves, and yet, as we shall see, some of our 
 most important information has been gathered 
 from these same imprints. 
 
 Nearly all our knowledge of the plants that 
 flourished in the past is based on the impres- 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 3 
 
 sions of their leaves left on the soft mud or 
 smooth sand that later on hardened into endur- 
 ing stone. Such, too, are the trails of creeping 
 and crawling things, casts of the burrows of 
 worms and the many footprints of the reptiles, 
 great and small, that crept along the shore or 
 stalked beside the waters of the ancient seas. 
 The creatures themselves have passed away, 
 their massive bones even are lost, but the prints 
 ■of their feet are as plain to-day as when they 
 were first made. 
 
 Many a crustacean, too, is known solely or 
 mostly by the cast of its shell, the hard parts 
 having completely vanished, and the existence 
 of birds in some formations is revealed merely 
 by the casts of their eggs ; and these natural 
 casts must be included in the category of 
 fossils. 
 
 Impressions of vertebrates may, indeed, be 
 almost as good as actual skeletons, as in the 
 case of some fishes, where the fine mud in 
 which they were buried has become changed 
 to a rock, rivalling porcelain in texture; the 
 bones have either dissolved away or shattered 
 into dust at the splitting of the rock, but the 
 
4 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 imprint of each little fin-ray and every thread- 
 like bone is as clearly defined as it would have 
 been in a fi-eshly prepared skeleton. So fine, 
 indeed, may have been the mud, and so quiet 
 for the time being the waters of the ancient 
 sea or lake, that not only have prints of bones 
 and leaves been found, but those of feathers 
 and of the skin of some reptiles, and even of 
 such soft and delicate objects as jelly fishes. 
 But for these we should have little positive 
 knowledge of the outward appearance of the 
 creatures of the past, and to them we are oc- 
 casionally indebted for the solution of some 
 moot point in their anatomy. 
 
 The reader may possibly wonder why it is 
 that fossils are not more abundant ; why, of the 
 vast majority of animals that have dwelt upon 
 the earth since it became fit for the habitation 
 of hving beings, not a trace remains. This, 
 too, when some objects — the tusks of the Mam- 
 moth, for example — have been sufficiently well 
 preserved to form staple articles of commerce 
 at the present time, so that the carved handle 
 of my lady's parasol may have formed part of 
 some animal that flourished at the very dawn 
 
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FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 5 
 
 of the human race, and been gazed upon by 
 her grandfather a thousand times removed. 
 The answer to this query is that, unless the con- 
 ditions were such as to preserve at least the 
 hard parts of any creature from immediate de- 
 cay, there was small probability of its becom- 
 ing fossilized. These conditions are that the 
 objects must be protected from the air, and, 
 practically, the only way that this happens in 
 nature is by having them covered with water, 
 or at least buried in wet ground. 
 
 If an animal dies on dry land, where its bones 
 lie exposed to the summer's sun and rain and 
 the winter's frost and snow, it does not take 
 these destructive agencies long to reduce the 
 bones to powder; in the rare event of a cli- 
 mate devoid of rain, mere changes of temper- 
 ature, by producing expansion and contraction, 
 will sooner or later cause a bone to crack and 
 crumble. 
 
 Usually, too, the work of the elements is 
 aided by that of animals and plants. Every 
 one has seen a dog make way with a pretty 
 goOd-sized bone, and the Hyena has stiU greater 
 capabilities in that line ; and ever since verte- 
 
6 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 brate life began there have been carnivorous 
 animals of some kind to play the r61e of bone- 
 destroyers. Even were there no carnivores, 
 there were probably then, as now, rats and 
 mice a-plenty, and few suspect the havoc small 
 rodents may play with a bone for the grease it 
 contains, or merely for the sake of exercising 
 their teeth. Now and then we come upon a 
 fossil bone, long since turned into stone, on 
 which are the marks of the httle cutting teeth 
 of field mice, put there long, long ago, and yet 
 looking as fresh as if made only last week. 
 These Uttle beasts, however, are indirect rather 
 than direct agents in the destruction of bones 
 by gnawing off the outer layers, and thus per- 
 mitting the more ready entrance of air and 
 water. Plants, as a rule, begin their work after 
 an object has become partly or entirely buried 
 in the soil, when the tiny rootlets find their 
 way into fissures, and, expanding as they grow, 
 act like so many little wedges to force it 
 asunder. 
 
 Thus on dry land there is small opportunity 
 for a bone to become a fossil ; but, if a creat- 
 ure so perishes that its body is swept into the 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 7 
 
 ocean or one of its estuaries, settles to the 
 muddy bottom of a lake or is caught on the 
 sandy shoals of some river, the chances are 
 good that its bones will be preserved. They 
 are poorest in the ocean, for unless the body 
 drifts far out and settles down in quiet waters, 
 the waves pound the bones to pieces with stones 
 or scour them away with sand, while marine 
 worms may pierce them with burrows, or 
 echinoderms cut holes for their habitations ; 
 there are more enemies to a bone than one 
 might imagine. 
 
 Suppose, however, that some animal has 
 sunk in the depths of a quiet lake, where the 
 wash of the waves upon the shore wears the 
 sand or rock into mud so fine that it floats out 
 into still water and settles there as gently as 
 dew upon the grass. Little by httle the bones 
 are covered by a deposit that fills every groove 
 and pore, preserving the mark of every ridge 
 and fiirrow ; and while this may take long, it 
 is merely a matter of time and favorable cir- 
 cumstance to bury the bones as deeply as one 
 might wish. Scarce a reader of these lines but 
 at some time has cast anchor in some quiet 
 
8 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 pond and pulled it up, thickly covered with 
 sticky mud, whose existence would hardly be 
 suspected from the sparkling waters and pebbly 
 shores. If, instead of a lake, our animal had 
 gone to the bottom of some estuary into which 
 poured a river turbid with mud, the process of 
 entombment would have been still more rapid, 
 while, had the creature been engulfed in quick- 
 sand, it would have been the quickest method 
 of all ; and just such accidents did take place 
 in the early days of the earth as well as now. 
 At least two examples of the great Dinosaur 
 Thespesius have been found with the bones aU 
 in place, the thigh bones stiU in their sockets 
 and the ossified tendons running along the 
 backbone as they did in life. This would 
 hardly have happened had not the body been 
 surrounded and supported so that every part 
 was held in place and not crushed, and it is 
 difficult to see any better agency for this than 
 burial in quicksand. 
 
 If such an event as we have been supposing 
 took place in a part of the globe where the 
 land was gradually sinking — and the crust of 
 the earth is ever rising and falling — the mud 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 9 
 
 and sand would keep on accumulating until 
 an enormously thick layer was formed. The 
 lime or sUica contained in the water would 
 tend to cement the particles of mud and grains 
 of sand into a solid mass, while the process 
 would be aided by the pressure of the overly- 
 ing sediment, the heat created by this press- 
 ure, and that derived from the earth beneath. 
 During this process the animal matter of bones 
 or other objects would disappear and its place 
 be taken by Hme or siUca, and thus would be 
 formed a layer of rock containing fossils. The 
 exact manner in which this replacement is 
 effected and in which the chemical and me- 
 chanical changes occur is very far from being 
 definitely known — especially as the process of 
 " fossihzation " must at times have been very 
 comphcated. 
 
 In the case of fossil wood greater changes 
 have taken place than in the fossilization of 
 bone, for there is not merely an infiltration 
 of the specimen but a complete replacement of 
 the original vegetable by mineral matter, the 
 interior of the cells being first filled with silica 
 and their walls replaced later on. So com- 
 
10 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 pletely and minutely may this change occur 
 that under the microscope the very cellular 
 structure of the wood is visible, and as this 
 varies according to the species, it is possible, 
 by microscopical examination, to determine 
 the relationship of trees in cases where noth- 
 ing but fragments of the trunk remain. 
 
 The process of fossilization is at best a slow 
 one, and soft substances such as flesh, or even 
 horn, decay too rapidly for it to take place, so 
 that all accounts of petrified bodies, human or 
 otherwise, are either based on deliberate frauds 
 or are the result of a very erroneous misinter- 
 pretation of facts. That the impression or 
 cast of a body might be formed in nature, 
 somewhat as casts have been made of those 
 who perished at Pompeii, is true ; but, so far, no 
 authentic case of the kind has come to light, 
 and the reader is quite justified in disbelieving 
 any report of " a petrified man." 
 
 Natural casts of such hard bodies as shells 
 are common, formed by the dissolving away of 
 the original shell after it had become enclosed 
 in mud, or even after this had changed to 
 stone, and the fiUing up of this space by the 
 
■eq 
 
 -§> 
 
 5. 
 
 
 tS 
 
 i 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 11 
 
 filtering in of water charged with lime or sili- 
 ca, which is there deposited, often in crystal- 
 line form. In this way, too, are formed casts 
 of eggs of reptiles and birds, so perfect that it 
 is possible to form a pretty accurate opinion 
 as to the group to which they belong. 
 
 Sometimes it happens that shells or other 
 small objects imbedded in limestone have been 
 dissolved and replaced by silica, and in such 
 cases it is possible to eat away the enveloping 
 rock with acid and leave the silicified casts. 
 By this method specimens of shells, corals, 
 and bryozoans are obtained of almost lace-like 
 delicacy, and as perfect as if only yesterday 
 gathered at the sea-shore. Casts of the interior 
 of shells, showing many details of structure, 
 are common, and anyone who has seen clams 
 dug will understand how they are formed 
 by the entrance of mud into the empty shell. 
 • Casts of the kernels of nuts are formed in 
 much the same way, and Professor E. H. Bar- 
 bour has thus described the probable manner 
 in which this was done. When the nuts were 
 dropped into the water of the ancient lake the 
 kernel rotted away, but the shell, being tough 
 
la ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 and hard, would probably last for years un- 
 der favorable circumstances. Throughout the 
 marls and clays of the Bad Lands (of South 
 Dakota) there is a large amount of potash. 
 This is dissolved by vs^ater, and then acts upon 
 quartz, carrying it away in solution. This 
 would find its way by infiltration into the in- 
 terior of the nut. At the same time with this 
 process, carrying lime carbonate in solution 
 was going on, so that doubtless the stone ker- 
 nels, consisting of pretty nearly equal parts of 
 hme and sihca, were deposited within the nuts. 
 These kernels, of course, became hard and 
 flinty in time, and capable of resisting almost 
 any amount of weathering. Not so the or- 
 ganic shell ; this eventually would decay away, 
 and so leave the filling or kernel of chalcedony 
 and hme.* 
 
 " Fossil leaves " are nothing but fine casts, 
 made in natural moulds, and all have seen 
 the first stages in their formation as they 
 
 * Right here is the weak spot in Professor Barbour's ex- 
 planation, and an illustration of our lack of knowledge. For 
 it is difficult to see why the vnore enduring husk should not have 
 become mineralized equally with the cavity within. 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 13 
 
 watched the leaves sailing to the ground to be 
 covered by mud or sand at the next rain, or 
 dropping into the water, where sooner or later 
 they sink, as we may see them at the bottom 
 of any quiet woodland spring. 
 
 Impressions of leaves are among the early 
 examples of color-printing, for they are fre- 
 quently of a darker, or even different, tint from 
 that of the surrounding rock, this being caused 
 by the carbonization of vegetable matter or to 
 its action on iron that may have been present 
 in the soil or water. Besides complete miner- 
 alization, or petrifaction, there are numerous 
 cases of incomplete or semi-fossilization, where 
 modern objects, still retaining their phosphate 
 of Ume and some animal matter even, are 
 found buried in rock. . This takes place when 
 water containing carbonate of lime, silica, or 
 sometimes iron, flows over beds of sand, ce- 
 menting the grains into solid but not dense 
 rock, and at the same time penetrating and 
 uniting with it such things as chance to be bur- 
 ied. In this way was formed the " fossil man " 
 of Guadeloupe, West Indies, a skeleton of a 
 modem Carib lying in recent concretionary 
 
14 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 limestone, together with shells of existing spe- 
 cies and fragments of pottery. In a similar way, 
 too, human remains in parts of Florida have, 
 through the infiltration of water charged with 
 iron, become partially converted into Umonite 
 iron ore ; and yet we know that these bones 
 have been buried within quite recent times. 
 
 Sometimes we hear of springs or waters that 
 " turn things into stone," but these tales are 
 quite incorrect. Waters there are, like the 
 celebrated hot springs of Auvergne, 'France, 
 containing so much carbonate of lime in solu- 
 tion that it is readily deposited on objects 
 placed, therein, coating them more or less 
 thickly, according to the length of time they 
 are allowed to remain. This, however, is mere- 
 ly an encrustation, not extending into the ob- 
 jects. In a similar way the precipitation of 
 solid material from waters of this description 
 forms the porous rock known as tufa, and this 
 often encloses moss, twigs, and other substances 
 that are in no way to be classed with fossils. 
 
 But some streams, flowing over limestone 
 rocks, take up considerable carbonate of lime, 
 and this may be deposited in water-soaked logs, 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 15 
 
 replacing more or less of the woody tissue and 
 thus really partially changing the wood into 
 stone. 
 
 The very rocks themselves may consist large- 
 ly of fossils ; chalk, for example, is mainly made 
 up of the disintegrated shells of simple marine 
 animals called foraminifers, and the beautiful 
 flint-Uke " skeletons " of other small creatures 
 termed radiolarians, minute as they are, have 
 contributed extensively to the formation of 
 some strata. 
 
 Even after an object has become fossilized, 
 it is far from certain that it will remain in good 
 condition until found, while the chance of its 
 being found at all is exceedingly small. When 
 we remember that it is only here and there 
 that nature has made the contents of the rocks 
 accessible by turning the strata on edge, heav- 
 ing them into chfFs or furrowing them with 
 valleys and canyons, we realize what a vast 
 number of pages of the fossil record must 
 remain not only unread, but unseen. The 
 wonder is, not that we know so little of 
 the history of the past, but that we have 
 learned so much, for not only is nature care- 
 
16 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 less in keeping the records — preserving them 
 mostly in scattered fragments — but after they 
 have been laid away and sealed up in the rocks 
 they are subject to many accidents. Some 
 specimens get badly flattened by the weight 
 of subsequently deposited strata, others are 
 cracked and twisted by the movements of the 
 rocks during periods of Upheaval or subsidence, 
 and when at last they are brought to the sur- 
 face, the same sun and rain, snow and frost, 
 from which they once escaped, are ready to 
 renew the attack and crumble even the hard 
 stone to fragments. Such, very briefly, are 
 some of the methods by which fossils may be 
 formed, such are some of the accidents, by 
 which they may be destroyed ; but this descrip- 
 tion must be taken as a mere outline and as 
 applying mainly to vertebrates, or backboned 
 animals, since it is with them that we shall have 
 to deal. It may, however, show why it is that 
 fossils are not more plentiful, why we have 
 mere hints of the existence of many animals, 
 and why myriads of creatures may have flour- 
 ished and passed away without so much as 
 leaving a trace of their presence behind. 
 
FOSSILS, AND HOW THEY ARE FORMED 17 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 A very valuable and interesting article hy Dr. Chariet 
 A. White, entitled " The Relation of Biology to Geo- 
 logical Investigation," will befmmd in the Report of the 
 United States National Museum for 1892. This com- 
 prises a series of essays on the nature and scientific v^es 
 of fossil remains, their origin, relative chronological 
 value cmd other questions pertaining to them. The United 
 States National Museum has published a pamphlet, part 
 K, Bulletin 39, containing directions for collecting and 
 preparing fossils, by Charles Schuchert; and another, 
 part B, Bulletin 39, collecting recent and fossil plants, 
 by F. H. Knowlton. 
 
 Fig. 3. — Skeleton of a Radiolarian Very Greatly Enlarged. 
 
II 
 
 THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 
 
 " We are the ancients of the earth 
 And in the morning of the dmes." 
 
 There is a universal, and perfectly natural, de- 
 sire for information, which in ourselves we term 
 thirst for knowledge and in others call curiosity, 
 that makes mankind desire to know how every- 
 thing began and causes much speculation as to 
 how it aU will end. This may take the form 
 of a wish to know how a millionaire made his 
 first ten cents, or it may lead to the questions 
 — ^What is the oldest animal ? or. What is the 
 first known member of the great group of back- 
 boned animals at whose head man has placed 
 himself? and, What did this, our primeval and 
 many-times-removed ancestor, look hke ? The 
 question is one that has ever been full of inter- 
 est for naturalists, and Nature has been inter- 
 rogated in various ways in the hope that she 
 
 18 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 19 
 
 might be persuaded to yield a satisfactory an- 
 swer. The most direct way has been that of 
 tracing back the history of animal life by means 
 of fossil remains, but beyond a certain point 
 this method cannot go, since, for reasons stated 
 in various places in these pages, the soft 
 bodies of primitive animals are not preserved. 
 To supplement this work, the embryologist has 
 studied the early stages of animals, as their de- 
 velopment throws a side-Ught on their past 
 history. And, finally, there is the study of the 
 varied forms of invertebrates, some of which 
 have proved to be Uke vertebrates in part of 
 their structure, while others have been revealed 
 as vertebrates in disguise. So far these various 
 methods have yielded various answers, or the 
 repUes, like those of the Delphic Oracle, have 
 been variously interpreted so that vertebrates 
 are considered by some to have descended fi-om 
 the worms, while others have found their begin- 
 nings in some animal allied to the King Crab, 
 Every student of genealogy knows only too 
 well how difficult a matter it is to trace a fam- 
 ily pedigree back a few centuries, how soon the 
 family names become changed, the line of de- 
 
so ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 scent obscure, and how soon gaps appear whose 
 filling in requires much patient research. How 
 much more difficult must it be, then, to trace 
 the pedigree of a race that extends, not over 
 centuries, but thousands of centuries; how wide 
 must be some of the gaps, how very different 
 may the foimders of the family be from their 
 descendants ! The words old and ancient that 
 we use so often in speaking of fossils appeal to 
 us somewhat vaguely, for we speak of the an- 
 cient civilizations of Greece and Rome, and call 
 a family old that can show a pedigree running 
 back four or five hundred years, when such as 
 these are but affairs of yesterday compared 
 with even recent fossils. 
 
 Perhaps we may better appreciate the mean- 
 ing of these words by recalling that, since the 
 dawn of vertebrate hfe, sufficient of the earth's 
 surface has been worn away and washed into 
 the sea to form, were the strata piled directly 
 one upon the other, fifteen or twenty miles of 
 rock. This, of course, is the sum total of sedi- 
 mentary rocks, for such a thickness as this is not 
 to be foimd at any one locality; because, during 
 the various ups and downs that this world of 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 21 
 
 ours has met with, those portions that chanced 
 to be out of water would receive no deposit of 
 mud or sand, and hence bear no corresponding 
 stratum of rock. The reader may think that 
 there is a great deal of difference between fif- 
 teen and twenty miles, but this hberal margin 
 is due to the difficulty of measuring the thick- 
 ness of the rocks, and in Europe the sum of 
 the measurable strata is much greater than in 
 North America. 
 
 The earhest traces of animal life are found 
 deeper stiU, beneath something Uke eighteen 
 to twenty-five miles of rock, while below this 
 level are the strata in which dwelt the earhest 
 living things, organisms so small and simple 
 that no trace of their existence has been left, 
 and we infer that they were there because any 
 given group starts in a modest way with small 
 and simple individuals. 
 
 At the bottom, then, of twenty miles of rocks 
 the seeker for the progenitor of the great fam- 
 ily of backboned animals finds the scant re- 
 mains of fish-like animals that the cautious 
 naturalist, who is much given to " hedging," 
 terms, not vertebrates, but prevertebrates or 
 
22 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 the forerunners of backboned animals. The 
 earliest of these consist of small bony plates, 
 and traces of a cartilaginous backbone from 
 the Lower Silurian of Colorado, beheved to 
 represent relatives of Chimasra and species re- 
 lated to those better-known forms Holopty- 
 chius and Osteolepis, which occur in higher 
 strata. There are certainly indications of ver- 
 tebrate Ufe, but the remains are so imperfect 
 that little more can be said regarding them, 
 and this is also true of the small conical teeth 
 which occur in the Lower Silurian of St. Pe- 
 tersburg, and are thought to be the teeth of 
 some animal hke the lamprey. 
 
 A httle higher up in the rocks, though not 
 in the scale of life, in the Lower Old Red Sand- 
 stone of England, are found more numerous 
 and better preserved specimens of another lit- 
 tle fish-like creature, rarely if ever exceeding 
 two inches in length, and also related (proba- 
 bly) to the hag-fishes and lampreys that live 
 to-day. 
 
 These early vertebrates are not only small, 
 but they were cartilaginous, so that it was es- 
 sential for their preservation that they should 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 23 
 
 be buried in soft mud as soon as possible after 
 death. Even if this took place they were later 
 on submitted to the pressure of some miles of 
 overlying rock until, in some cases, their re- 
 mains have been pressed out thinner than a 
 sheet of paper, and so thoroughly incorporated 
 into the surrounding stone that it is no easy 
 matter to trace their shadowy outlines. With 
 such drawbacks as these to contend with, it can 
 scarcely be wondered at that, while some natu- 
 rahsts believe these little creatures to be related 
 to the lamprey, others consider that they belong 
 to a perfectly distinct group of animals, and 
 others stUl think it possible that they may be 
 the larval or early stages of larger and better- 
 developed forms. 
 
 StUl higher up we come upon the abundant 
 remains of numerous small fish-hke animals, 
 more or less completely clad in bony armor, 
 indicating that they lived in troublous times 
 when there was literally a fight for existence 
 and only such as were well armed or well 
 protected could hope to survive. A parallel 
 case exists to-day in some of the rivers of South 
 America, where the little cat-fishes would pos- 
 
24 
 
 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 sibly be eaten out of existence but for the fact 
 that they are covered — some of them very 
 completely — with plate -armor that enables 
 them to defy their enemies, or renders them 
 such poor eating as not to be worth the taking. 
 
 Fig. 4. — Cephalaspis and Loricaria, an Ancient and a 
 Modem Armored Fish. 
 
 The arrangement of the plates or scales in the 
 living Loricaria is very suggestive of the series 
 of bony rings covering the body of the ancient 
 Cephalaspis, only the latter, so far as we know, 
 had no side-fins: but the creatures are in no 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 25 
 
 wise related, and the similarity is in appearance 
 only. 
 
 Pterichthys, the wing fish, was another small, 
 quaint, armor-clad creature, whose fossilized re- 
 mains were taken for those of a crab, and once 
 described as belonging to a beetle. Certainly 
 the buckler of this fish, which is the part most 
 often preserved, with its jointed, bony arms, 
 looks to the untrained eye far more hke some 
 strange crustacean than a fish, and even natu- 
 ralists have pictured the animal as crawhng 
 over the bare sands by means of those same 
 arms. These fishes and their allies were once 
 the dominant type of fife, and must have 
 abounded in favored localities, for in places are 
 great deposits of their protective shields jum- 
 bled together in a confused mass, and, save 
 that they have hardened into stone, lying just 
 as they were washed up on the ancient beach 
 ages ago. How abundant they were may be 
 gathered fi-om the fact that it is believed their 
 bodies helped consolidate portions of the strata 
 of the English Old Red Sandstone. Says Mr. 
 Hutchinson, speaking of the Caithness Flag- 
 stones, " They owe their peculiar tenacity and 
 
26 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 durability to the dead fishes that rotted in their 
 midst while yet they were only soft mud. 
 For just as a plaster cast boUed in oil becomes 
 thereby denser and more durable, so the oily 
 and other matter coming from decomposing 
 fish operated on the surrounding sand or mud 
 so as to make it more compact." 
 
 It may not be easy to explain how it came 
 to pass that fishes dwelling in salt water, as 
 these undoubtedly did, were thus deposited in 
 great numbers, but we may now and then see 
 how deposits of fresh-water fishes may have 
 been formed. When rivers flowing through a 
 stretch of level country are swoUen during the 
 spring floods, they overflow their banks, often 
 carrying along large numbers of fishes. As the 
 water subsides these may be caught in shallow 
 pools that soon dry up, leaving the fishes to 
 perish, and every year the Illinois game asso- 
 ciation rescues from the " back waters " quan- 
 tities of bass that would otherwise be lost. 
 Mr. F. S. Webster has recorded an instance 
 that came under his observation in Texas, 
 where thousands of gar pikes, trapped in a lake 
 formed by an overflow of the Rio Grande, had 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 27 
 
 been, by the drying up of this lake, penned into 
 a pool about seventy-five feet long by twenty- 
 five feet wide. The fish were literally packed 
 together Uke sardines, layer upon layer, and a 
 shot fired into the pool would set the entire 
 mass in motion, the larger gars as they dashed 
 about casting the smaller fry into the air, a 
 score at a time. Mr. Webster estimates that 
 there must have been not less than 700 or 800 
 fish in the pool, fi-om a foot and a half up to 
 seven feet in length, every one of which per- 
 ished a httle later. In addition to the fish in 
 the pond, hundreds of those that had died pre- 
 viously lay about in every direction, and one 
 can readily imagine what a fish-bed this would 
 have made had the occurrence taken place in 
 the past. 
 
 From the better-preserved specimens that do 
 now and then turn up, we are able to obtain a 
 very exact idea of the construction of the bony 
 cuirass by which Pterichthys and its American 
 cousin were protected, and to make a pretty 
 accurate reconstruction of the entire animal. 
 These primitive fishes had mouths, for eating is 
 a necessity ; but these mouths were not associ- 
 
28 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 ated with true jaws, for the two do not, as might 
 be supposed, necessarily go together. Neither 
 did these animals possess hard backbones, and, 
 while Pterichthys and its relatives had arms or 
 fins, the hard parts of these were not on the 
 inside but on the outside, so that the limb was 
 more like the leg of a crab than the fin of a 
 fish ; and this is among the reasons why some 
 naturalists have been led to conclude that ver- 
 tebrates may have developed from crustaceans. 
 Pteraspis, another of these little armored pre- 
 vertebrates, had a less complicated covering, 
 and looked very much Mke a small fish with its 
 fore parts caught in an elongate clam-sheU. 
 
 The fishes that we have so far been consider- 
 ing — orphans of the past they might be termed, 
 as they have no living relatives — were little fel- 
 lows ; but their immediate successors, preserved 
 in the Devonian strata, particularly of North 
 America, were the giants of those days, termed, 
 from their size and presumably fierce appear- 
 ance, Titantichthys and Dinichthys, and are re- 
 lated to a fish, Ceratodus, still living in Australia. 
 
 We know practically nothing of the exter- 
 nal appearance of these fishes, great and fierce 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 29 
 
 though they may have been, with powerful 
 jaws and armored heads, for they had no bony 
 skeleton — as if they devoted their energies to 
 preying upon their neighbors rather than to in- 
 ternal improvements. They attained a length 
 of ten to eighteen feet, with a gape, in the large 
 species called Titanichthys, of four feet, and 
 such a fish might well be capable of devouring 
 anything known to have Uved at that early 
 date. 
 
 Succeeding these, in Carboniferous times, 
 came a host of shark-Hke creatures known 
 mainly from their teeth and spines, for their 
 skeletons were of cartilage, and belonging to 
 t5rpes that have mostly perished, giving place 
 to others better adapted to the changed condi- 
 tions wrought by time. Almost the only liv- 
 ing relative of these early fishes is a httle shark, 
 known as the Port Jackson Shark, Uving in 
 Australian waters. Like the old sharks, this 
 one has a spine in front of his back fins, and, Uke 
 them, he fortunately has a mouthful of diversely 
 shaped teeth ; fortunately, because through their 
 aid we are enabled to form some idea of the 
 manner in which some of the teeth found scat- 
 
30 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 tered through the rocks were arranged. For 
 the teeth were not planted in sockets, as they 
 are in higher animals, but simply rested on the 
 jaws, from which they readily became detached 
 when decomposition set in after death. To 
 compUcate matters, the teeth in different parts 
 of the jaws were often so unhke one another 
 that when found separately they would hardly 
 be suspected of having belonged to the same 
 animal. Besides teeth these fishes, for pur- 
 poses of offence and defence, were usually armed 
 with spines, sometimes of considerable size and 
 strength, and often elaborately grooved and 
 sculptured. As the soft parts perished the 
 teeth and spines were left to be scattered by 
 waves and currents, a tooth here, another there, 
 and a spine somewhere else ; so it has often 
 happened that, being found separately, two or 
 three quite different names have been given to 
 one and the same animal. Now and then some 
 specimen comes to light that escaped the 
 thousand and one accidents to which such 
 things were exposed, and that not only shows 
 the teeth and spines but the faint imprint of 
 the body and fins as well. And from such rare 
 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES 81 
 
 examples we learn just what teeth and spines 
 go with one another, and sometimes find that 
 one fish has received names enough for an en- 
 tire school. 
 
 These ancient sharks were not the large and 
 powerful fishes that we have to-day — these 
 came upon the scene later — but mostly fishes 
 of small size, and, as indicated by theu- spines, 
 fitted quite as much for defence as offence. 
 Their rise was rapid, and in their turn they 
 became the masters of the world, spreading 
 in great numbers through the waters that cov- 
 ered the face of the earth; but their supremacy 
 was of short duration, for they declined in 
 numbers even during the Carboniferous Period, 
 and later dwindled almost to extinction. And 
 while sharks again increased, they never reached 
 their former abundance, and the species that 
 arose were swift, predatory forms, better fitted 
 for the struggle for existence. 
 
32 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 The early fishes make but little shew in a museum, 
 both on account of their small size and the conditions 
 under which they have been preserved. The Museum of 
 Comparative Zoology has a large collection of these 
 ancient vertebrates, and there is a considerable number of 
 fine teeth and spines of Carboniferous sharks in the 
 United States National Museum. 
 
 Hugh Miller''s "The Old Red Sandstone'"'' contains 
 some charming descriptions of his discoveries of Pterich- 
 thys and related forms, amd this book will ever remain a 
 classic. 
 
 Fig. 5. — Pterichthys, the Wing Fish. 
 
Ill 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 
 
 " The weird palimpsest, old and vast, 
 Wherein thou hid'st the spectral past." 
 
 The Rev. H. N. Hutchinson commences one 
 of his interesting books with Emerson's say- 
 ing, " that Everything in nature is engaged in 
 writing its own history;" and, as this remark 
 cannot be improved on, it may well stand at 
 the head of a chapter dealing with the foot- 
 prints that the creatures of yore left on the 
 sands of the sea-shore, the mud of a long-van- 
 ished lake bottom, or the shrunken bed of some 
 water-course. Not only have creatures that 
 walked left a record of their progress, but the 
 worms that burrowed in the sand, the sheU-fish 
 that trailed over the mud when the tide was 
 low, the stranded crab as he scuttled back to 
 the sea — each and all left some mark to tell 
 of their former presence. Even the rain that fell 
 
 33 
 
34 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 and the very wind that blew sometimes re- 
 corded the direction whence they came, and 
 we may read in the rocks, also, accounts of 
 freshets sweeping down with turbid waters, and 
 of long periods of drouth, when the land was 
 parched and lakes and rivers shrank beneath 
 the burning sun. 
 
 All these things have been told and retold ; 
 but, as there are many who have not read 
 Mr. Hutchinson's books and to whom Buck- 
 land is quite unknown, it may be excusable 
 to add something to what has already been 
 said in the first chapter of these impressions 
 of the past. 
 
 The very earliest suggestion we have of the 
 presence of animal hfe upon this globe is in 
 the form of certain long dark streaks below 
 the Cambrian of England, considered to be 
 traces of the burrows of worms that were filled 
 with fine mud, and while this interpretation 
 may be wrong there is, on the other hand, no 
 reason why it may not be correct. Plant and 
 animal life must have had very lowly begin- 
 nings, and it is not at all probable that we 
 shall find any trace of the simple and minute 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 35 
 
 forms with which they started,* though we 
 should not be surprised at finding hints of the 
 presence of living creatures below the strata 
 in which their remains are actually known to 
 occur. 
 
 Worm burrows, to be sure, are hardly foot- 
 prints, but tracks are found in Cambrian rocks 
 just above the strata in which the supposed 
 burrows occur, and from that time onward 
 there are tracks a-plenty, for they have been 
 made, wherever the conditions were favorable, 
 ever since animals began to walk. All that 
 was needed was a medium in which impres- 
 sions could be made and so filled that there 
 was imperfect adhesion between mould and 
 matrix. Thus we find them formed not only 
 by the sea-shore, in sands alternately dry and 
 covered, but by the riv^r-side, in shallow water, 
 or even on land where tracks might be left in 
 
 * Within the last few years what are believed to he indica- 
 tions of bacteria have been described from carboniferous rocks. 
 Naturally such anno/uncements must be accepted with great 
 caution, for while there is no reason why this may not be true, 
 it is much more probable that definite evidence of the effects of 
 bacteria on plants should be found than that these simple, single- 
 celled organisms should themselves have been detected. 
 
36 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 soft or moist earth into which wind-driven 
 dust or sand might lodge, or sand or mud be 
 swept by the mimic flood caused by a thunder 
 shower. 
 
 So there are tracks in strata of every age ; 
 at first those of invertebrates : after the worm 
 burrows the curious compHcated trails of ani- 
 mals beheved to be akin to the king crab ; 
 broad, ribbed, ribbon-hke paths ascribed to 
 trilobites ; then faiat scratches of insects, and 
 the shallow, palmed prints of salamanders, and 
 the occasional slender sprawl of a lizard ; then 
 footprints, big and httle, of the horde of Di- 
 nosaurs and, finally, miles above the Cambri- 
 an, marks of mammals. Sometimes, like the 
 tracks of salamanders and reptiles in the car- 
 boniferous rocks of Pennsylvania and Kansas, 
 these are aU we have to tell of the existence 
 of air-breathing animals. Again, as with the 
 iguanodon, the foot to fit the track may be 
 found in the same layer of rock, but this is not 
 often the case. 
 
 Although footprints in the rocks must often 
 have been seen, they seem to have attracted ht- 
 tle or no notice from scientific men until about 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 37 
 
 1830 to 1835, when they were almost simul- 
 taneously described both in Europe and Amer- 
 ica ; even then, it was some time before they 
 were generally conceded to be actually the 
 tracks of animals, but, like worm burrows and 
 trails, were looked upon as the impressions of 
 sea-weeds. 
 
 The now famous tracks in the "brown 
 stone" of the Connecticut Valley seem to have 
 first been seen by Pliny Moody in 1802, when 
 he ploughed up a specimen on his farm, show- 
 ing smaU. imprints, which later on were popu- 
 larly called the tracks of Noah's raven. The 
 discovery passed without remark until in 1835 
 the footprints came under the observation of 
 Dr. James Deane, who, in turn, called Professor 
 Hitchcock's attention to them. The latter at 
 once began a systematic study of these im- 
 pressions, pubhshing his first account in 1836 
 and continuing his researches for many years, 
 in the course of which he brought together the 
 fine collection in Amherst College. At that 
 time Dinosaurs were practically unknown, and 
 it is not to be wondered at that these three- 
 toed tracks, great and small, were almost uni- 
 
S8 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 versally believed to be those of birds. So it is 
 greatly to the credit of Dr. Deane, who also 
 studied these footprints, that he was led to 
 suspect that they might have been made by 
 other animals. This suspicion was partly 
 caused by the occasional association of four 
 and five-toed prints with the three-toed im- 
 pressions, and partly by the rare occurrence of 
 
 ^ 
 
 C^^' 
 
 ...>A«T,<itku»»,u»m».«Mtew>^<,.,W^\vt>'fr,%'iB 8g 
 
 Fig. 6. — Where a Dinosaur Sat Down. 
 
 imprints showing the texture of the sole of the 
 foot, which was quite different from that of 
 any known bird. 
 
 In the hght of our present knowledge we 
 are able to read many things in these tracks 
 that were formerly more or less obscure, and 
 to see in them a complete verification of Dr. 
 Deane's suspicion that they were not made by 
 birds. We see clearly that the long tracks 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 39 
 
 called Anomcepus, with their accompanying 
 short fore feet, mark where some Dinosaur 
 squatted down to rest or progressed slowly on 
 all-fours, as does the kangaroo when feeding 
 quietly;* and we interpret the curious heart- 
 shaped depression sometimes seen back of the 
 feet, not as the mark of a stubby tail, but as 
 made by the ends of the slender pubes, bones 
 that help form the hip-joints. Then, too, the 
 mark of the inner, or short first, toe, is often 
 very evident, although it was a long time be- 
 fore the bones of this toe were actually found, 
 and many of the Dinosaurs now known to 
 have four toes were supposed to have but 
 three. 
 
 It seems strange, and it is strange, that 
 while so many hundreds of tracks should have 
 been found in the hmited area exposed to view, 
 so few bones have been found — our knowledge 
 of the veritable animals that made the tracks 
 
 * It i* to he noted that a leaping kangaroo touches the 
 enmnd neither with his heel nor his tail, but that between 
 Jumps he rests momentarih/ on his toes only; hence impres- 
 mons made by any creature that jumped like a kangaroo would 
 he very short. 
 
40 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 being a blank. A few examples have, it is 
 true, been found, but these are only a tithe of 
 those known to have existed ; while of the great 
 animals that strode along the shore, leaving 
 tracks fifteen inches long and a yard apart 
 pressed deeply into the hard sand, not a bone 
 remains. The probability is that the strata 
 containing their bones lie out to sea, whither 
 their bodies were carried by tides and currents, 
 and that we may never see more than the few 
 fragments that were scattered along the sea- 
 side. 
 
 That part of the Valley of the Connecticut 
 wherein the footprints are found seems to have 
 been a long, narrow estuary running south- 
 ward from Turner's Falls, Mass., where the 
 tracks are most abundant and most clear. 
 The topography was such that this estuary 
 was subject to sudden and great fluctuations of 
 the water-level, large tracts of shore being now 
 left dry to bake in the sun, and again covered 
 by turbid water which deposited on the bot- 
 tom a layer of mud. Over and over again this 
 happened, forming layer upon layer of what is 
 now stone, sometimes the lapse of time be- 
 
'.*m 
 
 
 
 \ - 
 
 > ^ -N S- 
 
 \ 
 
 'S^f 
 
 \ \J 
 
 =8 
 > 
 
 o 
 O 
 
 o S 
 
 O ^ 
 
 C *3 
 
 S « 
 
 O 
 O 
 fa 
 
 be 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 41 
 
 tween the deposits being so short that the 
 tracks of the big Dinosaurs extend through 
 several sheets of stone ; while again there was a 
 period of drouth when the shore became so dry 
 and firm as to retain but a single shallow im- 
 pression. 
 
 Something of the wealth of animal Ufe that 
 roamed about this estuary may be gathered 
 from the number of different footprints re- 
 corded on the sands, and these are so many and 
 so varied that Professor Hitchcock in two ex- 
 tensive reports enumerated over 150 species, 
 representing various groups of animals. One 
 httle point must, however, be borne in mind, 
 that mere size is no sure indication of differ- 
 ences in deaUng with reptiles, for these long- 
 lived creatures grow almost continuously 
 throughout hfe, so that one animal even may 
 have left his footprints oyer and over in as- 
 sorted sizes from one end of the vaUey to the 
 other. 
 
 The slab shown in Fig. 7 is a remarkably 
 fine example of these Connecticut River foot- 
 prints ; it shows in relief forty-eight tracks of 
 the animal called Brontozoum siUimanium and 
 
42 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 six of a lesser species. It was quarried near 
 Middletown, in 1778, and for sixty years did 
 duty as a flagstone, fortunately with the face 
 downwards. When taken up for repairs the 
 tracks were discovered, and later on the slab, 
 which measures three by five feet, was trans- 
 ferred to the museum of Amherst College. 
 
 There is an interesting parallel between the 
 history of footprints in England and America, 
 for they were noticed at about the same time, 
 1830, in both countries; in each case the tracks 
 were in rocks of Triassic age, and, in both in- 
 stances, the animals that made them have 
 never been found. In England, however, the 
 tracks first found were those ascribed to tor- 
 toises, though a httle later Dinosaur footprints 
 were discovered in the same locahty. Oddly 
 enough these numerous tracks all run one 
 way, fi:om west to east, as if the animals were 
 migrating, or were pursuing some well-known 
 and customary route to their feeding grounds. 
 
 For some reason Triassic rocks are particu- 
 larly rich in footprints ; for from strata of this 
 same age in the Rhine Valley come those cu- 
 rious examples so like the mark of a stubby 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 43 
 
 hand that Dr. Kaup christened the beast sup- 
 posed to have made them Cheirotherium, beast 
 with a hand, suggesting that they had been 
 made by some gigantic opossum. As the 
 tracks measure five by eight inches, it would 
 have been rather a large specimen, but the 
 mammals had not then arisen, and it is gener- 
 ally beheved that the impressions were made 
 by huge (for their kind) salamander-like creat- 
 ures, known as labyrinthodonts, whose re- 
 mains are found in the same strata. 
 
 Footprints may aid greatly in determining 
 the attitude assumed by extinct animals, and 
 in this way they have been of great service in 
 furnishing proof that many of the Dinosaurs 
 walked erect. The impressions on the sands 
 of the old Connecticut estuary may be said to 
 show this very plainly, but in England and 
 Belgium is evidence stUl more conclusive, in 
 the shape of tracks ascribed to the Iguanodon. 
 These were made on soft soil into which the 
 feet sank much more deeply than in the Con- 
 necticut sands, and the casts made in the nat- 
 ural moulds show the impression of toes very 
 clearly. If the animals had walked flat-footed. 
 
44 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 as we do, the prints of the toes would have 
 been followed by a long heel mark, but such 
 is not the case ; there are the sharply defined 
 marks of the toes and nothing more, showing 
 plainly that the Iguanodons walked, Uke birds, 
 on the toes alone. More than this, had these 
 Dinosaurs dragged their tails there would have 
 been a continuous furrow between the foot- 
 prints ; but nothing of this sort is to be found ; 
 on the contrary, a fine series of tracks, uncov- 
 ered at Hastings, England, made by several 
 individuals and running for seventy-five feet, 
 shows footprints only. Hence it may be fairly 
 concluded that these great creatures carried 
 their tails clear of the ground, as shown in the 
 picture of Thespesius, the weight of the tail 
 counterbalancing that of the body. Where 
 crocodiUans or some of the short-limbed Di- 
 nosaurs have crept along there is, as we should 
 expect, a continuous furrow between the im- 
 prints of the feet. This is what footprints tell 
 us when their message is read aright; when 
 improperly translated they only add to the 
 enormous bulk of our ignorance. 
 
 Some years ago we were treated to accounts 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 45 
 
 of wonderful footprints in the rock of the 
 prison-yard at Carson City, Nev., which, ac- 
 cording to the papers, not only showed that 
 men existed at a much earher period than the 
 scientific supposed, but that they were men 
 of giant stature. This was clearly demon- 
 strated by the footprints, for they were such as 
 might have been made by huge moccasined 
 feet, and this was all that was necessary for 
 the conclusion that they were made by just 
 such feet. For it is a curious fact that the 
 majority of mankind seem to prefer any ex- 
 planation other than the most simple and nat- 
 ural, particularly in the case of fossils, and are 
 always looking for a primitive race of gigantic 
 men. 
 
 Bones of the Mastodon and Mammoth have 
 again and again been eagerly accepted as those 
 of giants ; a salamander was brought forward 
 as evidence of the deluge {fiomo diluvii testis); 
 ammonites and their allies pose as fossil snakes, 
 and the "petrified man" flourishes perennially. 
 However, in this case the prints were recog- 
 nized by naturalists as having most probably 
 been made by some great ground sloth, such 
 
46 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 as the Mylodon or Morotherium, these ani- 
 mals, though belonging to a group whose head- 
 quarters were in Patagonia, having extended 
 their range as far north as Oregon. That the 
 tracks seemed to have been made by a biped, 
 rather than a quadruped, was due to the fact 
 that the prints of the hind feet fell upon and 
 obhterated the marks of the fore. Still, a httle 
 observation showed that here and there prints 
 of the fore feet were to be seen, and on one 
 spot were indications of a struggle between 
 two of the big beasts. The mud, or rather 
 the stone that had been mud, bears the im- 
 prints of opposing feet, one set deeper at the 
 toes, the other at the heels, as if one animal 
 had pushed and the other resisted. In the 
 rock, too, are broad depressions bearing the 
 marks of coarse hair, where one creature had 
 apparently sat on its haunches in order to usie 
 its fore hmbs to the best advantage. Other 
 footprints there are in this prison-yard ; the 
 great round " spoor " of the mammoth, the 
 hoofs of a deer, and the paws of a wolf (?), indi- 
 cating that hereabout was some pool where all 
 these creatures came to drink. More than this. 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 47 
 
 we learn that when these prints were made, or 
 shortly after, a strong wind blew from the 
 southeast, for on that face of the ridges bound- 
 ing the margin of each big footprint, we find 
 sand that lodged against the squeezed-up mud 
 and stuck there to serve as a perpetual record 
 of the direction of the wind. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 Almost every museum has some specimen of the Con- 
 necticut Valley footprints, but the largest amd finest col- 
 lections are in the museums of Amherst College, Mass., 
 and Yale University, although, owing to lack of room, 
 only a few of the Yale specimens are on exhibition. 
 The collection at Amherst comprises most of the types 
 described by Professor E. Hitchcock in his "Ichnology of 
 New Englamd," a work in two fully illustrated guarto 
 volumes. Other footprints are described amd figured by 
 Dr. J. Deane in '^Ichmographs from the Sandstone qf 
 the Connecticut River."" 
 
 ^L , ^ i 4Vj-i- ^.-««-i— ».«.i:i-"-'"-"'-''«'''°« 
 
 Fig, 8. The Track of a Three-toed Dinosaur. 
 
IV 
 
 RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 
 
 "A time there mas when the universe was darkness and 
 mater, mherein certain animals of frightful and compound 
 mien were generated. There were serpents, and other creatures 
 with the mixed shapes of one another. . . ." — The Archaic 
 Genesis. 
 
 History shows us how in the past nation after 
 nation has arisen, increased in size and strength, 
 extended its bounds and dominion until it be- 
 came the ruHng power of the world, and then 
 passed out of existence, often so completely 
 that nothing has remained save a few mounds 
 of dirt marking the graves of former cities. 
 And so has it been with the kingdoms of 
 nature. Just as Greece, Carthage, and Rome 
 were successively the rulers of the sea in the 
 days that we call old, so, long before the advent 
 of man, the seas were ruled by successive races 
 of creatures whose bones now lie scattered 
 over the beds of the ancient seas, even as the 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 49 
 
 wrecks of galleys lie strewn over the bed of 
 the Mediterranean. For a time the armor- 
 clad fishes held imdisputed sway ; then their 
 reign was ended by the coming of the sharks, 
 who in their turn gave way to the fish-lizards, 
 the Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs. These, how- 
 ever, were rather local in their rule ; but the 
 next group of reptiles to appear on the scene, 
 the great marine reptiles called Mosasaurs, 
 practically extended their empire around the 
 world, from New Zealand to North America. 
 
 We properly call these reptiles great, for so 
 they were ; but there are degrees of greatness, 
 and there is a universal tendency to think of 
 the animals that have become extinct as much 
 greater than those of the present day, to mag- 
 nify the reptile that we never saw as well as 
 the fish that " got away," and it may be safely 
 said that the greatest of animals will shrink 
 before a two-foot rule. As a matter of fact, 
 no animals are known to have existed that 
 were larger than the whales ; and, while there 
 are now no reptiles that can compare ia bulk 
 with the Dinosaurs, there were few Mosasaurs 
 that exceeded in size a first-class Crocodile. 
 
50 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 An occasional Mosasaur reaches a length of 
 forty feet, but such are rare indeed, and one 
 even twenty-five feet long is a large specimen,* 
 while the great Mugger, or Man-eating Croco- 
 dile, grows, if permitted, to a length of twenty- 
 five or even thirty feet, and need not be 
 ashamed to match his bulk and jaws against 
 those of most Mosasaurs. 
 
 The first of these sea-reptiles to be dis- 
 covered has passed into history, and now 
 reposes in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 
 after changing hands two or three times, 
 the ori^nal owner being dispossessed of his 
 treasure by the subtleties of law, while the 
 next holder was deprived of the specimen 
 by main force. Thus the story is told by 
 M. Faujas St. Fond, as rendered into EngUsh, 
 in Mantell's " Petrifactions and their Teach- 
 ings " : " Some workmen, in blasting the rock 
 
 * It is surprising to find Professor Cope placing the length 
 of the Mosasaurs at 70, 80, or 100 feet, as there is not the 
 slightest basis for even the lowest of these figures. Professor 
 Williston, the best authority on the sulyect, states, in his volume 
 on the "Cretaceous Reptiles of Kansas" that there is not in ex- 
 istence any specimen of a Mosasaur indicating a greater length 
 than JjS feet. , 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 31 
 
 in one of the caverns of the interior of the 
 mountain, perceived, to their astonishment, the 
 jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of 
 the chasm. The discovery was immediately 
 made known to M. Hoffman, who repaired to 
 the spot, and for weeks presided over the ardu- 
 ous task of separating the mass of stone con- 
 taining these remains from the surrounding 
 rock. His labors were rewarded by the suc- 
 cessful extrication of the specimen, which he 
 conveyed in triumph to his house. This ex- 
 traordinary discovery, however, soon became 
 the subject of general conversation, and excited 
 so much interest that the canon of the cathedral 
 which stands on the mountain resolved to claim 
 the fossU, in right of being lord of the manor, 
 and succeeded, after a l6ng and harassing law- 
 suit, in obtaining the precious rehc. It re- 
 mained for years in his possession, and Hoff- 
 man died without regaining his treasure. At 
 length the French Revolution broke out, and 
 the armies of the Repubhc advanced to the 
 gates of Maestricht. The town was bom- 
 barded ; but, at the suggestion of the commit- 
 tee of savans who accompanied the French 
 
52 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 troops to select their share of the plunder, the 
 artillery was not suffered to play on that part 
 of the city in which the celebrated fossil was 
 known to be preserved. In the meantime, the 
 canon of St. Peter's, shrewdly suspecting the 
 reason why such peculiar favor was shown to 
 his residence, removed the specimen and con- 
 cealed it in a vault ; but, when the city was 
 taken, the French authorities compelled him 
 to give up his ill-gotten prize, which was 
 immediately transmitted to the Jardin des 
 Plantes, at Paris, where it still forms one of 
 the most interesting objects in that magnifi- 
 cent collection." And there it remains to 
 this day. 
 
 The seas that rolled over western Kansas 
 were the headquarters of the Mosasaurs, and 
 hundreds — aye, thousands — of specimens 
 have been taken from the chalk bluffs of that 
 region, some of them in such a fine state of 
 preservation that we are not only well ac- 
 quainted with their internal structure, but with 
 their outward appearance as well. They were 
 essentially swimming lizards — great, over- 
 grown, and distant relatives of the Monitors 
 
^—w<^ /f 
 
 Fig. 9- — A Great Sea Lizard, Tylosaurus Dyspelor. 
 Prom, a draioing by J. M. Gleeson, 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 53 
 
 of Africa and Asia, especially adapted to a 
 roving, predatory life by their powerful tails 
 and paddle-shaped feet. Their cup-and-ball 
 vertebrae indicate great flexibility of the body, 
 their sharp teeth denote ability to capture slip- 
 pery prey, and the structure of the lower jaw 
 shows that they probably ate in a hurry and 
 swallowed their food entire, or bolted it in 
 great chunks. The jaws of all reptiles are 
 made up of a number of pieces, but these are 
 usually so spliced together that each half of the 
 jaw is one inflexible, or nearly inflexible, mass 
 of bone. In snakes, which swallow their prey 
 entire, the difficulty of swallowing animals 
 greater in diameter than themselves is sur- 
 mounted by having the two halves of the lower 
 jaw loosely joined at the free ends, so that 
 these may spread wide apart and thus increase 
 the gape of the mouth. This is also helped by 
 the manner in which the jaw is joined to the 
 head. The peUcan solves the problem by the 
 length of his mandibles, this allowing so much 
 spring that when open they bow apart to 
 form a nice little landing net. In the Mosa- 
 saurs, as in the cormorants, among birds, there 
 
54 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 is a sort of joint in each half of the lower jaw 
 which permits it to bow outward when opened, 
 and this, aided by the articulation of the jaw 
 with the cranium, adds greatly to the swallow- 
 ing capacity. Thus in nature the same end is 
 attained by very different methods. To bor- 
 row a suggestion from Professor Cope, if the 
 reader wiU extend his arms at full length, the 
 palms touching, and then bend his elbows out- 
 ward he will get a very good idea of the ac- 
 
 Fig. 10. — Jaw of a Mosasaur, Showing the Joint that 
 Increased the Swallowing Capacity of that Reptile. 
 
 tion of a Mosasaur's jaw. The western sea 
 was a lively place in the day of the great 
 Mosasaurs, for with them swam the king of 
 turtles, Archelon, as Mr. Wieland has fitly 
 named him, a creature a dozen feet or more in 
 length, with a head a fuU yard long, while in 
 the shallows prowled great fishes with massive 
 jaws and teeth like spikes. 
 
 There, too, was the great, toothed diver. 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 55 
 
 Hesperornis (see page 83), while over the 
 waters flew pterodactyls, with a spread of 
 wing of twenty feet, largest of all flying 
 creatures; and, not improbably — nay, very 
 probably — fish-eaters, too ; and when each and 
 all of these were seeking their dinners, there 
 were troublous times for the small fry in that 
 old Kansan sea. 
 
 And then there came a change; to the 
 south, to the west, to the north, the land was 
 imperceptibly but surely rising, perhaps only 
 an inch or two in a century, but stiU rising, 
 until " The Ocean in which flourished this 
 abundant and vigorous life was at last com- 
 pletely inclosed on the west by elevations of 
 sea-bottom, so that it only communicated with 
 the Atlantic and Pacific at the Gulf of Mexico 
 and the Arctic Sea," 
 
 The continued elevation of both eastern and 
 western shores contracted its area, and when 
 ridges of the sea-bottom reached the surface, 
 forming long, low bars, parts of the water-area 
 were included, and connection with salt-water 
 prevented. Thus were the Hving beings im- 
 prisoned and subjected to many new risks to 
 
56 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 life. The stronger could more readily capture 
 the weaker, while the fishes would gradually 
 perish through the constant freshening of the 
 water. With the death of any considerable 
 class, the balance of food-supply would be lost, 
 and many large species would disappear from 
 the scene. The most omnivorous and enduring 
 would longest resist the approach of starvation, 
 but would finally yield to inexorable fate — the 
 last one caught by the shifting bottom among 
 shallow pools, from which his exhausted ener- 
 gies could not extricate him." * 
 
 Like the " Fossil man " the sea-serpent 
 flourishes perennially in the newspapers and, 
 despite the fact that he is now mainly regarded 
 as a joke, there have been many attempts to 
 habilitate this mythical monster and place him 
 on a foundation of firm fact. The most earn- 
 est of these was that of M. Oudemans, who 
 expressed his beUef in the existence of some 
 rare and huge seal-like creature whose occa- 
 sional appearance in southern waters gave rise 
 
 • Cope: " The Vertehrata of the Cretaceous Formations of 
 the West," p. 60, being the "Report of the United States Geo- 
 logical Survei/ of the Territories," Vol. II. 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 57 
 
 to the best authenticated reports of the sea- 
 serpent. Among other possibilities it has been 
 suggested that some animal beUeved to be ex- 
 tinct had really lived over to the present day. 
 Now there are a few waifs, spared from the 
 wrecks of ancient faunas, stranded on the 
 shores of the present, such as the Australian 
 Ceratodus and the Gar Pikes of North Amer- 
 ica, and these and all other creatures that could 
 be mustered in were used as proofs to sustain 
 this theory. If, it was said, these animals 
 have been spared, why not others? If a fish 
 of such ancient lineage as the Gar Fike is so 
 common as to be a nuisance, why may there 
 not be a few Plesiosaurs or a Mos^saur some- 
 where in the depths of the ocean^ The argu- 
 ment was a good one, the more that we may 
 "suppose" almost anything, but it must be 
 said that no trace of any of these creatures has 
 so far been found outside of the strata in which 
 they have long been known to occur, and all 
 the probabilities are opposed to this theory. 
 Still, if some of these creatures had been spared, 
 they might well have passed for sea-serpents, 
 even though Zeuglodon, the one most Uke » 
 
58 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 serpent in form, was the one most remotely re- 
 lated to snakes. 
 
 Zeuglodon, the yoke-tooth, so named from 
 the shape of its great cutting teeth, was in- 
 deed a strange animal, and if we wonder at 
 the Greenland Whale, whose head is one-third 
 its total length, we may equally wonder at 
 Zeuglodon, with four feet of head, ten feet of 
 body, and forty feet of tail. No one, seeing 
 the bones of the trunk and tail for the first 
 time, would suspect that they belonged to the 
 same animal, for while the vertebree of the 
 body are of moderate size, those of the tail 
 are, for the bulk of creature, the longest 
 known, measuring from fifteen to eighteen 
 inches in length, and weighing in a fossil con- 
 dition fifty to sixty pounds. In life, the ani- 
 mal was from fifty to seventy feet in length, 
 and not more than six or eight feet through 
 the deepest part of the body, while the tail 
 was much less ; the head was small and 
 pointed, the jaws well armed with grasping 
 and cutting teeth, and just back of the head 
 was a pair of short paddles, not unlike those 
 of a fur seal. It is curious to speculate on 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 59 
 
 Vhe habits of a creature in which the tail so 
 obviously wagged the dog and whose articula- 
 tions all point to great freedom of movement 
 up and down. This may mean that it was an 
 active diver, descending to great depths to 
 prey upon squid, as the Sperm- Whale does 
 to-day, while it seems quite certain that it 
 must have reared at least a third of its great 
 length out of water to take a comprehensive 
 view of its surroundings. And if size is any 
 indication of power, the great tail, which ob- 
 viously ended in flukes hke those of a whale, 
 must have been capable of propelling the beast 
 at a speed of twenty or thirty miles an hour. 
 Something of the kind must have been needed 
 in order that the small head might provide food 
 enough for the great tail, and it has been sug- 
 gested that inabiUty to do this was the reason 
 why Zeuglodon became extinct. On the other 
 hand, it has been ingeniously argued that the 
 huge tail served to store up fat when food was 
 plenty, which was drawn upon when food be- 
 came scarce. The fur seals do something sim- 
 ilar to this, for the males come on shore in 
 May rolling in blubber, and depart in Septem- 
 
60 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 ber lean and hungry after a three months' 
 fast. 
 
 Zeuglodons must have been very numerous 
 in the old Gulf of Mexico, for bones are found 
 abundantly through portions of our Southern 
 States ; it was also an inhabitant of the old 
 seas of southern Europe, but, as we shall see, 
 it gave place to the great fossil shark, and this 
 in turn passed out of existence. Still, common 
 though its bones may be, stories of their use 
 for making stone walls — and these stories are 
 still in circulation — resolve themselves on 
 close scrutiny into the occasional use of a big 
 vertebra to support the comer of a corn-crib. 
 
 The scientific name of Zeuglodon is JBasih- 
 saurus, cetoides, the whale-hke king lizard — ^the 
 first of these names, Basilosaurus, having been 
 given to it by the original describer. Dr. Har- 
 lan, who supposed the animal to have been a 
 reptile. Now it is a primary rule of nomen- 
 clature that the fiirst name given to an animal 
 must stick and may not be changed, even by 
 the act of a zoological congress, so Zeuglodon 
 must, so far as its name is concerned, mas- 
 querade as a reptile for the rest of its paleon- 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 61 
 
 tological life. This, however, really matters 
 very little, because scientific names are simply 
 verbal handles by which we may grasp animals 
 to describe them, and Dr. Le Conte, to show 
 how little there may be in a name, called a 
 beetle Gyascutus. Owen's name of Zeuglodon, 
 although not tenable as a scientific name, is 
 too good to be wasted, and being readily re- 
 membered and easily pronounced may be used 
 as a popular name. 
 
 One might think that a creature sixty or 
 seventy feet long was amply long enough, but 
 Dr. Albert Koch thought otherwise, and did 
 with Zeuglodon as, later on, he did with the 
 Mastodon, combining the vertebras of seveiral 
 individuals until he had a monster 114 feet 
 long ! This he exhibited in Europe under the 
 name of Hydrarchus, or water king, finally 
 disposing of the composite creature to the 
 Museum of Dresden, where it was promptly 
 reduced to its proper dimensions. The nat- 
 ural make-up of Zeuglodon is sufficiently com- 
 posite without any aid fi:om man, for the head 
 and paddles are not unlike those of a seal, the 
 ribs are like those of a manatee, and the shoul- 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 63 
 
 der blades are precisely like those of a whale, 
 while the vertebr£B are different from those 
 of any other animal, even its OAvn cousin and 
 lesser contemporary Dorudon. There were 
 also tiny hind legs tucked away beneath skin, 
 but these, as well as many other parts of the 
 animal's structure were unknown, until Mr. 
 Charles Schuchert collected a series of speci- 
 mens for the National Museum, from which it 
 was possible to restore the entire skeletono 
 Owing to a rather curious circumstance the 
 first attempt at a restoration was at fault; 
 among the bones originally obtained by Mr. 
 Schuchert there were none from the last half 
 of the tail, an old gully having cut off the 
 hinder portion of the backbone and destroyed 
 the vertebras. Not far away, however, was a 
 big lump of stone containing several vertebra 
 of just the right size, and these were used as 
 models to complete the papier-machd skeleton 
 shown at Atlanta, in 1894. But a year after 
 Mr. Schuchert collected a series of vertebrae, 
 beginning with the tip of the tail, and these 
 showed conclusively that the first lot of tail 
 vertebras - belonged to a creature still unde- 
 
64 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 scribed and one probably more like a whale 
 than Zeuglodon himself, whose exact relation- 
 ships are a little uncertain, as may be imagined 
 from what was said of its structure. Mixed 
 with the bones of Zeuglodon was the shell of 
 a turtle, nearly three feet long, and part of the 
 backbone of a great water-snake that must 
 have been twenty-five feet long, both previ- 
 ously quite unknown. One more curious 
 thing about Zeuglodon bones remains to be 
 told, and then we are done with him ; ordina- 
 rily a fossil bone will break indifferently in any 
 direction, but the bones of Zeuglodon are built, 
 hke an onion, of concentric layers, and these 
 have a great tendency to peel off during the 
 preparation of a specimen. 
 
 And now, as the wheels of time and change 
 rolled slowly on, sharks again came uppermost, 
 and the warmer Eocene and Miocene oceans 
 appear to have fairly teemed with these sea 
 wolves. There were small sharks with slender 
 teeth for catching httle fishes, there were 
 larger sharks with saw-Uke teeth for cutting 
 slices out of larger fishes, and there were sharks 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 65 
 
 that might almost have swallowed the biggest 
 fish of to-day whole, sharks of a size the waters 
 had never before contained, and fortunately do 
 not contain now. We know these monsters 
 mostly by their teeth, for their skeletons were 
 cartilaginous, and this absence of their remains 
 is probably the reason why these creatures are 
 passed by while the adjectives huge, immense, 
 enormous are lavished on the Mosasaurs and 
 Plesiosaurs — animals that the great -toothed 
 shark, Carcharodon megahdon, might well 
 have eaten at a meal. For the gaping jaws 
 of one of these sharks, with its hundreds of 
 gleaming teeth must, at a moderate estimate, 
 have measured not less than six feet across. 
 
 The great White Shark, the man-eater, so 
 often found in story books, so rarely met with 
 in real life, attains a length of thirty feet, and 
 a man just makes him a good, satisfactory 
 lunch. Now a tooth of this shark is an inch 
 and a quarter long, while a tooth of the huge 
 Megahdon is commonly three, often four, and 
 not infrequently five inches long. Applying 
 the rule of three to such a tooth as this would 
 give a shark 120 feet long, bigger than most 
 
66 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 whales, to whom a man would be but a 
 mouthful, just enough to whet his sharkship's 
 appetite. Even granting that the rule of three 
 unduly magnifies the dimensions of the brute, 
 and making an ample reduction, there would 
 stiU remain a fish between seventy-five and 
 one hundred feet long, quite large enough to 
 satisfy the most ambitious of tuna fishers, and 
 to have made bathing in the Miocene ocean 
 unpopular. Contemporary with the great- 
 toothed shark was another and closely related 
 species that originated with him in Eocene 
 times, and these two may possibly have had 
 something to do with the extinction of Zeug- 
 lodon. This species is distinguished by hav- 
 ing on either side of the base of the great tri- 
 angular cutting teeth a little projection or 
 cusp, like the " ear " on a jar, so that this spe- 
 cies has been named auriculatus, or eared. 
 The edges of the teeth are also more saw-Uke 
 than in those of its greater relative, and as the 
 species must have attained a length of fifty or 
 sixty feet it may, with its better armature, 
 have been quite as formidable. And, as per- 
 haps the readers of these pages may know, the 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 67 
 
 supply of teeth never ran short. Back of each 
 tooth, one behind another arranged in serried 
 ranks, lay a reserve of six or seven smaller, but 
 growmg teeth, and whenever a tooth of the 
 front row was lost, the tooth immediately 
 behind it took its place, and like a well-trained 
 soldier kept the front line unbroken. Thus 
 the teeth of sharks are continually developing 
 at the back, and all the teeth are steadily 
 pushing forward, a very simple mechanical 
 arrangement causing the teeth to lie flat until 
 they reach the front of the jaw and come 
 into use. 
 
 Once fairly started in life, these huge sharks 
 spread themselves throughout the warm seas 
 of the world, for there was none might stand 
 before them and say nay. They swarmed 
 along our southern coast, from Maryland to 
 Texas ; they swarmed everywhere that the water 
 was sufficiently warm, for their teeth occur in 
 Tertiary strata in many parts of the world, and 
 the deep-sea dredges of the Challenger and 
 Albatross have brought up their teeth by scores. 
 And then — they perished, perished as utterly 
 as did the hosts of Seimacherib. Why? We do 
 
68 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 not know. Did they devour everything large 
 enough to be eaten throughout their habitat, 
 and then fall to eating one another ? Again, 
 we do not know. But perish they did, while 
 the smaller white shark, which came into being 
 at the same time, stiU lives, as if to emphasize 
 the fact that it is best not to overdo things, 
 and that in the long run the victory is not 
 always to the largest. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 The finest Mosasaur skeleton ever discovered, an 
 almost complete skeleton of Tylosavrus dyspelor, ^9 feet 
 in length, may be seen at the head of the staircase lead- 
 ing to the Hall of Paleontology, in the American Museum 
 of Natural History, New York. Another good specimen 
 may be seen in the Yale University Museum, which prob- 
 ably has the largest collection of Mosasaurs in existence. 
 Another fine collection is in, the Museum of the State 
 University of Kansas, at Lawrence. 
 
 The best Zeuglodon, the first to show the vestigial hind 
 legs and to make clear other portions of the structure, is 
 in the United States National Museum. 
 
 The great sharks are known in this country by their 
 teeth only, and, as these are common in the phosphate 
 
RULERS OF THE ANCIENT SEAS 69 
 
 beds, specimens may be seen in eUmost any collection. In 
 the United States National Museu/m, the jaws of a twelve- 
 foot blue shark are shown for comparison. The largest 
 tooth in that collection is 5% inches high and 5 inches 
 across the base. It takes Jive teeth of the blue shark to 
 fil the same numier of inches. 
 
 The Mosasaurs are descried in detail by Professor S. 
 W. WUliston, in Vol. IV. of the "University Geological 
 Survey of Kansas^ There is a technical — and, conse- 
 quently, uninteresting — account of Zeuglodon in Vol. 
 XXIII. of the « Proceedings of the United States Na- 
 tional Museum^ po^e 327. 
 
 Fig. 12. — A Tooth of Zeuglodon, one of the " Yoke 
 Teeth," from which it derives the name. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 
 
 " With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his may. 
 And snmis, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, orjlies." 
 
 When we come to discuss the topic of the ear- 
 liest bird — not the one in the proverb — our 
 choice of subjects is indeed limited, being re- 
 stricted to the famous and oft-described Archse- 
 opterpi from the quarries of Solenhofen, which 
 at present forms the starting-point in the his- 
 tory of the feathered race. Bird-like, or at 
 least feathered, creatures, must have existed 
 before this, as it is improbable that feathers 
 and flight were acquired at one bound, and 
 this lends probabihty to the view that at least 
 some of the tracks in the Connecticut Valley 
 are reaUy the footprints of birds. Not birds as 
 we now know them, but stiU creatures wearing 
 feathers, these being the distinctive badge and 
 livery of the order. For we may well speak 
 
 TO 
 
Fig. 13. — Archaeopteryx, the Earliest Known Bird. 
 From the specimen in the Berlin Museum. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 71 
 
 of the feathered race, the exclusive prerogative 
 of the bird being not flight but feathers ; no 
 bird is without them, no other creature wears 
 them, so that birds may be exactly defined in 
 two words, feathered animals. Reptiles, and 
 even mammals, may go quite naked or cover 
 themselves with a defensive armor of bony 
 plates or horny scales ; but under the blaze of 
 the tropical sun or in the chiU waters of arctic 
 seas birds wear feathers only, although in the 
 penguins the feathers have become so changed 
 that their identity is almost lost. 
 
 So far as flight goes, there is one entire order 
 of mammals, whose members, the bats, are 
 quite as much at home in the air as the birds 
 themselves, and in bygone days the empire of 
 the air belonged to the pterodactyls ; even frogs 
 and fishes have tried to fly, and some of the 
 latter have nearly succeeded in the attempt. 
 As for wings, it may be said that they are 
 made on very different patterns in such animals 
 as the pterodactyl, bat, and bird, and that 
 while the end to be achieved is the same, it is 
 reached by very different methods. The wing 
 membrane of a bat is spread between his out- 
 
Fig. 14. — Nature's Four Methods of Making a Wing. 
 Bat, Pterodactyl, Arehseopteryx, and Modem Bird. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 73 
 
 stretched fingers, the thumb alone being left 
 free, while in the pterodactyl the thumb is 
 wanting and the membrane supported only by 
 what in us is the little finger, a term that is a 
 decided misnomer in the case of the pterodac- 
 tyl. In birds the fingers have lost their in- 
 dividuality, and are modified for the attach- 
 ment or support of the wing feathers, but in 
 Archasopteryx the hand had not reached this 
 stage, for the fingers were partly fi*ee and 
 tipped with claws. 
 
 We get some side lights on the structure of 
 primitive birds by studying the young and the 
 earlier stages of living species, for in a very 
 general way it may be said that the develop- 
 ment of the individual is a sort of rough sketch 
 or hasty outUne of the development of the class 
 of which it is a member ; thus the transitory 
 stages through which the chick passes before 
 hatching give us some idea of the structure of 
 the adult birds or bird-Uke creatures of long 
 ago. Now, in embryonic birds the wing ends 
 in a sort of paw and the fingers are separate, 
 quite different from what they become a little 
 later on, and not unlike their condition in 
 
74 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Archasopteryx, and even more like what is 
 found in the wing of an ostrich. 
 
 Then, too, there are a few birds still left, 
 such as the ostrich, that have not kept pace 
 with the others, and are a trifle more like 
 reptiles than the vast majority of their rela- 
 tives, and these help a little in explaining the 
 structure of early birds. Among these is a 
 queer bird with a queer name, Hoactzin, found 
 in South America, which when young uses its 
 little wings much like legs, just as we may 
 suppose was done by birds of old, to climb 
 about the branches. Mr. Quelch, who has 
 studied these curious birds in their native wilds 
 of British Guiana, tells us that soon after hatch- 
 ing,thenesthngs begin to crawl about by means 
 of their legs and wings, the weU- developed 
 claws on the thumb and finger being constantly 
 in use for hooking to surrounding objects. If 
 they are drawn from the nest by means of their 
 legs, they hold on firmly to the twigs, both with 
 their bill and wings ; and if the nest be upset 
 they hold on to all objects with which they 
 come in contact by bUl, feet, and wings, mak- 
 ing considerable use of the bill, with the help 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 75 
 
 of the clawed wings, to raise themselves to a 
 higher level. 
 Thus, by putting these various facts together 
 
 Fig. 15. — Young Hoactzins. 
 
 we obtain some pretty good ideas regarding the 
 appearance and habits of the first birds. The 
 immediate ancestors of birds, their exact point 
 
76 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 of departure from other vertebrates, is yet to be 
 discovered ; at one time it was considered that 
 they were the direct descendants of Dinosaurs, 
 or that at least both were derived from the 
 same parent forms, and while that view was 
 almost abandoned, it is again being brought for- 
 ward with much to support it. It has also been 
 thought that birds and those flying reptiles, the 
 pterodactyls, have had a common ancestry, and 
 the possibihty of this is stiU entertained. Be 
 that as it may, it is safe to consider that back 
 in the past, earlier than the Jurassic, were creat- 
 ures neithet bird nor reptile, but possessing 
 rudimentary feathers and having the promise 
 of a wing in the structure of their fore legs, 
 and some time one of these animals may come 
 to light ; until then Archeeopteryx remains the 
 earUest known bird. 
 
 In the Jurassic, then, when the Dinosaurs 
 were the lords of the earth and small mammals 
 just beginning to appear, we come upon traces 
 of full-fledged birds. The first intimation of 
 their presence was the imprint of a single feather 
 found in that ancient treasure-house, the Solen- 
 hofen quarries ; but as Hercules was revealed 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 77 
 
 by his foot, so the bird was made evident by 
 the feather whose discovery was announced 
 August 15, 1861. And a httle later, in Sep- 
 tember of the same year, the bird itself turned 
 up, and in 1877 a second specimen was found, 
 the two representing two species, if not two 
 distinct genera. These were very different 
 from any birds now living — so different, indeed, 
 and bearing such evident traces of their reptil- 
 ian ancestry, that it is necessary to place them 
 apart from other animals in a separate division 
 of the class birds. 
 
 Archasopteryx was considerably smaller than 
 a crow, with a stout little head armed with 
 sharp teeth (as scarce as hens' teeth was no 
 joke in that distant period), while as he flut- 
 tered through the air he trailed after him a tail 
 longer than his body, beset with feathers on 
 either side. Everyone knows that nowadays 
 the feathers of a bird's tail are arranged hke 
 the sticks of a fan, and that the tail opens and 
 shuts like a fan. But in Archseopteryx the 
 feathers were arranged in pairs, a feather on 
 each side of every joint of the tail, so that on a 
 small scale the tail was something like that of 
 
78 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 a kite ; and because of this long, lizard-like tail 
 this bird and his immediate kith and kin are 
 placed in a group dubbed Saururae, or lizard 
 tailed. 
 
 Because impressions of feathers are not found 
 all around these specimens some have thought 
 that they were confined to certain portions of 
 the body — the wings, tail, and thighs — the 
 other parts being naked. There seems, how- 
 ever, no good reason to suppose that such was 
 the case, for it is extremely improbable that 
 such perfect and important feathers as those of 
 the wings and taU should alone have been de- 
 veloped, while there are many reasons why the 
 feathers of the body might have been lost be- 
 fore the bird was covered by mud, or why their 
 impressions do not show. 
 
 It was a considerable time after the finding 
 of the first specimen that the presence of teeth 
 in the jaws was discovered, partly because the 
 British Museum specimen was imperfect,* and 
 partly because no one suspected that birds had 
 ever possessed teeth, and so no one ever looked 
 
 * The skull was lacking, and a part of the upper Jaw lying 
 to one side was thought to belong to ajish. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 79 
 
 for them. When, in 1877, a more complete 
 example was found, the existence of teeth was 
 unmistakably shown; but in the meantime, 
 in February, 1873, Professor Marsh had an- 
 nounced the presence of teeth in Hesperornis, 
 and so to him belongs the credit of being the 
 discoverer of birds with teeth. 
 
 The next birds that we know are from our 
 own country, and although separated by an in- 
 terval of thousands of years from the Jurassic 
 ArchsBopteryx, time enough for the members 
 of one group to have quite lost their wings, they 
 still retain teeth, and in this respect the most 
 bird-hke of them is quite unlike any modem bird. 
 These come from the chalk beds of western 
 Kiinsas, and the first specimens were obtained 
 by Professor Marsh in his expeditions of 1870 
 and 1871, but not until a few years later, after 
 the material had been cleaned and was being 
 studied, was it ascertained that these birds were 
 armed with teeth. The smaller of these birds, 
 which was apparently not unlike a small gull 
 in general appearance, was, saving its teeth, so 
 thoroughly a bird that it may be passed by with- 
 out ftirther notice, but the larger was remark- 
 
80 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 able in many ways. Hesperornis, the western 
 bird, was a great diver, in some ways the great- 
 est of the divers, for it stood higher than the 
 king penguin, though more slender and-grace- 
 fiil in general build, looking somewhat like an 
 overgrown, absolutely wingless loon. 
 
 The penguins, as everyone knows, swim with 
 their front hmbs — we can't eaU them wings — 
 which, though containing aU the bones of a 
 wing, have become transformed into powerful 
 paddles ; Hesperornis, on the other hand, swam 
 altogether with its legs — swam so weU with 
 them, indeed, that through disuse the wings 
 dwindled away and vanished, save one bone. 
 This, however, is not stating the theory quite 
 correctly ; of course the matter cannot be actu- 
 ally proved, Hesperornis was a large bird, up- 
 wards of five feet in length, and if its ances- 
 tors were equally bulky their wings were quite 
 too large to be used in swimming under water, 
 as are those of such short- winged forms as the 
 Auks which fly under the water quite as much 
 as they fly over it. Hence the wings were 
 closely folded upon the body so as to offer the 
 least possible resistance, and being disused, they 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 81 
 
 and their muscles dwindled, while the bones 
 and muscles of the legs increased by constant 
 use. By the time the wings were small enough 
 to be used in so dense a medium as water the 
 muscles had become too feeble to move them, 
 and so degeneration proceeded until but one 
 bone remained, a mere vestige of the wing that 
 had been. The penguins retain their great 
 breast muscles, and so did the Great Auk, be- 
 cause their wings are used in swimming, since 
 it requires even more strength to move a small 
 wing in water than it does to move a large 
 wing in the thinner air. As for our domesti- 
 cated fowls — the turkeys, chickens, and ducks 
 — there has not been sufficient lapse of time 
 for their muscles to dwindle, and besides arti- 
 ficial selection, the breeding of fowls for food 
 has kept up the mere size of the muscles, al- 
 though these lack the strength to be found in 
 those of wild birds. 
 
 As a swimming bird, one that swims with its 
 legs and not with its wings, Hesperornis has 
 probably never been equalled, for the size and 
 appearance of the bones indicate great power, 
 while the bones of the foot were so joined to 
 
82 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 those of the leg as to turn edgewise as the foot 
 was brought forward and thus to offer the least 
 possible resistance to the water. It is a re- 
 markable fact that the leg bones of Hesperomis 
 are hollow, remarkable because as a rule the 
 bones of aquatic animals are more or less sohd, 
 their weight being supported by the water; but 
 those of the great diver were almost as Ught as 
 if it had dwelt upon the dry land. That it did 
 not dweU there is conclusively shown by its 
 build, and above all by its feet, for the foot of 
 a running bird is modified in quite another 
 way. 
 
 The bird was probably covered with smooth, 
 soft feathers, something like those of an Apte- 
 ryx ; this we know because Professor WiUiston 
 found a specimen showing the impression of 
 the skin of the lower part of the leg as well as 
 of the feathers that covered the " thigh " and 
 head. While such a covering seems rather in- 
 adequate for a bird of such exclusively aquatic 
 habits as Hesperornis must have been, there 
 seems no getting away from the facts in the 
 case in the shape of Professor WiUiston's spec- 
 imen, and we have in the Snake Bird, one of 
 
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BIRDS OF OLD 8S 
 
 the most aquatic of recent birds, an instance of 
 similarly poor covering. As all know who have 
 seen this bird at home, its feathers shed the wa- 
 ter very imperfectly, and after long- continued 
 submersion become saturated, a fact which part- 
 ly accounts for the habit the bird has of hanging 
 itself out to dry, 
 
 The restoration which Mr. Gleeson has drawn 
 differs radically from any yet made, and is the 
 result of a careful study of the specimen be- 
 longing to the United States National Museum. 
 No one can appreciate the pecuUarities of Hes- 
 peromis and its remarkable departures from 
 other swimming birds who has not seen the 
 skeleton mounted in a swimming attitude. 
 The great length of the legs, their position at 
 the middle of the body, the narrowness of the 
 body back of the hip joint, and the dispropor- 
 tionate length of the outer toe are all brought 
 out in a manner which a picture of the bird 
 squatting upon its haunches fails utterly to 
 show. As for the tail, it is evident from the 
 size and breadth of the bones that something 
 of the kind was present ; it is also evident that 
 it was not like that of an ordinary bird, and so 
 
84 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 it has been drawn with just a suggestion of 
 Archeeopteryx about it. 
 
 The most extraordinary thing about Hespe- 
 romis, however, is the position of the legs rela- 
 tive to the body, and this is something that 
 was not even suspected until the skeleton was 
 mounted in a swimming attitude. As anyone 
 knows who has watched a duck swim, the usual 
 place for the feet and legs is beneath and in a 
 line with the body. But in our great extinct 
 diver the articulations of the leg bones are such 
 that this is impossible, and the feet and lower 
 joint of the legs (called the tarsus) must have 
 stood out nearly at right angles to the body, 
 like a pair of oars. This is so peculiar and 
 anomalous an attitude for a bird's legs that, 
 although apparently indicated by the shape of 
 the bones, it was at first thought to be due 
 to the crushing and consequent distortion to 
 which the bones had been subjected, and an 
 endeavor was made to place the legs in the 
 ordinary position, even though this was done 
 at the expense of some little dislocation of the 
 joints. But when the mounting of the skele- 
 ton had advanced further it became more 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 85 
 
 evident that Hesperornis was not an ordinary 
 bird, and that he could not have swum in the 
 usual manner, since this would have brought his 
 great knee-caps up into his body, which would 
 have been uncomfortable. And so, at the cost 
 of some little time and trouble,* the mount- 
 ings were so changed that the legs stood out at 
 the sides of the body, as shown in the picture. 
 
 A final word remains to be said about 
 toothed birds, which is, that the visitor who 
 looks upon one for the first time will probably 
 be disappointed. The teeth are so loosely im- 
 planted in the jaw that most of them fall out 
 shortly after death, while the few that remain 
 are so small as not to attract observation. 
 
 By the time the Eocene Period was reached, 
 even before that, birds had become pretty 
 much what we now see them, and very little 
 
 * The mounting of fossil bones is quite a different matter 
 from the wiring of an ordinary skeleton, since the bones are not 
 only so hard that they cannot be bored and wired like those of a 
 recent animal, but they are so brittle and heavy that often they 
 mill not sustain their own weight. Hence such bones must be 
 supported from the outside, aud to do this so that the mountings 
 will be strong enough to support their weight, allow the bones to 
 be removed for study, and yet be inconspicuous, is a difficult task. 
 
86 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 change has taken place in them since that 
 time; they seem to have become so exactly 
 adapted to the conditions of existence that no 
 further modification has taken place. This 
 may be expressed in another way, by saying 
 that while the Mammals of the Eocene have 
 no near relatives among those now living, 
 entire large groups having passed completely 
 out of existence, the few birds that we know 
 might, so far as their appearance and affinities 
 go, have been kiUed yesterday. 
 
 Were we to judge of the former abundance 
 of birds by the number we find in a fossil 
 state, we should conclude that in the early 
 days of the world they were remarkably scarce, 
 for bird bones are among the rarest of fossils. 
 But from the high degree of development evi- 
 denced by the few examples that have come 
 to light, and the fact that these represent 
 various and quite distinct species,* we are led 
 
 * But three birds, besides a stray feather or two, are so far 
 known from the Eocene of North America. One of these is a 
 fowl not very unlike some of the small curassows of South 
 America ; another is a little bird, supposed to be related to the 
 sparrows, while the third is a large bird of uncertain relation- 
 ships. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 87 
 
 to conclude that birds were abundant enough, 
 but that we simply do not find them. 
 
 Several eggs, too — or, rather, casts of eggs 
 — have lately been found in the Cretaceous 
 and Miocene strata of the West ; and, as eggs 
 and birds are usually associated, we are liable 
 at any time to come upon the bones of the 
 birds that laid them. 
 
 To the writer's mind no thoroughly satisfac- 
 tory explanation has been given for the scarci- 
 ty of bird remains ; but the reason commonly 
 advanced is that, owing to their lightness, 
 dead birds float for a much longer time than 
 other animals, and hence are more exposed to 
 the ravages of the weather and the attacks of 
 carrion-feeding animals. It has also been said 
 that the power of flight enabled birds to 
 escape calamities that caused the death of con- 
 temporary animals ; but all birds do not fly ; 
 and birds do fall victims to storms, cold, and 
 starvation, and even perish of pestilence, like 
 the Cormorants of Bering Island, whose ranks 
 have twice been decimated by disease. 
 
 It is true that where carnivorous animals 
 abound, dead birds do disappear quickly ; and 
 
88 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 my friend Dr. Stejneger tells me that, while 
 hundreds of dead sea-fowl are cast on the 
 shores of the Commander Islands, it is a rare 
 thing to find one after dayhght, as the bodies 
 are devoured by the Arctic foxes that prowl 
 about the shores at night. But, again, as in 
 the Miocene of Southern France and in the 
 Pliocene of Oregon, remains of birds are fairly 
 numerous, showing that, under proper con- 
 ditions, their bones are preserved for future 
 reference, so that we may hope some day to 
 come upon specimens that will enable us to 
 round out the history of bird hfe in the past. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 The first discovered specimen of ArcJueopteryx, Archce- 
 opteryx macrura, is in the British Museum, the second 
 imyre complete exaimple is in the Royal Museum cf Nat- 
 ural History, Berlin. The largest collection of toothed 
 birds, including the types of Hesperomis, Ichthyomis 
 and others, is in the Yale University Museum, at New 
 Haven. The United States National Museum at Wash- 
 ington has a fine mounted skeleton of Hesperomis, and 
 the State University of Kansas, at Lawrence, has the ex- 
 ample showing the impressions of feathers. 
 
BIRDS OF OLD 89 
 
 Far scientific descriptions of these birds the reader is 
 referred to Owen's paper " On the Archasopteryx of von 
 Meyer, with a Description of the Fossil Remains, etc.,'''' in 
 the " Transactions of the Philosophical Society qfLmtdon 
 for 1863,'''' page 33, and " Odontomithes, a Monograph 
 of the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America,'''' by O. 
 C. Marsh. Mitch popular and scientific information 
 concerning the early birds is to be fownd in NewtorCs 
 " Dictionary of Birds,'''' and " The Story of Bird Life^'' 
 by W. P. Pycraft ; the " Structure amd Life of Birds^'' 
 by F. W. Headley ; " The Story of the Birds,'''' by J. 
 Newton Baskett. 
 
 Fig. 17. — Archzeopteryx as Restored by Mr. Pycraft. 
 
VI 
 
 THE DINOSAURS 
 
 " Shapes of all sorts and sises, great and small." 
 
 A few million years ago, geologists and phys- 
 icists do not agree upon the exact number, 
 although both agree upon the millions, when 
 the Rocky Mountains were not yet bom and 
 the now bare and arid western plains a land 
 of lakes, rivers, and luxuriant vegetation, the 
 region was inhabited by a race of strange and 
 mighty reptiles upon whom science has be- 
 stowed the appropriate name of Dinosaurs, or 
 terrible lizards. 
 
 Our acquaintance with the Dinosaurs is 
 comparatively recent, dating from the early 
 part of the nineteenth century, and in Amer- 
 ica, at least, the date may be set at 1818, when 
 the first Dinosaur remains were found in the 
 VaUey of the Connecticut, although they nat- 
 urally were not recognized as such, nor had the 
 
 90 
 
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 5 ■!> 
 
 s 
 
 g == 
 
 O ~' 
 
 S s 
 
 B S 
 
 o -§ 
 
 I? 
 
 a. 
 
 be 
 E 
 
THE DINOSAURS 91 
 
 term been devised. The first Dinosaur to be 
 formally recognized as representing quite a 
 new order of reptiles was the carnivorous 
 Megalosaur, found near Oxford, England, in 
 1824. 
 
 For a long time our knowledge of Dino- 
 saurs was very imperfect and literally frag- 
 mentary, depending mostly upon scattered 
 teeth, isolated vertebrae, or fragments of bone 
 picked up on the surface or casually encoun- 
 tered in some mine or quarry. Now, however, 
 thanks mainly to the labors of American pa- 
 laeontologists, thanks also to the rich deposits 
 of fossils in our Western States, we have an 
 extensive knowledge of the Dinosaurs, of their 
 size, structure, habits, and general appearance. 
 
 There are to-day no animals living that are 
 closely related to them ; none have hved for a 
 long period of time, for the Dinosaurs came to 
 an end in the Cretaceous, and it can only be 
 said that the crocodiles, on the one hand, and 
 the ostriches, on the other, are the nearest ex- 
 isting relatives of these great reptiles. 
 
 For, though so different in outward appear, 
 ance, birds and reptiles are structurally quite 
 
92 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 closely allied, and the creeping snake and the 
 bird on which it preys are relatives, although 
 any intimate relationship between them is of 
 the serpent's making, and is strongly objected 
 to by the bird. 
 
 But if we compare the skeleton of a Dino- 
 saur with that of an ostrich — a young one is 
 preferable — and with those of the earher birds, 
 we shall find that many of the barriers now ex- 
 isting between reptiles and birds are broken 
 down, and that they have many points in com- 
 mon. In fact, save in the matter of clothes, 
 wherein birds differ from all other animals, the 
 two great groups are not so very far apart. 
 
 The Dinosaurs were by no means confined 
 to North America, although the western United 
 States seem to have been their headquarters, 
 but ranged pretty much over the world, for 
 their remains have been found in every conti- 
 nent, even in far-off New Zealand. 
 
 In point of time they ranged from the Trias 
 to the Upper Cretaceous, their golden age, 
 marking the culminating point of reptiUan life, 
 being in the Jurassic, when huge forms stalked 
 by the sea-shore, browsed amid the swamps, or 
 
THE DINOSAURS 93 
 
 disported themselves along the reedy margins 
 of lakes and rivers. 
 
 They had their day, a day of many thou- 
 sand years, and then passed away, giving 
 place to the superior race of mammals which 
 was just springing into being when the huge 
 Dinosaurs were in the heyday of their exist- 
 ence. 
 
 And it does seem as if in the dim and distant 
 past, as in the present, brains were a potent 
 factor in the struggle for supremacy; for, 
 though these reptiles were giants in size, domi- 
 nating the earth through mere brute force, 
 they were dwarfs in intellect. 
 
 The smallest human brain that is thought to 
 be compatible with hfe itself weighs a little 
 over ten ounces, the smallest that can exist 
 with reasoning powers is two pounds ; this in a 
 creature weighing from 120 to 150 pounds. 
 
 What do we find among Dinosaurs ? Thes- 
 pesius, or Claosaurus, which may have walked 
 where Baltimore now stands, was twenty-five 
 feet in length and stood a dozen feet high in 
 his bare feet, had a brain smaller than a man's 
 clenched fist, weighing less than one pound. 
 
94 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Brontosaurus, in some respects the biggest 
 brute that ever walked, was but little better off, 
 and Triceratops, and his relatives, creatures 
 having twice the bulk of an elephant, weighing 
 probably over ten tons, possessed a brain weigh- 
 ing not over two pounds ! 
 
 How much of what we term intelligence 
 could such a creature possess — what was the 
 extent of its reasoning powers ? Judging from 
 our own standpoint and the small amount of 
 intellect apparent in some humans with much 
 larger brains, these big reptiles must have 
 known just about enough to have eaten when 
 they were hungry, anything more was super- 
 fluous. 
 
 However, intelligence is one thing, Ufe an- 
 other, and the spinal cord, with its supply of 
 nerve-substance, doubtless looked after the 
 mere mechanical functions of Ufe ; and while 
 even the spinal cord is in many cases quite 
 small, in some places, particularly in the sacral 
 region, it is subject to considerable enlarge- 
 ment. This is notably true of Stegosaurus, 
 where the sacral enlargement is twenty times 
 the bulk of the puny brain — a fact noted by 
 
THE DINOSAURS 95 
 
 Professor Marsh, and seized upon by the news- 
 papers, which announced that he had discov- 
 ered a Dinosaur with a brain in its pelvis. 
 
 In their great variety of size and shape the 
 Dinosaurs form an interesting parallel with 
 the Marsupials of AustraUa. For just as 
 these are, as it were, an epitome of the class 
 of mammals, mimicking the herbivores, car- 
 nivores, rodents and even monkeys, so there 
 are carnivorous and herbivorous Dinosaurs — 
 Dinosaurs that dwelt on land and others that 
 habitually resided in the water, those that 
 walked upright and those that crawled about 
 on aU fours ; and, while there are no hints that 
 any possessed the power of flight, some mem- 
 bers of the group are very bird-like in form 
 and structure, so much so that it has been 
 thought that the two may have had a common 
 ancestry. 
 
 The smallest of the Dinosaurs whose ac- 
 quaintance we have made were little larger 
 than chickens ; the largest claim the distinc- 
 tion of being the largest known quadrupeds 
 that have walked the face of the earth, the 
 giants not only of their day, but of all time. 
 
96 
 
 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 before whose huge frames 
 the bones of the Mam- 
 moth, that familiar by- 
 word for all things great, 
 seem slight. 
 
 For Brontosaurus, the 
 Thunder Lizard, beneath 
 whose mighty tread the 
 earth shook, and his kin- 
 dred were from 40 to 60 
 feet long and 10 to 14 feet 
 high, their thigh bones 
 measuring 5 to 6 feet in 
 length, being the largest 
 single bones known to 
 us, while some of the 
 vertebrse were 4j feet 
 high, exceeding in dimen- 
 sions those of a whale. 
 The group to 
 which Brontosaurus 
 belongs, including 
 Diplodocus and 
 Fig. 19 ~ A Hind Leg Morosaurus, is dis- 
 
 of the Great Brontosaurus, tiuffuished bv a 
 the Largest of the Dinosaurs. 
 

THE DINOSAURS 
 
 97 
 
 large, though rather short, body, very long 
 neck and tail, and, for the size of the animal, 
 a very small head. In fact, the head was so 
 small and, in the case of Diplodocus, so poorly 
 provided with teeth that it must 
 have been quite a task, or a long- 
 continued pleasure, according to 
 the state of its di- 
 gestive apparatus, 
 for the animal to 
 have eaten its daily 
 meal. 
 
 An elephant 
 weighing 5 tons 
 eats 100 pounds of 
 hay and 25 pounds 
 of grain for his 
 day's ration ; but, 
 as this food is in a 
 comparatively con- 
 centrated form, it 
 would require at kast twice this weight of 
 green fodder. 
 
 It is a difficult matter to estimate the weight 
 of a live Diplodocus or a Brontosaurus, but it 
 
 Fig. 20. — A Single Vertebra of 
 Brontosaurus. 
 
98 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 is pretty safe to say that it would not be far 
 from 20 tons, and that one would devour at 
 the very least something over 700 pounds of 
 leaves or twigs or plants each day — more, if 
 the animal felt really hungry. 
 
 But here we must, even if reluctantly, curb 
 our imagination a little and consider another 
 point : the cold-blooded, sluggish reptiles, as 
 we know them to-day, do not waste their en- 
 ergies in rapid movements, or in keeping the 
 temperature of their bodies above that of the 
 air, and so by no means require the amount 
 of food needed by more active, warm-blooded 
 animals. Alligators, turtles, and snakes will 
 go for weeks, even months, without food, and 
 while this apphes more particularly to those 
 that dwell in temperate climes and during 
 their winter hibernation practically suspend 
 the functions of digestion and respiration, it is 
 more or less true of all reptiles. And as there 
 is little reason for supposing that reptiles be- 
 haved in the past any differently from what 
 they do in the present, these great Dinosaurs 
 may, after all, not have been gifted with such 
 ravenous appetites as one might fancy. Still, 
 
THE DINOSAURS 99 
 
 it is dangerous to lay down any hard and fast 
 laws concerning animals, and he who writes 
 about them is continually obliged to qualify 
 his remarks — in sporting parlance, to hedge 
 a little, and in the present instance there is 
 some reason, based on the arrangement of 
 vertebrae and ribs, to suppose that the lungs 
 of Dinosaurs were somewhat hke those of 
 birds, and that, as a coroUary, their blood may 
 have been better aerated and warmer than 
 that of living reptiles. But, to return to the 
 question of food. 
 
 From the peculiar character of the articula- 
 tions of the hmb-bones, it is inferred that these 
 animals were largely aquatic in their habits, 
 and fed on some abundant species of water 
 plants. One can readily see the advantage of 
 the long neck in browsing off the vegetation 
 on the bottom of shallow lakes, whUe the ani- 
 mal was submerged, or in rearing the head 
 aloft to scan the surrounding shores for the 
 approach of an enemy. Or, with the tail as a 
 counterpoise, the entire body could be reared 
 out of water and the head be raised some thirty 
 feet in the air. 
 
100 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Triceratops, he of the three-homed face, had 
 a remarkable skull which projected backward 
 over the neck, like a fireman's helmet, or a 
 sunbonnet worn hind side before, while over 
 each eye was a massive horn directed forward, 
 a third, but much smaller horn being some- 
 times present on the nose. 
 
 The Uttle " Homed Toad," which isn't a 
 toad at all, is the nearest suggestion we have 
 to-day of Triceratops ; but, could he realize 
 the ambition of the frog in the fable and 
 swell himself to the dimensions of an ox, he 
 would even then be but a pigmy compared 
 with his ancient and distant relative. 
 
 So far as mere appearance goes he would 
 compare very well, for while so much is said 
 about the strange appearance of the Dinosaurs, 
 it is to be borne in mind that their pecuUari- 
 ties are enhanced by their size, and that there 
 are many lizards of to-day that lack only 
 stature to be even more bizarre ; and, for ex- 
 ample, were the Austrahan Moloch but big 
 enough, he could give even Stegosaurus 
 "points" in more ways than one. 
 
 Standing before the skull of Triceratops, 
 
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 ft: 
 
THE DINOSAURS loi 
 
 looking him squarely in the face, one notices 
 in front of each eye a thick guard of projecting 
 bone, and while this must have interfered with 
 vision directly ahead it must have also fur- 
 nished protection for the eye. So long as Tri- 
 ceratops faced an adversary he must have 
 been practically invuhierable, but as he was 
 the largest animal of his time, upward of 
 twenty-five feet in length, it is probable that 
 his combats were mainly with those of his own 
 kind and the subject of dispute some fair fe- 
 male upon whom two rival suitors had cast 
 covetous eyes. What a sight it would have 
 been to have seen two of these big brutes in 
 mortal combat as they charged upon each 
 other with all the impetus to be derived from 
 ten tons of infuriate flesh ! We may picture to 
 ourselves horn clashing upon horn, or glancing 
 from each bony shield until some skilful stroke 
 or unlucky shp placed one combatant at the 
 mercy of the other, and he went down before 
 the blows of his adversary " as falls on Mount 
 Alvemus a thunder-smitten oak." 
 
 A pair of Triceratops horns in the National 
 Museum bears witness to such encounters, for 
 
102 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 one is broken midway between tip and base; 
 and that it was broken during life is evident 
 from the fact that the stump is healed and 
 rounded over, while the size of the horns shows 
 that their owner reached a ripe old age. 
 
 For, unlike man and the higher vertebrates, 
 reptUes and fishes do not have a maximum 
 standard of size which is soon reached and 
 rarely exceeded, but continue to grow 
 throughout Ufe, so that the size of a turtle, a 
 crocodile, or a Dinosaur tells something of the 
 duration of its life. 
 
 Before quitting Triceratops let us glance for 
 a moment at its skeleton. Now among other 
 things a skeleton is the solution of a problem 
 in mechanics, and in Triceratops the head so 
 dominates the rest of the structure that one 
 might almost imagine the skull was made first 
 and the body adjusted to it. The great head 
 seems made not only for offence and defence ; 
 the spreading frUl serves for the attachment 
 of muscles to sustain the weight of the skull, 
 while the work of the muscles is made easier 
 by the fact that the frill reaches so far back 
 of the junction of head with neck as to largely 
 
THE DINOSAURS 
 
 103 
 
 counterbalance the 
 weight of the face 
 and jaws. When 
 we restored the 
 skull of this ani- 
 mal it was found 
 that the centre of 
 gravity lay back of 
 the eye. Several 
 of the bones of the 
 neck are united in 
 one mass to fur- 
 nish a firm attach- 
 ment for the mus- 
 cles that support 
 and move the 
 skull, but as the 
 movements of the 
 neck are already 
 restricted by the 
 overhanging jfrUl, 
 this loss of motion 
 is no additional dis- 
 advantage. 
 To support all 
 
104 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 this weight of skull and body requires very 
 massive legs, and as the fore legs are very 
 short, this enables Triceratops to browse com- 
 fortably from the ground by merely lowering 
 the front of the head. 
 
 These forms we have been considering were 
 the giants of the group, but a commoner spe- 
 cies, Thespesius, though less in bulk than those 
 just mentioned, was stiU of goodly proportions, 
 for, as he stalked about, the top of his head 
 was twelve feet from the ground. 
 
 Thespesius and his kin seem to have been 
 comparatively abundant, for they have a wide 
 distribution, and many specimens, some almost 
 perfect, have been discovered in this country 
 and abroad. No less than twenty-nine Igu- 
 anodons, a European relative of Thespesius, 
 were found in one spot in mining for coal at 
 Bernissart, Belgium. Here, during long years 
 of Cretaceous time, a river slowly cut its way 
 through the coal-bearing strata to a depth of 
 750 feet, a depth almost twice as great as 
 the deepest part of the gorge of Niagara, 
 and then, this being accomplished, began the 
 work of filling up the valley it had excavated. 
 
THE DINOSAURS 105 
 
 It was then a sluggish stream with marshy 
 borders, a stream subject to frequent floods, 
 when the water, turbid with mud and laden 
 with sand, overflowed its banks, leaving them, 
 as the waters subsided, covered thickly with 
 mud. Here, amidst the luxuriant vegetation 
 of a semi-tropical climate, lived and died the 
 Iguanodons, and here the pick of the miner 
 rescued them from their long entombment to 
 form part of the treasures of the museum at 
 Brussels. 
 
 Like other reptiles, living and extinct, Thes- 
 pesius was continually renewing his teeth, so 
 that as fast as one tooth was worn out it was 
 replaced by another, a point wherein Thespe- 
 sius had a decided advantage over ourselves. 
 On the other hand, as there was a reserve sup- 
 ply of something like 400 teeth in the lower 
 jaw alone, what an opportunity for the tooth- 
 ache ! 
 
 And then we have a multitude of lesser Di- 
 nosaurs, including the active, predatory spe- 
 cies with sharp claws and double-edged teeth. 
 Megalosaurus, the first of the Dinosaurs to be 
 reaUy known, was one of these carnivorous 
 
106 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 species, and from our West comes a near rela- 
 tive, Ceratosaurus, the nose-homed lizard, a 
 queer beast with tiny fore legs, powerful, sharp- 
 clawed hind feet, and well-armed jaws. A 
 most formidable foe he seems, the more that 
 the hoUow bones speak of active movements, 
 and Professor Cope pictured him, or a near 
 relative, vigorously engaged in combat with 
 his fellows, or preying upon the huge but help- 
 less herbivores of the marshes, leaping, biting, 
 and tearing his enemy to pieces with tooth and 
 claw. 
 
 Professor Osbom, on the other hand, is in- 
 clined to consider him as a reptihan hyena, 
 feeding upon carrion, although one can but 
 feel that such an armament is not entirely in 
 the interests of peace. 
 
 Last, but by no means least, are the Stego- 
 saurs, or plated lizards, for not only were they 
 beasts of goodly size, but they were among the 
 most singular of all known animals, singular 
 even for Dinosaurs. They had diminutive 
 heads, small fore legs, long tails armed on 
 either side near the tip, with two pairs of large 
 spines, while from these spines to the neck 
 
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 <u 
 
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 H 
 
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 G^ 
 
 
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 5^ 
 
THE DINOSAURS 107 
 
 ran series of large, but thin, and sharp-edged 
 plates standing on edge, so that their backs 
 looked like the bottom of a boat provided with 
 a number of little centreboards. Just how 
 these plates were arranged is not decided be- 
 yond a peradventure, but while originally fig- 
 ured as having them in a single series down 
 the back it seems much more probable that 
 they formed parallel rows. 
 
 The largest of these plates were two feet in 
 height and length, and not more than an inch 
 thick, except at the base, where they were en- 
 larged and roughened to give a firm hold to 
 the thick skin in which they were imbedded. 
 Be it remembered, too, that these plates and 
 spines were doubtless covered Avith horn, so 
 that they were even longer in life than as we 
 now see them. The tail spines varied in length, 
 according to the species, from eight or nine 
 inches to nearly three feet, and some of them 
 have a diameter of six inches at the base. 
 They were swung by a tail eight to ten feet 
 long, and as a visitor was heard to remark, one 
 wouldn't like to be about such an animal in 
 fly time. 
 
108 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Such were some of the strange and mighty 
 animals that once roamed this continent from 
 the valley of the Connecticut, where they Uter- 
 ally left their footprints on the sands of time, 
 to the Rocky Mountains, where the ancient 
 lakes and rivers became cemeteries for the en- 
 tombment of their bones. 
 
 The labor of the collector has gathered their 
 fossil remains from many a Western canyon, 
 the skill of the preparator has removed them 
 from their stony sepulchres and the study of 
 the anatomist has restored them as they were 
 in life. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 Most of owr large museums have on exhibition fine 
 specimens of many Dinosaurs, comprising skulls, limbs, 
 and large portions of their skeletons. The Amsriccm 
 Museum of Natural History, New Vork, has the largest 
 and finest display. The first actual skeleton of a Dino- 
 saur to be mounted in this conintry was the splendid Clao- 
 saurus at the Vale University Museum,, where other strik- 
 ing pieces are also to be seen. The mmmimg of this 
 Claosaurus, which is 29 feet long a/nd 13 feet high, took 
 an entire year. The United States National Museum is 
 
-5 
 
 Ss 
 
 S 
 
 s 
 
 e 
 
THE DINOSAURS 109 
 
 particularly rich in examples of the great, homed Tri- 
 ceratops, while the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, has 
 the best Diplodocu^. The Field Columbian, Museum and 
 the Universities of Wyoming ami Colorado all have good 
 collections. 
 
 The largest single bone of a Dinosaur is the thigh 
 bone of a Brontosaurus in the Field Columbian Museum, 
 this measuring 6 feet 8 inches in length. The height of 
 a complete hind leg in the American Museum of Natural 
 History is 10 feet, while a single claw measures 6 by 9 
 inches. The skeleton of Triceratops restored in papier- 
 macM for the Pan-American Exposition measured 25 
 feet from tip of nose to end of tail and was 10 feet 6 
 inches to the top of the back-bone over the hips, this being 
 the highest point. The head in the United States Na- 
 tional Miiseum used as a model is 5 feet 6 inches long 
 in a straight line and ^ feet 3 inches across the frUl. 
 TTiere is a sJcull in the Yale University Museum even 
 larger than this. 
 
 Articles relating to Dinosaurs are mostly technical in 
 their nature and scattered through various scientific Jour- 
 nals, The most accessible probably is " The Dinosaurs of 
 North America^ by Professor O. C. Marsh, published as 
 part of the sixteenth annual report of the United States 
 Geological Survey. This contains rnamy figures of the 
 skulls, bones, and entire skeletons of many Dinosaurs. 
 
ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Fig. 25. — Skull of Ceratosaurus. 
 From, a specimen in the United States National 
 
 110 
 
VII 
 
 READING THE RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 
 
 " AtuI the first Morning of Creation wrote 
 What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read." 
 
 It is quite possible that the reader may wish 
 to know something of the manner in which 
 the specimens described in these pages have 
 been gathered, how we acquire our knowledge 
 of Brontosaurus, Claosaurus, or any of the 
 many other " sauruses," and how their resto- 
 rations have been made. 
 
 There was a time, not so very long ago, 
 when fossils were looked upon as mere sports 
 of Nature, and little attention paid to them ; 
 later their true nature was recognized, though 
 they were merely gathered haphazard as occa- 
 sion might offer. But now, and for many 
 years past, the fossil-bearing rocks of many 
 parts of the world have been systematically 
 
 worked, and from the material thus obtained 
 
 111 
 
112 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 we have acquired a great deal of information 
 regarding the inhabitants of the ancient world. 
 This is particularly true of our own western 
 country, where a vast amount of collecting has 
 been done, although very much remains to be 
 done in the matter of perfecting this knowl- 
 edge, and hosts of new animals remain to be 
 discovered. For this information we are almost 
 as much indebted to the collector who has 
 gathered the needed material, and the prepar- 
 ator whose patience and skill have made it 
 available for study, as to the palaeontologist 
 who has interpreted the meaning of the 
 bones. 
 
 To collect successfully demands not only 
 a knowledge of the rocks in which fossils 
 occur and of the localities where they are best 
 exposed to view, but an eye quick to detect a 
 piece of bone protruding from a rock or lying 
 amongst the shale, and, above all, the ability 
 to work a deposit to advantage after it has 
 been found. The collector of hving animals 
 hies to regions where there is plenty for bird 
 and beast to eat and drink, but the collector of 
 extinct animals cares httle for what is on the 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 113 
 
 surface of the earth ; his great desire is to see 
 as much as possible of what may lie beneath. 
 So the prospector in search of fossils betakes 
 himself to some region where the ceaseless 
 warfare waged by water against the dry land 
 has seamed the face of the earth with count- 
 less guUies and canyons, or carved it into slopes 
 and bluffs in which the edges of the bone- 
 bearing strata are exposed to view, and along 
 these he skirts, ever on the look-out for some 
 projecting bit of bone. The country is an 
 almost shadeless desert, burning hot by day, 
 uncomfortably cool at night. Water is scarce, 
 and when it can be found, often has Uttle to 
 commend it save wetness ; but the collector is 
 buoyed up through aU this with the hope that 
 he may discover some creature new to science 
 that shall not only be bigger and ugher and 
 stranger than any heretofore found, but shall 
 be the long-sought form needed for the solu- 
 tion of some difficult problem in the history 
 of the past. 
 
 Now collecting is a lottery, differing from 
 most lotteries, however, in that while some of 
 the returns may be pretty small, there are few 
 
114 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 absolute blanks and some remarkably large 
 prizes, and every collector hopes that it may 
 fall to his lot to win one of these, and is willing 
 to work long and arduously for the chance of 
 obtaining it. 
 
 It may give some idea of the chances to say 
 that some years ago Dr. Wortman spent al- 
 most an entire season in the field without suc- 
 cess, and then, at the eleventh hour, found the 
 now famous skeleton of Phenacodus, or that a 
 party from Princeton actually camped within 
 100 yards of a rich deposit of rare fossils and 
 yet failed to discover it. 
 
 Let us, however, suppose that the reconnois- 
 sance has been successful, and that an outcrop 
 of bone has been found, serving like a tomb- 
 stone carven with strange characters to indicate 
 the burial-place of some primeval monster. 
 Possibly Nature long ago rifled the grave, wash- 
 ing away much of the skeleton, and leaving 
 little save the fragments visible on the surface ; 
 on the other hand, these pieces may form part 
 of a complete skeleton, and there is no way to 
 decide this important question save by actual 
 excavation. The manner of disinterment va- 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 115 
 
 ries, but much depends on whether the fossil 
 hes in comparatively loose shale or is imbedded 
 in the solid rock, whether the strata are level 
 or dip downward into the hillside. If, unfort- 
 unately, this last is the case, it necessitates a 
 careful shoring up of the excavation with props 
 of cotton-wood or such boards as may have 
 been brought along to box specimens, or it may 
 even be necessary to run a short tunnel in or- 
 der to get at some coveted bone. Should the 
 specimen lie in shale, as is the case with most 
 of the large reptiles that have been collected, 
 much of that work may be done with pick and 
 shovel ; but if it is desirable or necessary to 
 work in firm rock, drills and hammers, wedges, 
 even powder, may be needed to rend from Nat- 
 ure her long-kept secrets. In any event, a 
 detailed plan is made of the excavation, and 
 each piece of bone or section of rock duly re- 
 corded therein by letter and number, so that 
 later on the relation of the parts to one an- 
 other may be known, or the various sections as- 
 sembled in the work-room exactly as they lay 
 in the quarry. Bones which lie in loose rock 
 are often, one might say usually, more or less 
 
116 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 broken, and when a bone three, four, or even 
 six feet long, weighing anywhere from 100 to 
 1,000 pounds, has been shattered to fragments 
 the problem of removing it is no easy one. 
 But here the skill of the collector comes into 
 play to treat the fossil as a surgeon treats a 
 fractured limb, to cover it with plaster band- 
 ages, and brace it with splints of wood or iron 
 so that the specimen may not only be taken 
 from the ground but endure in safety the com- 
 ing journey of a thousand or more miles. For 
 simpler cases or lighter objects strips of sacking, 
 or even paper, apphed with flour and water, 
 suffice, or pieces of sacking soaked in thin plas- 
 ter may be laid over the bone, first covering it 
 with thin paper in order that the plaster jacket 
 may simply stiffen and not adhere to it. Col- 
 lecting has not always been carried on in this 
 systematic manner, for the development of the 
 present methods has been the result of years of 
 experience ; formerly there was a mere skim- 
 ming-over of the surface in what Professor 
 Marsh used to term the potato-gathering style, 
 but now the effort is made to remove speci- 
 mens intact, often imbedded in large masses 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 117 
 
 of rock, in order that all parts may be pre- 
 served. 
 
 We wiU take it for granted that our speci- 
 mens have safely passed through all perils by 
 land and water, road and rail ; that they have 
 been quarried, boxed, carted over a roadless 
 country to the nearest railway, and have with- 
 stood 2,000 miles of jolting in a freight-car. 
 The first step in reconstruction has been taken; 
 the problem, now that the boxes are reposing 
 on the work-room floor, is to make the blocks 
 of stone give up the secrets they have guarded 
 for ages, to fi-ee the bones from their envelop- 
 ing matrix in order that they may tell us 
 something of the life of the past. The method 
 of doing this varies with the conditions under 
 which the material has been gathered, and if 
 fi-om hard clay, chalk, or shale, the process, 
 though tedious enough at best, is by no means 
 so difficult as if the specimens are imbedded 
 in soMd rock. In this case the fragments 
 from a given section of quarry must be as- 
 sembled according to the plan which has been 
 carefiilly made as the work of exhumation 
 progressed, all pieces containing bone must be 
 
118 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 stuck together, and weak parts strengthened 
 with gum or glue. Now the mass is attacked 
 with hammer and chisel, and the surrounding 
 matrix slowly and carefally cut away until the 
 contained bone is revealed, a process much 
 simpler and more expeditious in the telling 
 than in the actuality ; for the preparator may 
 not use the heavy tools of the ordinary stone- 
 cutter : sometimes an awl, or even a glover's 
 needle, must suffice him, and the chips cut off 
 are so small and such care must be taken not 
 to injure the bone that the work is really te- 
 dious. This may, perhaps, be better appreci- 
 ated by saying that to clean a single vertebra 
 of such a huge Dinosaur as Diplodocus may 
 require a month of continuous labor, and that 
 a score of these big and complicated bones, 
 besides others of simpler structure, are in- 
 cluded in the backbone. The finished speci- 
 men weighs over 120 pounds, while as orig- 
 inally collected, with all the adherent rock, the 
 weight was twice or thrice as great. Such a 
 mass as this is comparatively small, and some- 
 times huge blocks are taken containing entire 
 skulls or a number of bones, and not infre- 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 119 
 
 quently weighing a ton. The largest single 
 specimen is a skull of Triceratops, collected 
 by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, which weighed, when 
 boxed, 6,850 pounds. 
 
 Or, as the result of some mishap, or through 
 the work of an inexperienced collector, a valu- 
 able specimen may arrive in the shape of a 
 box fuU of irregular fragments of stone com- 
 pared with which a dissected map or an old- 
 fashioned Chinese puzzle is simplicity itself, 
 and one may spend hours looking for some 
 piece whose proper location gives the clew to 
 an entire section, and days, even, may be con- 
 sumed before the task is completed. While 
 this not only tries the patience, but the eyes 
 as well, there is, nevertheless, a fascination 
 about this work of fashioning a bone out of 
 scores, possibly hundreds, of fragments, and 
 watching the irregular bits of stone shaping 
 themselves iato a mosaic that forms a portion 
 of some creature, possibly quite new to sci- 
 ence, and destined to bear a name as long as 
 itself. And thus, after many days of toil, the 
 bone that millions of years before sank into 
 the mud of some old lake-bottom or was 
 
120 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 buried in the sandy shoals of an ancient river, 
 is brought to light once more to help tell the 
 tale of the creatures of the past. 
 
 One bone might convey a great deal of in- 
 formation ; on the other hand it might reveal 
 very Uttle; for, while it is very painfiil to say 
 so, the popular impression that it is possible to 
 reconstruct an animal from a single bone, or 
 tell its size and habits from a tooth is but 
 partially correct, and sometimes " the eminent 
 scientist " has come to grief even with a great 
 many bones at his disposal. Did not one of 
 the ablest anatomists describe and figure the 
 hip-bones of a Dinosaur as its shoulder-blade, 
 and another, equally able, reconstruct a reptile 
 " hind side before," placing the head on the 
 tail I This certainly sounds absurd enough ; 
 but just as absurd mistakes are made by men 
 in other walks of hfe, often with far more de- 
 plorable results. 
 
 Before passing to the restoration of the ex- 
 terior of animals it may be well to say some- 
 thing of the manner in which the skeleton of 
 an extinct animal may be reconstructed and 
 the meaning of its various parts interpreted. 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 121 
 
 For the adjustment of the muscles is depend- 
 ent on the structure of the skeleton, and put- 
 ting on the muscles means blocking out the 
 form, details of external appearance being sup- 
 plied by the skin and its accessories of hair, 
 scales, or horns. Let us suppose in the present 
 instance that we are dealing with one of the 
 great reptiles known as Triceratops whose re- 
 mains are among the treasures of the National 
 Museum at Washington, for the reconstruc- 
 tion of the big beast well Ulustrates the meth- 
 ods of the palsBontologist and also the troubles 
 by which he is beset. Moreover, this is not a 
 purely imaginary case, but one that is very 
 real, for the skeleton of this animal which was 
 shown at Buffalo was restored in papier-mach^ 
 in exactly the manner indicated. We have a 
 goodly number of bones, but by no means an 
 entire skeleton, and yet we wish to complete 
 the skeleton and incidentally to form some 
 idea of the creature's habits. Now we can in- 
 terpret the past only by a knowledge of the 
 present, and it is by carefully studying the 
 skeletons of the animals of to-day that we can 
 learn to read the meaning of the symbols of 
 
122 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 bones left by the animals of a million yester- 
 days. Thus we find that certain characters 
 distinguish the bone of a mammal from that 
 of a bird, a reptUe, or a fish, and these in turn 
 fi:om one another, and this constitutes the 
 A B C of comparative anatomy. And, in a 
 like manner, the bones of the various divisions 
 of these main groups have to a greater or less 
 extent their own distinguishing characteristics, 
 so that by first comparing the bones of extinct 
 animals with those of creatures that are now 
 living we are enabled to recognize their nearest 
 existing relative, and then by comparing them 
 with one another we learn the relations they 
 bore in the ancient world. But it must be 
 borne in mind that some of the early beasts 
 were so very different from those of to-day 
 that until pretty much their entire structure 
 was known there was nothing with which to 
 compare odd bones. Had but a single incom- 
 plete specimen of Triceratops come to light 
 we should be very much in the dark concern- 
 ing him ; and although remains of some thirty 
 individuals have been discovered, these have 
 been so imperfect that we are very far from 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS las 
 
 having all the information we need. A great 
 part of the head, with its formidable looking 
 horns, is present, and although the nose is 
 gone, we know from other specimens that it, 
 too, was armed with a knob, or horn, and that 
 the skuU ended in a beak, something like that 
 of a snapping turtle, though formed by a sep- 
 arate and extra bone ; similarly the end of the 
 lower jaw is lacking, but we may be pretty 
 certain that it ended in a beak, to match that 
 of the skull. The large leg-bones of our speci- 
 men are mostly represented, for these being 
 among the more solid parts of the skeleton 
 are more frequently preserved than any others, 
 and though some are from one side and some 
 from another, this matters not. If the hind 
 legs were disproportionately long it would in- 
 dicate that our animal often or habitually 
 walked erect, but as there is only difference 
 enough between the fore and hind Umbs to 
 enable Triceratops to browse comfortably from 
 the ground we would naturally place him on 
 all fours, even were the skuU not so large as to 
 make the creature too top-heavy for any other 
 mode of locomotion. Were the limbs very 
 
124 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 small in comparison with the other bones, it 
 would obviously mean that their owner passed 
 his hfe in the water. For a skeleton has a two- 
 fold meaning, it is the best, the most enduring, 
 testimony we have as to an animal's place in 
 nature and the relationships it sustains to the 
 creatures that hved with it, before it, and after 
 it. More than this, a skeleton is the solution 
 of a problem in mechanics, the problem of 
 carrying a given weight and of adaptation to 
 a given mode of life. Thus the skeleton varies 
 according as a creature dwells on land, in the 
 water, or in the air, and according as it feeds 
 on grass or preys upon its fellows. 
 
 And so the mechanics of a skeleton afford 
 us a clew to the habits of the hving animal. 
 Something, too, may be gathered from the 
 structure of the leg-bones, for soUd bones mean 
 either a sluggish animal or a creature of more 
 or less aquatic habits, while hollow bones em- 
 phatically declare a land animal, and an active 
 one at that; and this, in the case of the Dino- 
 saurs, hints at predatory habits, the ability to 
 catch and eat their defenceless and more slug- 
 gish brethren. A claw, or, better yet, a tooth, 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 125 
 
 may confirm or refute this hint ; for a blunt claw 
 coiild not be used in tearing prey Umb from 
 limb, nor would a double-edged tooth, made 
 for rending flesh, serve for champing grass. 
 
 But few bones of the feet, and especially the 
 fore feet, are present, these smaller parts of the 
 skeleton having been washed away before the 
 ponderous frame was buried in the sand, and 
 the best that can be done is to follow the law 
 of probabiUties and put three toes on the hind 
 foot and five on the fore, two of these last 
 without claws. The single blunt round claw 
 among our bones shows, as do the teeth, that 
 Triceratops was herbivorous ; it also pointed a 
 little downward, and this tells that in the hving 
 animal the sole of the foot was a thick, soft 
 pad, somewhat as it is in the elephant and rhi- 
 noceros, and that the toes were not entirely 
 free from one another. There are less than a 
 dozen vertebrae and still fewer ribs, besides 
 half a barrelful of pieces, from which to recon- 
 struct a backbone twenty feet long. That the 
 ribs are part from one side and part from an- 
 other matters no more than it did in the case 
 of the leg-bones ; but the backbone presents a 
 
126 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 more difficult problem, since the pieces are not 
 like so many checkers — aU made after one pat- 
 tern — but each has an individuahty of its OAvn. 
 The total number of vertebrae must be guessed 
 at (perhaps it would sound better to say esti- 
 mated, but it really means the same), and 
 knowing that some sections are from the front 
 part of the vertebral column and some from 
 the back, we must fill in the gaps as best we 
 may. The ribs offer a little aid in this task, 
 giving certain details of the vertebrae, while 
 those in turn tell something about the adjoin- 
 ing parts of the ribs. We finish our Tricera- 
 tops with a tail of moderate length, as indica- 
 ted by the rapid taper of the few vertebrae 
 available, and from these we gather, too, that 
 in hfe the tail was round, and not flattened, 
 and that it neither served for swimming nor 
 for a balancing pole. And so, Uttle by Uttle, 
 have been pieced together the fragments from 
 which we have derived our knowledge of the 
 past, and thus has the palaeontologist read the 
 riddles of the rocks. 
 
 To make these dry bones Uve again, to 
 clothe them with flesh and reconstruct the 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 127 
 
 creature as he was or may have been in life, 
 is, to be honest, very largely guesswork, 
 though to make a guess that shall come any- 
 where near the mark not only demands a 
 thorough knowledge of anatomy — for the 
 basis of all restoration must be the skeleton — 
 but calls for more than a passing acquaintance 
 with the external appearance of Uving animals. 
 And while there is nothing in the bones to 
 tell how an animal is, or was, clad, they will at 
 least show to what group the creature be- 
 longed, and, that known, there are certain 
 probabihties in the case. A bird, for example, 
 would certainly be clad in feathers. Going a 
 Uttle farther, we might be pretty sure that 
 the feathers of a water- fowl would be thick 
 and close ; those of strictly terrestrial birds, 
 such as the ostrich and other flightless forms, 
 lax and long. These as general propositions ; 
 of course, in special cases, one might easily 
 come to grief, as in dealing with birds like 
 penguins, which are particularly adapted for 
 an aquatic Ufe, and have the feathers highly 
 modified. These birds depend upon their fat, 
 and not on their feathers, for warmth, and so 
 
128 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 their feathers have become a sort of cross be- 
 tween scales and hairs. Hair and fur belong 
 to mammals only, although these creatures 
 show much variety in their outer covering. 
 The thoroughly marine whales have discarded 
 furs and adopted a smooth and shppery skin,* 
 well adapted to movement through the water, 
 relying for warmth on a thick undershirt of 
 blubber. The earless seals that pass much of 
 their time on the ice have just enough hair 
 to keep them from absolute contact with it, 
 warmth again being provided for by blubber. 
 The fur seals, which for several months in the 
 year dwell largely on land, have a coat of fur 
 and hair, although warmth is mostly furnished, 
 or rather kept in, by fat. 
 
 No reptile, therefore, would be covered with 
 
 * The reader is warned that this is a mere Jiguire of speech, 
 for, of course, the process of adaptation to surroundings is 
 passive, not active, although there is a most unfortunate ten- 
 dency among writers on evolution, and particularly on mimicry, 
 to speak of it as active. The writer believes that no animal 
 in the first stages of mimicry, consciously mimics or endeav- 
 ors to resemble another animal or any part of its surround- 
 ings, hut a habit at first accidental may in time become 
 more or less conscious. 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 129 
 
 feathers, neither, judging from those we 
 know to-day, would they be clad in ftir or 
 hair; but, such coverings being barred out, 
 there remain a great variety of plates and 
 scales to choose from. Folds and frills, crests 
 and dewlaps, hke beauty, are but skin deep, 
 and, being thus superficial, ordinarily leave no 
 trace of their former presence, and in respect 
 to them the reconstructor must trust to his 
 imagination, with the law of probabiUties as a 
 check rein to his fancy. This law would tell us 
 that such ornaments must not be so placed as 
 to be in the way, and that while there would be 
 a possibility — one might even say probability 
 — of the great, short-headed, iguana-Uke 
 Dinosaurs having dewlaps, that there would 
 be no great likelihood of their possessing ruffs 
 such as that of the Austrahan Chlamydosau- 
 rus (mantled lizard) to flap about their ears. 
 Even Stegosaurus, with his bizarre array of 
 great plates and spines, kept them on his 
 back, out of the way. Such festal ornamen- 
 tation would, however, more likely be found in 
 small, active creatures, the larger beasts con- 
 tenting themselves with plates and folds. 
 
130 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Spines and plates usually leave some trace 
 of their existence, for they consist of a super- 
 structure of skin or horn, built on a founda- 
 tion of bone ; and while even horn decom- 
 poses too quickly to " petrify," the bone will 
 become fossilized and changed into enduring 
 stone. But while this affords a pretty sure 
 guide to the general shape of the investing 
 horn, it does not give all the details, and there 
 may have been ridges and furrows and sculpt- 
 uring that we know not of 
 
 Kiiowing, then, what the probabilities are, we 
 have some guide to the character of the cover- 
 ing that should be placed on an animal, and if 
 we may not be sure as to what should be done, 
 we may be pretty certain what should not. 
 
 For example, to depict a Dinosaur with 
 smooth, rubbery hide walking about on dry 
 land would be to violate the probabilities, for 
 only such exclusively aquatic creatures as the 
 whales among mammals, and the salamanders 
 among batrachians, are clothed in smooth, 
 shiny skin. There might, however, be reason 
 to suspect that a creature largely aquatic in its 
 habits did occasionally venture on land, as, for 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 131 
 
 instance, when vertebrae that seem illy adapted 
 for carrying the weight of a Land animal are 
 found in company with huge limb-bones and 
 massive feet we may feel reasonably certain 
 that their owner passed at least a portion of his 
 time on terra Jirma. 
 
 So much for the probabilities as to the cov- 
 ering of animals known to us only by their fos- 
 sil remains ; but it is often possible to go be- 
 yond this, and to state certainly how they were 
 clad. For while the chances are small that 
 any trace of the covering of an extinct animal, 
 other than bony plates, will be preserved. Nat- 
 ure does now and then seem to have relented, 
 and occasionally some animal settled to rest 
 where it was so quickly and quietly covered 
 with fine mud that the impression of small 
 scales, feathers, or even smooth skin, was pre- 
 served; curiously enough, there seems to be 
 scarcely any record of the imprint of hair. 
 Then, too, it is to be remembered that while 
 the chances were very much against such pres- 
 ervation, in the thousands or millions of times 
 creatures died the millionth chance might come 
 uppermost. 
 
132 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Silhouettes of those marine reptiles, the Ich- 
 thyosaurs, have been found, probably made by 
 the slow carbonization of animal matter, show- 
 ing not only the form of the body and tail, but 
 revealing the existence of an unsuspected back 
 fin. And yet these animals were apparently 
 clad in a skin as thin and smooth as that of a 
 whale. Impressions of feathers were known 
 long before the discovery of Archasopteryx ; a 
 few have been found in the Green River and 
 Florissant shales of Wyoming, and a Hesper- 
 omis in the collection of the State University 
 of Kansas shows traces of the existence of 
 long, soft feathers on the legs and very clear 
 imprints of the scales and reticulated skin that 
 covered the tarsus. From the Chalk of Kan- 
 sas, too, came the example of Tylosaur, show- 
 ing that the back of this animal was decorated 
 with the crest shown in Mr. Knight's restora- 
 tion, one not unlike that of the modem iguana. 
 From the Laramie sandstone of Montana Mr. 
 Hatcher and Mr. Butler have obtained the im- 
 pressions of portions of the skin of the great 
 Dinosaur, Thespesius, which show that the 
 covering of this animal consisted largely, if not 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 133 
 
 entirely, of small, irregularly hexagonal homy 
 scutes, sUghtly thickened in the centre. The 
 quarries of Uthographic stone at Solenhofen 
 have yielded a few specimens of flying reptiles, 
 pterodactyls, which not only verify the correct- 
 ness of the inference that these creatures pos- 
 sessed membranous wings, Uke the bats, but 
 show the exact shape, and it was sometimes 
 very curious, of this membrane. And each and 
 all of these wonderfully preserved specimens 
 serve both to check and guide the restorer 
 in his task of clothing the animal as it was in 
 Ufe. 
 
 And all this help is needed, for it is an easy 
 matter to make a wide-sweeping deduction, 
 apparently resting on a good basis of fact, and 
 yet erroneous. Remains of the Mammoth 
 and WooUy Rhinoceros, found in Siberia and 
 Northern Europe, were thought to indicate 
 that at the period when these animals lived 
 the climate was mUd, a very natural inference, 
 since the elephants and rhinoceroses we now 
 know are aU inhabitants of tropical chmes. 
 But the discovery of more or less complete 
 specimens makes it evident that the climate 
 
134 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 was not particularly mild ; the animals were 
 simply adapted to it ; instead of being naked 
 like their modem relatives, they were dressed 
 for the climate in a woolly covering. We 
 think of the tiger as prowling through the 
 jungles of India, but he ranges so far north 
 that in some localities this beast preys upon 
 reindeer, which are among the most northern 
 of large mammals, and there the tiger is clad 
 in fairly thick fur. 
 
 When we come to coloring a reconstructed 
 animal we have absolutely no guide, unless we 
 assume that the larger a creature the more so- 
 berly wiU it be colored. The great land ani- 
 mals of to-day, the elephant and rhinoceros, to 
 say nothing of the aquatic hippopotamus, are 
 very duUy colored, and while this sombre col- 
 oration is to-day a protection, rendering these 
 animals less easily seen by man than they 
 otherwise would be, yet at the time this color 
 was developing man was not nor were there 
 enemies sufficiently formidable to menace the 
 race of elephantine creatures. 
 
 For where mere size furnishes sufficient pro- 
 tection one would hardly expect to find pro- 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 135 
 
 tective coloration as well, unless indeed a 
 creature preyed upon others, when it might be 
 advantageous to enable a predatory animal to 
 steal upon its prey. 
 
 Color often exists (or is supposed to) as a 
 sexual characteristic, to render the male of a 
 species attractive to, or readUy recognizable 
 by, the female, but in the case of large animals 
 mere size is quite enough to render them con- 
 spicuous, and possibly this may be one of the 
 factors in the dull coloration of large animals. 
 
 So whUe a green and yellow Triceratops 
 would undoubtedly have been a conspicuous 
 feature in the Cretaceous landscape, from what 
 we know of existing animals it seems best to 
 curb our fancy and, so far as large Dinosaurs 
 are concerned, employ the colors of a Rem- 
 brandt rather than those of a sign painter. 
 
 Aids, or at least hints, to the coloration of 
 extinct animals are to be found in the colora- 
 tion of the young of various hving species, for 
 as the changes undergone by the embryo are 
 in a measure an epitome of the changes under- 
 gone by a species during its evolution, so the 
 brief color phases or markings of the young 
 
136 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 are considered to represent the ordinary color- 
 ing of distant ancestors. Young thrushes are 
 spotted, young ostriches and grebes are irreg- 
 ularly striped, young hons are spotted, and in 
 restoring the early horse, or Hyracothere, Pro- 
 fessor Osborn had the animal represented as 
 faintly striped, for the reason that zebras, the 
 wild horses of to-day, are striped, and because 
 the ass, which is a primitive type of horse, is 
 striped over the shoulders, these being hints 
 that the earlier horse-hke forms were also 
 striped. 
 
 Thus just as the skeleton of a Dinosaur may 
 be a composite structure, made up of the 
 bones of a dozen individuals, and these in turn 
 mosaics of many fragments, so may the sem- 
 blance of the living animal be based on a fact, 
 pieced out with a probabihty and completed 
 by a bit of theory. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 There is a large series of restorations of extinct ani- 
 mals, prepared by Mr. Charles R. Knight, under the 
 direction of Professor Osborn, in the Hall of Palceon- 
 tology of the American Museum of Natural History, 
 
READING RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 137 
 
 amd these are later to be reprod/uced amd issued in port- 
 folio form. 
 
 Should the reader visit Princeton, he may see in the 
 museum there a nvmber of B. Waterhouse Hawhins's 
 creations — creations is the proper word — which are of 
 interest as examples of the early work in this line. 
 
 The "Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 
 1900 " contains an article on " The Restoration of 
 Extinct Animals^'' pages 4'^9-43S, which indvdes a 
 number cf plates showing the progress that has been 
 made in this direction. 
 
 Fig. 27. — A Hint of Buried Treasures. 
 
VIII 
 
 FEATHERED GIANTS 
 
 "There were ^ants in the earth in those days." 
 
 Nearly every group of animals has its giants, 
 its species which tower above their fellows as 
 Goliath of Gath stood head and shoulders 
 above the Phihstine hosts ; and while some of 
 these are giants only in comparison with their 
 fellows, belonging to families whose members 
 are short of stature, others are sufficiently 
 great to be called giants under any circum- 
 stances. Some of these giants live to-day, 
 some have but recently passed away, and some 
 ceased to be long ages before man trod this 
 earth. The most gigantic of mammals — the 
 whales — stiU survive, and the elephant of to- 
 day suffers but Uttle in comparison with the 
 mammoth of yesterday ; the monstrous Dino- 
 saurs, greatest of all reptiles — greatest, in 
 fact, of aU animals that have walked the 
 
 138 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 139 
 
 earth — flourished thousands upon thousands 
 of years ago. As for birds, some of the giants 
 among them are still hving, some existed long 
 geologic periods ago, and a few have so re- 
 cently vanished from the scene that their 
 memory still hngers amid the haze of tradition. 
 The best known among these, as well as the 
 most recent in point of time, are the Moas of 
 New Zealand, first brought to notice by the 
 Rev. W. Colenso, later on Bishop of New 
 Zealand, one of the many missionaries to 
 whom Science is under obligations. Early in 
 1838, Bishop Colenso, while on a missionary 
 visit to the East Cape region, heard from the 
 natives of Waiapu tales of a monstrous bird, 
 called Moa, having the head of a man, that 
 inhabited the mountain-side some eighty miles 
 away. This niighty bird, the last of his race, 
 was said to be attended by two equally huge 
 lizards that kept guard while he slept, and on 
 the approach of man wakened the Moa, who 
 immediately rushed upon the intruders and 
 trampled them to death. None of the Maoris 
 had seen this bird, but they had seen and 
 somewhat irreverently used for making parts 
 
140 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 of their fishing tackle, bones of its extinct rel- 
 atives, and these bones they declared to be as 
 large as those of an ox. 
 
 About the same time another missionary, 
 the Rev. Richard Taylor, found a bone ascribed 
 to the Moa, and met with a very similar tradi- 
 tion among the natives of a near-by district, 
 only, as the foot of the rainbow moves away 
 as we move toward it, in his case the bird was 
 said to dwell in quite a different locality from 
 that given by the natives of East Cape. While, 
 however, the Maoris were certain that the 
 Moa still lived, and to doubt its existence was 
 little short of a crime, no one had actually seen 
 it, and as time went on and the bird stiU re- 
 mained unseen by any explorer, hope became 
 doubt and doubt certainty, untU it even be- 
 came a mooted question whether such a bird 
 had existed within the past ten centuries, to 
 say nothing of having Uved within the mem- 
 ory of man. 
 
 But if we do not know the living birds, their 
 remains are scattered broadcast over hillside 
 and plain, concealed in caves, buried in the 
 mud of swamps, and from these we gain a good 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 141 
 
 idea of their size and structure, while chance 
 has even made it possible to know something 
 of their color and general appearance. This 
 chance was the discovery of a few specimens, 
 preserved in exceptionally dry caves on the 
 South Island, which not only had some of the 
 bones still united by ligaments, but patches of 
 skin clinging to the bones, and bearing numer- 
 ous feathers of a chestnut color tipped with 
 white. These small, straggUng, rusty feathers 
 are not much to look at, but when we reflect 
 that they have been preserved for centuries 
 without any care whatever, while the buffalo 
 bugs have devoured our best Smyrna rugs in 
 spite of all possible precautions, our respect for 
 them increases. 
 
 From the bones we learn that there were a 
 great many kinds of Moas, twenty at least, 
 ranging in size from those Uttle larger than a 
 turkey to that giant among giants, Dinornis 
 macdmus, which stood at least ten feet high,* 
 
 * The height of the Moas, and even of some species of 
 Mpyomis, is often stated to be twelve or fourteen feet, but suck 
 n height can only be obtained by placing the skeleton in a wholly 
 unnatural attitude. 
 
142 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 or two feet higher than the largest ostrich, and 
 may well claim the distinction of being the 
 tallest of all known birds. We also leam from 
 the bones that not only were the Moas flight- 
 less, but that many of them were absolutely 
 wingless, being devoid even of such vestiges of 
 wings as we find in the Cassowary or Apteryx, 
 But if Nature deprived these birds of wings, 
 she made ample amends in the matter of legs, 
 those of some species, the Elephant-footed 
 Moa, Pachyornis elephantopiLS, for example, 
 being so massively buUt as to cause one to 
 wonder what the owner used them for, al- 
 though the generally accepted theory is that 
 they were used for scratching up the roots of 
 ferns on which the Moas are beheved to have 
 fed. And if a blow from an irate ostrich is 
 sufficient to fell a man, what must have been 
 the kicking power of an able-bodied Moa? 
 Beside this bird the ostrich would appear as 
 shm and graceful as a gazelle beside a prize ox. 
 The Moas were confined to New Zealand, 
 some species inhabiting the North Island, some 
 the South, very few being common to both, 
 and from these pecuharities of distribution 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 143 
 
 geologists deduce that at some early period in 
 the history of the earth the two islands formed 
 one, that later on the land subsided, leaving 
 the islands separated by a strait, and that since 
 this subsidence there has been sufficient time 
 for the development of the species peculiar to 
 each island. Although Moas were still nu- 
 merous when man made his appearance in this 
 part of the world, the large deposits of their 
 bones indicate that they were on the wane, and 
 that natural causes had already reduced the 
 feathered population of these islands. A gla- 
 cial period is believed to have wrought their 
 destruction, and in one great morass, abound- 
 ing in springs, their bones occur in such enor- 
 mous numbers, layer upon layer, that it is 
 thought the birds sought the place where the 
 flowing springs might affiDrd their feet at least 
 some respite from the biting cold, and there 
 perished miserably by thousands. 
 
 What Nature spared man finished, and 
 legends of Moa hunts and Moa feasts still lin- 
 gered among the Maoris when the white man 
 came and began in turn the extermination of 
 the Maori The theory has been advanced, 
 
144 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 with much to support it, that the big birds 
 were eaten off the face of the earth by an ear- 
 lier race than the Maoris, and that after the 
 extirpation of the Moas the craving for flesh 
 naturally led to cannibalism. But by whom- 
 soever the destruction was wrought, the result 
 was the same, the habitat of these feathered 
 giants knew them no longer, while multitudes 
 of charred bones, interspersed with fragments 
 of eggshells, bear testimony to former barbaric 
 feasts. 
 
 It is a far cry from New Zealand to Mada- 
 gascar, but thither must we go, for that island 
 was, pity we cannot say is, inhabited by a 
 race of giant birds from whose eggs it has been 
 thought may have been hatched the Roc of 
 Sindbad. Arabian tales, as we all know, lo- 
 cate the Roc either in Madagascar or in some 
 adjacent island to the north and east, and it is 
 far from unlikely that legends of the ^pyor- 
 nis, backed by the substantial proof of its 
 enormous eggs, may have been the slight 
 foundation of fact whereon the story-teller 
 erected his structure of fiction. True, the Roc 
 of fable was a gigantic bird of prey capable of 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 145 
 
 bearing away an elephant in its talons, while 
 the iEpyornis has shed its wings and shrunk 
 to dimensions little larger than an ostrich, but 
 this is the inevitable result of closer acquaint- 
 ance and the application of a two-foot rule. 
 
 Like the Moa the ^pyomis seems to have 
 lived in tradition long after it became extinct, 
 for a French history of Madagascar, published 
 as early as 1658 makes mention of a large bird, 
 or kind of ostrich, said to inhabit the southern 
 end of the island. Still, in spite of bones hav- 
 ing been found that bear evident traces of the 
 handiwork of man, it is possible that this and 
 other reports were due to the obvious necessity 
 of having some bird to account for the pres- 
 ence of the eggs. 
 
 The actual introduction of the ^pyomis to 
 science took place in 1834, when a French 
 traveller sent Jules Verreaux, the ornithologist, 
 a sketch of a huge egg, saying that he had 
 seen two of that size, one sawed in twain to 
 make bowls, the other, traversed by a stick, 
 serving in the preparation of rice uses some- 
 what in contrast with the proverbial fragility 
 of egg-shells. A little later another traveller 
 
146 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 procured some fragments of egg-shells, but it 
 was not until 1851 that any entire eggs were 
 obtained, when two were secured, and with a 
 few bones sent to France, where Geoffroy St. 
 Hilaire bestowed upon them the name of 
 j:Epyornis maaoimus (the greatest lofty bird). 
 Maximus the eggs remain, for they still hold 
 the record for size ; but so far as the bird that 
 is supposed to have laid them is concerned, the 
 name was a Uttle premature, for other and 
 larger species subsequently came to hand. 
 Between the iEpyornithes and the Moas Sci- 
 ence has had a hard time, for the supply of big 
 words was not large enough to go around, and 
 some had to do duty twice. In the way of 
 generic names we have Dinornis, terrible bird ; 
 ^pyornis, high bird ; Pachyomis, stout bird ; 
 and Brontornis, thunder bird, while for specific 
 names there are robustus, maximus, titan ; 
 gravis, heavy ; immanis, enormous ; crassus, 
 stout ; ingens, great ; and elephantopus, ele- 
 phant-footed — truly a goodly array of large- 
 sounding words. But to return to the big 
 eggs ! Usually we look upon those of the os- 
 trich as pretty large, but an ostrich tgg meas- 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 14? 
 
 ures 4J by 6 inches, while that of the iBpyor- 
 nis is 9 by 13 inches ; or, to put it another 
 way, it would hold the contents of six ostrichs' 
 eggs, or one hundred and forty-eight hens' eggs, 
 or thirty thousand humming birds' eggs ; and 
 while this is very much smaller than a water- 
 butt, it is still as large as a bucket, and one or 
 two such eggs might suffice to make an omelet 
 for Gargantua himself 
 
 The size of an egg is no safe criterion of the 
 size of the bird that laid it, for a large bird 
 may lay a small egg, or a small bird a large 
 one. Comparing the egg of the great Moa 
 with that of our ^pyornis one might think 
 the latter much the larger bird, say twelve feet 
 in height, when the facts in the case are that 
 while there was no great difference in the 
 weight of the two, that difference, and a su- 
 periority of at least two feet in height, are in 
 favor of the bird that laid the smaller egg. 
 The record of large eggs, however, belongs to 
 the Apteryx, a New Zealand bird smaller 
 than a hen, though distantly related to the 
 Moas, which lays an egg about one-third of 
 its own weight, measuring 3 by 5 inches ; per- 
 
148 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 haps it is not to be wondered at that the bird 
 lays but two. 
 
 Although most of the eggs of these big 
 birds that have been found have literally been 
 unearthed from the muck of swamps, now and 
 then one comes to light in a more interesting 
 manner as, for example, when a perfect egg of 
 iEpyornis was found afloat after a hurricane, 
 bobbing serenely up and down with the waves 
 near St. Augustine's Bay, or when an egg of 
 the Moa was exhumed from an ancient Maori 
 grave, where for years it had lain unharmed, 
 safely clasped between the skeleton fingers of 
 the occupant. So far very few of these huge 
 eggs have made their way to this country, and 
 the only egg of ^pyornis now on this side of 
 the water is the property of a private individual. 
 
 Most recent in point of discovery, but oldest 
 in point of time, are the giant birds from Pata- 
 gonia, which are burdened with the name of 
 Phororhacidas, a name that originated in an 
 error, although the error may well be excused. 
 The first fragment of one of these great birds 
 to come to light was a portion of the lower 
 jaw, and this was so massive, so un-bird-hke, 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 149 
 
 that the finder dubbed it Phororhacos, and so 
 it must remain. 
 
 It is a pity that all the large names were 
 used up before this group of birds was discov- 
 ered, and it is particularly unfortunate that 
 Dinornis, terrible bird, was applied to the root- 
 eating Moas, for these Patagonian birds, with 
 their massive limbs, huge heads and hooked 
 beaks, were truly worthy of such a name ; and 
 although in nowise related to the eagles, they 
 may in habit have been terrestrial birds of prey. 
 Not all the members of this family are giants, 
 for as in other groups, some are big and some 
 Uttle, but the largest among them might be 
 styled the Daniel Lambert of the feathered 
 race. Brontornis, for example, the thunder 
 bird, or as the irreverent translate it, the thun- 
 dering big bird, had leg-bones larger than those 
 of an ox, the drumstick measuring 30 inches in 
 length by 2^ inches in diameter, or 4j inches 
 across the ends, while the tarsus, or lower bone 
 of the leg to which the toes are attached, was 
 16 J inches long and 5^ inches wide where the 
 toes join on. Bear this in mind the next time 
 you see a large turkey, or compare these bones 
 
150 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 with those of an ostrich : but lest you may for- 
 get, it may be said that the same bone of a 
 fourteen-pound turkey is 5^ inches long, and 
 one inch wide at either end, while that of an 
 ostrich measures 19 inches long and 2 inches 
 across the toes, or 3 at the upper end. 
 
 If Brontornis was a heavy-Umbed bird, he 
 was not without near rivals among the Moas, 
 while the great Phororhacos, one of his con- 
 temporaries, was not only nearly as large, but 
 quite unique in build. Imagine a bird seven 
 or eight feet in height from the sole of his big, 
 sharp-clawed feet, to the top of his huge head, 
 poise this head on a neck as thick as that of a 
 horse, arm it with a beak as sharp as an ice- 
 pick and almost as formidable, and you have a 
 fair idea of this feathered giant of the ancient 
 pampas. The head indeed was truly colossal 
 for that of a bird, measuring 23 inches in 
 length by 7 in depth, while that of the race- 
 horse Lexington, and he was a good-sized 
 horse, measures 22 inches long by 5^ inches 
 deep. The depth of the jaw is omitted be- 
 cause we wish to make as good a case as possi- 
 ble for the bird, and the jaw of a horse is so 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 151 
 
 deep as to give him an undue advantage in that 
 respect. 
 
 We can only speculate on the food of these 
 great birds, and for aught we know to the 
 contrary they may have caught fish, fed upon 
 carrion, or used their powerful feet and huge 
 
 Fig. 30. — Skull of Phororhacos Compared with that of 
 the Race-horse Lexington. 
 
 beaks for grubbing roots ; but if they were not 
 more or less carnivorous, preying upon such 
 reptiles, mammals and other birds as came 
 within reach, then nature apparently made a 
 mistake in giving them such a formidable 
 equipment of beak and claw. So far as habits 
 
152 
 
 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Fig. 31. — Leg of a Horse Com- 
 pared with that of the Giant Moa. 
 
 go we might be 
 justified in calling 
 them cursorial 
 birds of prey. 
 
 We really know 
 very Uttle about 
 these Patagonian 
 giants, but they 
 are interesting not 
 only from their 
 great size and as- 
 tounding skulls, 
 but because of the 
 early age (Mio- 
 cene) at which 
 they hved and be- 
 cause in spite of 
 their bulk they are 
 in nowise related 
 to the ostriches, 
 but belong near 
 the heron family. 
 As usual, we have 
 no idea why they 
 became extinct, 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 153 
 
 but in this instance man is guiltless, for they 
 lived and died long before he made his ap- 
 pearance, and the ever-convenient hjrpothesis 
 "change of climate" may be responsible for 
 their disappearance. 
 
 Something, perhaps, remains to be said con- 
 cerning the causes which seem to have led to 
 the development of these giant birds, as well 
 as the reasons for their flightless condition and 
 pecxiliar distribution, for it wUl be noticed 
 that, with the exception of the African and 
 South American ostriches the great flightless 
 birds as a rule are, and were, confined to unin- 
 habited or sparsely populated islands, and this 
 is equally true of the many small, but equally 
 flightless birds. It is a seemingly harsh law 
 of nature that aU hving beings shall live in a 
 more or less active struggle with each other 
 and with their surroundings, and that those 
 creatures which possess some slight advantage 
 over their fellows in the matter of speed, or 
 strength, or abihty to adapt themselves to sur- 
 rounding conditions, shall prosper at the ex- 
 pense of the others. In the power of flight, 
 birds have a great safeguard against changes of 
 
154 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 climate with their accompanying variations in 
 the supply of food, and, to a lesser extent, 
 against their various enemies, including man. 
 This power of flight, acquired early in their 
 geological history, has enabled birds to spread 
 over the length and breadth of the globe as no 
 other group of animals has done, and to thrive 
 under the most varying conditions, and it 
 would seem that if this power were lost it 
 must sooner or later work harm. Now to-day 
 we find no great wingless birds in thickly 
 populated regions, or where beasts of prey 
 abound ; the ostriches roam the desert wastes 
 of Arabia, Africa and South America where 
 men are few and savage beasts scarce, and 
 agaiust these is placed a fleetness of foot inher- 
 ited from ancestors who acquired it before 
 man was. The heavy cassowaries dwell in the 
 thinly inhabited, thickly wooded islands of 
 Malaysia, where again there are no large carni- 
 vores and where the dense vegetation is some 
 safeguard against man ; the emu comes from 
 the AustraUan plains, where also there are no 
 four-footed enemies * and where his ancestors 
 
 * The dingo, or native dog, is not forgotten, but, like man, 
 it is a comparativehf recent animal. 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 155 
 
 dwelt in peace before the advent of man. 
 And the same things are true of the Moas, the 
 iEpyornithes, the flightless birds of Patagonia, 
 the recent dodo of Mauritius and the sohtaire 
 of Rodriguez, each and all of which flourished 
 in places where there were no men and prac- 
 tically no other enemies. Hence we deduce 
 that absence of enemies is the prime factor in 
 the existence of flightless birds,* although 
 presence of food is an essential, while isolation, 
 or restriction to a limited area, plays an im- 
 portant part by keeping together those birds, 
 or that race of birds, whose members show a 
 tendency to disuse their wings. It will be 
 seen that such combinations of circumstances 
 will most naturally be found on islands whose 
 geological history is such that they have had 
 no connection with adjacent continents, or 
 such a very ancient connection that they were 
 not then peopled with beasts of prey, while 
 subsequently their distance from other coun- 
 tries has prevented them from receiving such 
 
 * Note that in Tasmania, which is very near Australia, both 
 in space and in the character of its animals, there are two car- 
 timorom mammals, the Tasmanian " Wolf" and the Tasma- 
 nian Demi, and no flightless birds. 
 
156 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 population by accident in recent times and has 
 also retarded the arrival of man. 
 
 Once established, Sightlessness and size play 
 into one another's hands ; the flightless bird 
 has no Umit placed on its size * while granted 
 a food supply and immunity from man ; the 
 larger the bird the less the necessity for wings 
 to escape from four-footed foes. So long as 
 the chmate was favorable and man absent, the 
 big, clumsy bird might • thrive, but upon the 
 coming of man, or in the face of any unfavor- 
 able change of climate, he would be at a se- 
 rious disadvantage and hence whenever either 
 of these two factors has been brought to bear 
 against them the feathered giants have van- 
 ished. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 There is a fine collection of mounted skeletons of va- 
 rious species of Moas in the Musewm of Comparative 
 Zoology at Camibridge, Mass., amd another in the Amer- 
 ican Museum of Natural History, New York. A few 
 
 * While we do not know the limit of size to a flying creature, 
 none has as yet been found whose wings would spread over 
 twenty feet from tip to tip, and it is evident that wings larger 
 than this would demand great strength for their manipidation. 
 
FEATHERED GIANTS 157 
 
 other skeletons and numerous bones are to he found in 
 other institutions^ but the author is not aware of any egg 
 being in this country. Specimens of the :/Epyomis are 
 rare in this country, but Mr. Robert Gilfort, of Orange, 
 N. J., is the possessor of a very fine egg. A number of 
 eggs have been sold in London, the prices ranging from 
 £,W0 down to £^^, this last being much less than prices 
 paid for eggs of the great auk. But then, the great 
 auk is sofmewhat of a fad, and there are Jitst enough 
 eggs in existence to bring one into the market every 
 little while. Besides, the number of eggs of the great 
 auk is a fixed quantity, while no one knows how many 
 mare of ^pyomis remain to be discovered in the swa/mps 
 of Madagascar. No specimens of the gigantic Pata- 
 gonian birds are now in this country, but a fine exam- 
 ple of one of the smaller forms, Pelycomis, including 
 the only breast-bone yet found, is in the Museum of 
 Princeton University. 
 
 The largest known tibia of a Moa, the longest bird- 
 bone known, is in the collection of the Canterbury Mu- 
 seum, Christchurch, New Zealand ; it is 3 feet 3 inches 
 long. This, however, is exceptional, the measurements 
 of the leg-bones of cm ordinary Dinomis maximum 
 being as follows: Femur, 18 inches; tibia, 32 inches; 
 tarsus, 19 inches, a total of 5 feet 9 inches. The egg 
 mea^res 10^ by 6^ inches. 
 
 There is plenty of literature, and very interesting 
 
158 
 
 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 literature, about the Moos, but, imfortynately, the best 
 of it is not always accessible, being contained in the 
 " New Zealand Journal of Science " amd the " Transac- 
 tions of the New Zealand Institute.'''' The volume of 
 " Transactions " for 1893, being vol. xxvi., contains a 
 very full list of articles relating to the Moas, compiled 
 by Mr. A. Hamilton ; it will be fou/nd to commence on 
 page S29. There is a good article on Moa in Newton's 
 " Dictionary of Birds,'" a book that should be in every 
 library. 
 
 Fig. 32. — The Three Giants^ Phororhacos, Moa, Ostrich. 
 
IX 
 
 THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 
 
 "Said the little Eohippus 
 I am going to be a horse 
 And on my middle Jinger-nails 
 To run my earthly amrse." 
 
 The American whose ancestors came over in 
 the "Mayflower" has a proper pride in the 
 length of the line of his descent. The English- 
 man whose genealogical tree sprang up at the 
 time of WiUiam the Conqueror has, in its eight 
 centuries of growth, still larger occasion for 
 pluming himself on the antiquity of his family. 
 But the pedigree of even the latter is a thing 
 of yesterday when compared with that of the 
 horse, whose family records, according to Pro- 
 fessor Osbom, reach backward for something 
 like 2,000,000 years. And if, as we have been 
 told, " it is a good thing to have ancestors, but 
 sometimes a little hard on the ancestor," in this 
 
 1^9 
 
160 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 instance at least the founders of the family 
 have every reason to regard their descendants 
 with undisguised pride. For the horse family 
 started in Ufe in a small way, and the first of 
 the line, the Hyracotherium, was " a little an- 
 imal no bigger than a fox, and on five * toes 
 he scampered over Tertiary rocks," in the age 
 called Eocene, because it was the morning of 
 hfe for the great group of mammals whose cul- 
 minating point was man. At that time, west- 
 ern North America was a country of many 
 lakes, for the most part comparatively shallow, 
 around the reedy margins of which moved a 
 host of animals, quite unMke those of to-day, 
 and yet foreshadowing them, the forerunners 
 of the rhinoceros, tapir, and the horse. 
 
 The early horse — we may call him so by 
 courtesy, although he was then veiy far from 
 being a true horse — was an insignificant Uttle 
 creature, apparently far less likely to succeed 
 in Ufe's race than his bulky competitors, and 
 yet, by making the most of their opportunities, 
 
 * Four, to be exact ; hut we prefer to sacrifice the foot of 
 the Hyracothere rather than to take liberties with one of the 
 feet of Mrs. Stetson's poem. 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE l6l 
 
 his descendants have survived, while most of 
 theirs have dropped by the wayside; and 
 finally, by the aid of man, the horse has be- 
 
 Fig. 33. — Skeleton of the Modem Horse and of His 
 Eocene Ancestor. 
 
 come spread over the length and breadth of 
 the habitable globe. 
 
 Now right here it may be asked. How do 
 we know that the Uttle Hyracothere was the 
 
162 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 progenitor of the horse, and how can it be 
 shown that there is any bond of kinship be- 
 tween him and, for example, the great French 
 Percheron ? There is only one way in which 
 we can obtain this knowledge, and but one 
 method by which the relationship can be 
 shown, and that is by collecting the fossil re- 
 mains of animals long extinct and comparing 
 them with the bones of the recent horse, a 
 branch of science known as Palaeontology. It 
 has taken a very long time to gather the nec- 
 essary evidence, and it has taken a vast amount 
 of hard work in our western Territories, for 
 " the country that is as hot as Hades, watered 
 by stagnant alkali pools, is almost invariably 
 the richest in fossils." Likewise it has called 
 for the expenditure of much time and more pa- 
 tience to put together some of this petrified 
 evidence, fragmentary in every sense of the 
 word, and get it into such shape that it could 
 be handled by the anatomist. Still, the work 
 has been done, and, hnk by Unk, the chain has 
 been constructed that unites the horse of to-day 
 with the horse of very many yesterdays. 
 The very first links in this chaui are the re- 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE l63 
 
 mains of the bronze age and those found among 
 the ruins of the ancient Swiss lake dwell- 
 ings ; but earlier still than these are the bones 
 of horses found abundantly in northern Europe, 
 Asia, and America. The individual bones and 
 teeth of some of these horses are scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable from those of to-day, a fact noted 
 in the name, Equus fraternus, applied to one 
 species ; and when teeth alone are found, it is 
 at times practically impossible to say whether 
 they belong to a fossil horse or to a modern 
 animal. But when enough scattered bones are 
 gathered to make a fairly complete skeleton, it 
 becomes evident that the fossil horse had a pro- 
 portionately larger head and smaller feet than 
 his existing relative, and that he was a little 
 more hke an ass or zebra, for the latter, spite 
 of his gay coat, is a near relative of the lowly 
 ass. Moreover, primitive man made sketches 
 of the primitive horse, just as he did of the 
 mammoth, and these indicate that the horse of 
 those days was something like an overgrown 
 Shetland pony, low and heavily built, large- 
 headed and rough-coated. For the old cave- 
 dwellers of Europe were intimately acquainted 
 
164 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 with the prehistoric horses, using them for 
 food, as they did almost every animal that fell 
 beneath their flint arrows and stone axes. And 
 if one may judge from the abundance of bones, 
 the horses must have roamed about in bands, 
 just as the horses escaped from civilization 
 roam, or have roamed, over the pampas of 
 South America and the prairies of the West. 
 
 The horse was just as abundant in North 
 America in Pleistocene time as in Europe; 
 but there is no evidence to show that it was 
 contemporary with early man in North Amer- 
 ica, and, even were this the case, it is generally 
 believed that long before the discovery of 
 America the horse had disappeared. And yet, 
 so plentiful and so fresh are his remains, and 
 so much like those of the mustang, that the 
 late Professor Cope was wont to say that it 
 almost seemed as if the horse might have 
 lingered in Texas until the coming of the white 
 man. And Sir William Flower wrote : " There 
 is a possibility of the animal having stiU ex- 
 isted, in a wild state, in some parts of the con- 
 tinent remote from that which was first visited 
 by the Spaniards, , where they were certainly 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 165 
 
 unknown. It has been suggested that the 
 horses which were found by Cabot in La Plata 
 in 1530 cannot have been introduced." 
 
 Still we have not the least little bit of posi- 
 tive proof that such was the case, and although 
 the site of many an ancient Indian village has 
 been carefully explored, no bones of the horse 
 have come to Ught, or if they have been found, 
 bones of the ox or sheep were also present to 
 teU that the village was occupied long after 
 the advent of the whites. It is also a curious 
 fact that within historic times there have been 
 no wild horses, in the true sense of the word, 
 unless indeed those found on the steppes north 
 of the Sea of Azof be wild, and this is very 
 doubtful. But long before the dawn of history 
 the horse was domesticated in Europe, and 
 Caesar found the Germans, and even the old 
 Britons, using war chariots drawn by horses — 
 for the first use man seems to have made of 
 the horse was to aid him in killing off his fel- 
 low-man, and not until comparatively modern 
 times was the animal employed in the peace- 
 ful arts of agriculture. The immediate prede- 
 cessors of these horses were considerably 
 
166 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 smaller, being about the size and build of a 
 pony, but they were very much like a horse in 
 structure, save that the teeth were shorter. 
 As they lived during Phocene times, they have 
 been named " Pliohippus." 
 
 Going back into the past a step farther, 
 though a pretty long step if we reckon by 
 years, we come upon a number of animals very 
 much like horses, save for certain cranial pe- 
 culiarities and the fact that they had three 
 toes on each foot, while the horse, as every one 
 knows, has but one toe. Now, if we glance at 
 the skeleton of a horse, we will see on either 
 side of the canon-bone, in the same situation 
 as the upper part of the Uttle toes of the Hip- 
 potherium, as these three-toed horses are called, 
 a long slender bone, termed by veterinarians 
 the sphnt bone ; and it requires no anatomical 
 training to see that the bones in the two ani- 
 mals are the same. The horse lacks the lower 
 part of his side toes, that is aU, just as man 
 win very probably some day lack the last bones 
 of his httle toe. We find an approach to this 
 condition in some of the Hippotheres even, 
 known as Protohippus, in which the side toes 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE l67 
 
 are quite small, foreshadowing the time when 
 they shall have disappeared entirely. It may 
 also be noted here that the splint bones of the 
 horses of the bronze age are a little longer than 
 those of existing horses, and that they are 
 never united with the large central toe, while 
 nowadays there is something of a tendency for 
 the three bones to fuse into one, although part 
 of this tendency the writer beUeves to be due 
 to inflammation set up by the strain of the 
 pulling and hauling the animal is now called 
 upon to do. Some of these three-toed Hippo- 
 theres are not in the direct Une ot ancestry of 
 the horse, but are side branches on the family 
 tree, having become so highly speciaUzed in 
 certain directions that no further progress 
 horseward was possible. 
 
 Backward still, and the bones we find in the 
 Miocene strata of the West, belonging to those 
 ancestors of the horse to which the name of 
 Mesohippus has been given because they are 
 midway in time and structure between the 
 horse of the past and present, tell us that 
 then all horses were small and that all had 
 three toes on a foot, while the fore feet bore 
 
168 
 
 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 even the suggestion of a fourth toe. From 
 this to our Eocene Hj^acothere with four toes 
 is only another long-time step. We may go 
 even beyond this in time and structure, and 
 carry back the line of the horse to animals 
 
 ^ "Hi - , 
 
 LOWER £OCEWE|, itJtJlJOOOYPS, 
 
 I 
 
 SUPPOSED TYPE UNDISa»^ 
 -ERED ANCESTOR 
 
 PSOIOROHIPPUS KESOHIPPUS nE«2HIPPUS 
 
 VEXnCOLUS. COPE BAlin>ll, LCIW PRAESTANS. COPE 
 
 Fig. 34. — The Development 
 
 which only remotely resembled him and had 
 five good toes to a foot ; but while these con- 
 tained the possibility of a horse, they made no 
 show of it. 
 
 Increase in size and decrease in number of 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 169 
 
 the toes were not the only changes that were 
 required to transform the progeny of the Hy- 
 racothere into a horse. These are the most 
 evident ; but the increased complexity in the 
 structure of the teeth was quite as important. 
 
 npponicRiun 
 
 ISONCitUM. COPE 
 
 eauus cxcELSus 
 
 LEJDT 
 
 nUUS CUUJ.US. LINN 
 
 "Donesric horse" 
 
 of the Horse. 
 
 The teeth of gnawing animals have ofben been 
 compared to a chisel which is made of a steel 
 plate with soft iron backing, and the teeth of 
 a horse, or of other grass-eating animals, are 
 simply an elaboration of this idea. The hard 
 
170 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 enamel, which represents the steel, is set in 
 soft dentine, which represents the iron, and in 
 use the dentine wears away the faster of the 
 two, so that the enamel stands up in ridges, 
 each tooth becoming, as it is correctly termed, 
 " a grinder." In a horse the plates of enamel 
 form curved, complex, irregular patterns ; but 
 as we go back in time, the patterns become 
 less and less elaborate, until in the Hyraco- 
 there, standing at the foot of the family tree, 
 the teeth are very simple in structure. More- 
 over, his teeth were of limited growth, while 
 those of the horse grow for a considerable 
 time, thus compensating for the wear to which 
 they are subjected. 
 
 We have, then, this direct evidence as to 
 the genealogy of the horse, that between the 
 little Eocene Hyracothere and the modern 
 horse we can place a series of animals by 
 which we can pass by gradual stages from one 
 to the other, and that as we come upward 
 there is an increase in stature, in the com- 
 plexity of the teeth, and in the size of the 
 brain. At the same time, the number of toes 
 decreases, which tells that the animals were 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 171 
 
 developing more and more speed ; for it is a 
 rule that the fewer the toes the faster the ani- 
 mal : the fastest of birds, the ostrich, has but 
 two toes, and one of these is mostly ornamen- 
 tal ; and the fastest of mammals, the horse, 
 has but one. 
 
 All breeders of fancy stock, particularly of 
 pigeons and poultry, recognize the tendency 
 of animals to revert to the forms whence they 
 were derived and reproduce some character of 
 a distant ancestor; to "throw back," as the 
 breeders term it. If now, instead of repro- 
 ducing a trait or feature possessed by some 
 ancestor a score, a hundred, or perhaps a thou- 
 sand years ago, there should reappear a char- 
 acteristic of some ancestor that flourished 
 100,000 years back, we should have a seeming 
 abnormality, but really a case of reversion ; 
 and the more we become acquainted with the 
 structure of extinct animals and the develop- 
 ment of those now living, the better able are 
 we to explain these apparent abnormaUties. 
 
 Bearing in mind that the two splint bones 
 of the horse correspond to the upper portions 
 of the side toes of the Hippotherium and 
 
172 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Mesohippus, it is easy to see that if for any 
 reason these should develop into toes, they 
 would make the foot of a modern horse appear 
 like that of his distant ancestor. While such 
 a thing rarely happens, yet now and then nat- 
 ure apparently does attempt to reproduce a 
 horse's foot after the ancient pattern, for occa- 
 sionally we meet with a horse having, instead 
 of the single toe with which the average horse 
 is satisfied, one or possibly two extra toes. 
 Sometimes the toe is extra in every sense of 
 the word, being a mere duphcation of the cen- 
 tral toe ; but sometimes it is an actual devel- 
 opment of one of the splint bones. No less a 
 personage than Juhus Ceesar possessed one of 
 these polydactyl horses, and the reporters of 
 the Daily Roman and the Tiberian Gazette 
 doubtless wrote it up in good journalistic 
 Latin, for we find the horse described as hav- 
 ing feet that were almost human, and as being 
 looked upon with great awe. While this is 
 the most celebrated of extra-toed horses, other 
 and more plebeian individuals have been much 
 more widely known through having been ex- 
 hibited throughout the country under such 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 173 
 
 titles as "Clique, the horse with six feet," 
 " the eight-footed Cuban horse," and so on ; 
 and possibly some of these are familiar to 
 readers of this page. 
 
 So the collateral evidence, though scanty, 
 bears out the circumstantial proof, derived 
 from fossil bones, that the horse has developed 
 from a many-toed ancestor ; and the evidence 
 points toward the little Hyracothere as being 
 that ancestor. It remains only to show some 
 good reason why this development should 
 have taken place, or to indicate the forces by 
 which it was brought about. We have heard 
 much about "the survival of the fittest," a 
 phrase which simply means that those animals 
 best adapted to their surroundings wUl sur- 
 vive, while those ill adapted will perish. But 
 it should be added that it means also that the 
 animals must be able to adapt themselves to 
 changes in their environment, or to change 
 with it. Living beings cannot stand still in- 
 definitely ; they must progress or perish. And 
 this seems to have been the cause for the ex- 
 tinction of the huge quadrupeds that flour- 
 ished at the time of the three-toed Miocene 
 
174 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 horsed They were adapted to their environ- 
 ment as it was ; but when the western moun- 
 tains were thrust upward, cutting off the 
 moist winds from the Pacific, making great 
 changes in the rainfall and climate to the east- 
 ward of the Rocky Mountains, these big 
 beasts, slow of foot and dull of brain, could 
 not keep pace with the change, and their race 
 vanished from the face of the earth. The day 
 of the httle Hyracothere was at the beginning 
 of the great series of changes by which the 
 lake country of the West, with its marshy 
 flats and rank vegetation, became transformed 
 into dry uplands sparsely clad with fine 
 grasses. On these dry plains the more nimble- 
 footed animals would have the advantage in 
 the struggle for existence ; and while the four- 
 toed foot would keep its owner from sinking 
 in soft ground, he was handicapped when it 
 became a question of speed, for not only is a 
 fleet animal better able to flee from danger 
 than his slower fellows, but in time of drouth 
 he can cover the greater extent of territory 
 in search of food or Avater. So, too, as the 
 rank rushes gave place to fine grasses, often 
 
THE ANCESTRY OF THE HORSE 175 
 
 browned and withered beneath the summer's 
 sun, the complex tooth had an advantage over 
 that of simpler structure, while the cutting- 
 teeth, so completely developed in the horse 
 family, enabled their possessors to crop the 
 grass as closely as one could do it with scis- 
 sors. Likewise, up to a certain point, the 
 largest, most powerful animal will not only 
 conquer, or escape from, his enemies, but pre- 
 vail over rivals of his own kind as well, and 
 thus it came to pass that those early members 
 of the horse family who were preeminent in 
 speed and stature, and harmonized best with 
 their surroundings, outstripped their fellows 
 and transmitted these qualities to their prog- 
 eny, until, as a result of long ages of natural 
 selection, there was developed the modem 
 horse. The rest man has done: the heavy, 
 slow-paced dray horse, the fleet trotter, the 
 huge Percheron, and the diminutive pony are 
 one and all the recent products of artificial 
 selection. 
 
176 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 The best collection of fossil horses, and one specially 
 arranged to illustrate the line of descent of the modem 
 horse, is to be fovnd in the American Museum cf Natu- 
 ral History, New York, but some good specimens, of par- 
 ticular interest because they were described by Professor 
 Marsh and studied by Huxley are in the Vale University 
 Museum. They are referred to in Huxle'tfs ^'^ Amer- 
 ican Addresses ; Lectures on Evolution " " The 
 Horse^ by Sir W. H. Flower, discusses the horse in a 
 popular mMrmerfrom various points of view and contains 
 numerous references to books and articles on the subject 
 from which anyone wishing for further information could 
 obtain it. 
 
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X 
 
 THE MAMMOTH 
 
 " His legs were as thick as the bole of the beech, 
 His tusks as the buttonmood white, 
 While his lithe trunk wound like a sapling around 
 An oak in the whirlwind's might." 
 
 In the October number of McClure's Magazine for 1899 
 was published a short story, " The Killing of the Mammoth," 
 by " H. Tukeman," which, to the amazement of the editors, was 
 taJcen by many readers not as fiction, but as a contribution to 
 natural history. Immediately after the appearance of that 
 number of the magazine, the authorities of the Smithsonian In- 
 stitution, in which the author had located the remains of the 
 beast of his fancy, were beset with visitors to see the stuffed 
 mammoth, and the daily mail of the Magazine, as well as that 
 of the Smithsonian Institution, was filled 7mth inquiries for 
 more information and for requests to settle wagers as to whether 
 it was a true story or not. The contribution in question was 
 printed purely as fiction, with no idea of misleading the public, 
 and was entitled a story in the table of contents. We doubt if 
 any writer of realistic fiction ever had a more general and con- 
 vincing proof of success. 
 
 About three centuries ago, in 1696, a Russian, 
 one Ludloff by name, described some bones 
 
 177 
 
178 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 belonging to what the Tartars called " Mam- 
 antu " ; later on, Blumenbach pressed the com- 
 mon name into scientific use as " Mammut," 
 and Cuvier gaUicized this into " Mammouth," 
 whence by an easy transition we get our fam- 
 iliar mammoth. We are so accustomed to 
 use the word to describe anything of remark- 
 able size that it would be only natural to sup- 
 pose that the name Mammoth was given to 
 the extinct elephant because of its extraordi- 
 nary bulk. Exactly the reverse of this is true, 
 however, for the word came to have its present 
 meaning because the original possessor of the 
 name was a huge animal. The Siberian peas- 
 ants called the creature " Mamantu," or 
 " ground-dweUer," because they believed it to 
 be a gigantic mole, passing its life beneath the 
 ground and perishing when by any accident it 
 saw the Ught. The reasoning that led to this 
 belief was very simple and the logic very good; 
 no one had ever seen a live Mamantu, but 
 there were plenty of its bones lying at or near 
 the surface; consequently if the animal did not 
 live above the ground, it must dwell below. 
 To-day, nearly every one knows that the 
 
THE MAMMOTH 179 
 
 mammoth was a sort of big, hairy elephant, 
 now extinct, and nearly every one has a gen- 
 eral idea that it lived in the North. There is 
 some uncertainty as to whether the mammoth 
 was a mastodon, or the mastodon a mammoth, 
 and there is a great deal of misconception as 
 to the size and abundance of this big beast. It 
 may be said in passing that the mastodon is 
 only a second or third cousin of the mammoth, 
 but that the existing elephant of Asia is a very 
 near relative, certainly as near as a first cousin, 
 possibly a very great grandson. Popularly, the 
 mammoth is supposed to have been a colossus 
 somewhere from twelve to twenty feet in 
 height, beside whom modern elephants would 
 seem insignificant; but as "trout lose much in 
 dressing," so mammoths shrink in measuring, 
 and while there were doubtless Jumbos among 
 them ih the way of individuals of exceptional 
 magnitude, the majority were decidedly under 
 Jumbo's size. The only mounted mammoth 
 skeleton in this country, that in the Chicago 
 Academy of Sciences, is one of the largest, the 
 thigh-bone measuring five feet one inch in 
 length, or a foot more than that of Jumbo; 
 
180 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 and as Jumbo stood eleven feet high, the rule 
 of three applied to this thigh-bone would give 
 the living animal a height of thirteen feet 
 eight inches. The height of this specimen is 
 given as thirteen feet in its bones, with an es- 
 timate of fourteen feet in its clothes ; but as the 
 skeleton is obviously mounted altogether too 
 high, it is pretty safe to say that thirteen feet 
 is a good, fair allowance for the height of this 
 animal when alive. As for the majority of 
 mammoths, they would not average more than 
 nine or ten feet high. Sir Samuel Baker tells 
 us that he has seen plenty of wild African ele- 
 phants that would exceed Jumbo by a foot or 
 more, and while this must be accepted with 
 caution, since unfortunately he neglected to 
 put a tape-line on them, yet Mr. Thomas 
 Baines did measure a specimen twelve feet 
 high. This, coupled with Sir Samuel's state- 
 ment, indicates that there is not so much dif- 
 ference between the mammoth and the ele- 
 phant as there might be. This applies to the 
 mammoth par excellence, the species known 
 scientifically as Elephas primigenius, whose 
 remains are found in many parts of the North- 
 
THE MAMMOTH 181 
 
 em Hemisphere and occur abundantly in Si- 
 beria and Alaska, There were other elephants 
 than the mammoth, and some that exceeded 
 him in size, notably Elephas meridionalis of 
 southern Europe, and Elephas columbi of our 
 Southern and Western States, but even the 
 largest cannot positively be asserted to have 
 exceeded a height of thirteen feet. Tusks 
 offer convenient terms of comparison, and 
 those of an average fully grown mapimoth 
 are from eight to ten feet in length; those of 
 the famous St. Petersburg specimen and those 
 of the huge specimen in Chicago measuring 
 respectively nine feet three inches, and nine 
 feet eight inches. So far as the writer is 
 aware, the largest tusks actually measured are 
 two from Alaska, one twelve feet ten inches 
 long, weighing 190 pounds, reported by Mr. 
 Jay Beach; and another eleven feet long, 
 weighing 200 pounds, noted by Mr. T. L. 
 Brevig. Compared with these we have the 
 big tusk that used to stand on Fulton Street, 
 New York, just an inch under nine feet long, 
 and weighing 184 pounds, or the largest shown 
 at Chicago in 1893, which was seven feet six 
 
182 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 inches long, and weighed 176 pounds. The 
 largest, most beautiful tusks, probably, ever 
 seen in this country were a pair brought from 
 Zanzibar and displayed by Messrs. Tiffany & 
 Company in 1900. The measurements and 
 weights of these were as follows : length along 
 outer curve, ten feet and three-fourths of an 
 inch, circumference one foot, eleven inches, 
 weight, 224 pounds; length along outer curve, 
 ten feet, three and one-half inches, circumfer- 
 ence two feet and one-fourth of an inch, weight, 
 239 pounds. 
 
 For our knowledge of the external appear- 
 ance of the mammoth we are indebted to the 
 more or less entire examples which have been 
 found at various times in Siberia, but mainly 
 to the noted specimen found in 1799 near the 
 Lena, embedded in the ice, where it had been 
 reposing, so geologists teU us, anywhere from 
 10,000 to 50,000 years. How the creature 
 gradually thawed out of its icy tomb, and the 
 tusks were taken by the discoverer and sold 
 for ivory ; how the dogs fed upon the flesh in 
 summer, while bears and wolves feasted upon 
 it in winter; how the animal was within an 
 
THE MAMMOTH 183 
 
 ace of being utterly lost to science when, at 
 the last moment, the mutilated remains were 
 rescued by Mr. Adams, is an old story, often 
 
 Fig. 36. — Skeleton of the Mammoth in the Royal 
 Museum of St. Petersburg. 
 
 told and retold. Suffice it to say that, besides 
 the bones, enough of the beast was preserved 
 to tell us exactly what was the covering of this 
 
184 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 ancient elephant, and to show that it was a 
 creature adapted to withstand the northern 
 cold and fitted for living on the branches of 
 the birch and hemlock. 
 
 The exact birthplace of the mammoth is as 
 uncertain as that of many other great charac- 
 ters ; but his earliest known resting-place is in 
 the Cromer Forest Beds of England, a country 
 inhabited by him at a time when the German 
 Ocean was dry land and Great Britain part of 
 a peninsula. Here his remains are found to- 
 day, while from the depths of the North Sea 
 the hardy trawlers have dredged hundreds, aye 
 thousands, of mammoth teeth in company with 
 soles and turbot. If, then, the mammoth orig- 
 ated in western Europe, and not in that great 
 graveyard of fossil elephants, northern India, 
 eastward he went spreading over all Europe 
 north of the Pyrenees and Alps, save only 
 Scandinavia, whose glaciers offered no attrac- 
 tions, scattering his bones abundantly by the 
 wayside to serve as marvels for future ages. 
 Strange indeed have been some of the tales to 
 which these and other elephantine remains 
 have given rise when they came to hght in the 
 
THE MAMMOTH 185 
 
 good old days when knowledge of anatomy 
 was small and credulity was great. The least 
 absm-d theory concerning them was that they 
 were the bones of the elephants which Hanni- 
 bal brought from Africa. Occasionally they 
 were brought forward as irrefutable evidences 
 of the deluge ; but usually they figured as the 
 bones of giants, the most famous of them being 
 known as Teutobochus, King of the Cimbri, a 
 lusty warrior said to have had a height of nine- 
 teen feet. Somewhat smaller, but still of re- 
 spectable height, fourteen feet, was "Littell 
 Johne" of Scotland, whereof Hector Boece 
 wrote, concluding, in a moralizing tone, " Be 
 quilk (which) it appears how extravegant and 
 squaire pepiU grew in oure regioun afore they 
 were efFeminat with lust and intemperance of 
 mouth." More than this, these bones have 
 been venerated in Greece and Rome as the re- 
 mains of pagan heroes, and later on worshipped 
 as rehcs of Christian saints. Did not the 
 church of Valencia possess an elephant tooth 
 which did duty as that of St. Christopher, 
 and, so late as 1789, was not a thigh-bone, fig- 
 uring as the arm-bone of a saint, carried in 
 
186 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 procession through the streets in order to 
 bring rain ? 
 
 Out of Europe eastward into Asia the mam- 
 moth took his way, and having peopled that 
 vast region, took advantage of a land connec- 
 tion then existing between Asia and North 
 America and walked over into Alaska, in com- 
 pany with the forerunners of the bison and the 
 ancestors of the mountain sheep and Alaskan 
 brown bear. Still eastward and southward he 
 went, until he came to the Atlantic coast, the 
 latitude of southern New York roughly mark- 
 ing the southern boundary of the broad domain 
 over which the mammoth roamed undis- 
 turbed.* Not that of necessity all this vast area 
 was occupied at one time ; but this was the 
 range of the mammoth during Pleistocene 
 time, for over all this region his bones and 
 teeth are found in greater or less abundance 
 and in varying conditions of preservation. In 
 regions like parts of Siberia and Alaska, where 
 
 * This must be taken as a very general statement, as the dis- 
 tinction between and habitats of Elephas primigenius and Ele- 
 phas columbi, the southern mammoth, are not satisfactorily 
 determined ; moreover, the two species overlap through a tvide 
 area of the West and Northwest. 
 
THE MAMMOTH 187 
 
 the bones are entombed in a wet and cold, 
 often icy, soil, the bones and tusks are almost 
 as perfectly preserved as though they had been 
 deposited but a score of years ago, while re- 
 mains so situated that they have been sub- 
 jected to varying conditions of dryness and 
 moisture are always in a fragmentary state. 
 As previously noted, several more or less entire 
 carcasses of the mammoth have been discov- 
 ered in Siberia, only to be lost ; and, while no 
 entire animal has so far been found in Alaska, 
 some day one may yet come to light. That 
 there is some possibihty of this is shown by the 
 discovery, recorded by Mr. Dall, of the partial 
 skeleton of a mammoth in the bank of the 
 Yukon with some of the fat still present, and 
 although this had been partially converted into 
 adipocere, it was fresh enough to be used by 
 the natives for greasing, not their boots, but 
 their boats. And up to the present time this 
 is the nearest approach to finding a live mam- 
 moth in Alaska. 
 
 As to why the mammoth became extinct, 
 we know absolutely nothing, although various 
 theories, some much more ingenious than plans- 
 
188 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 ible, have been advanced to account for their 
 ^" extermination — they perished of starvation ; 
 i/they were overtaken by floods on their sup- 
 i^osed migrations and drowned in detachments; 
 wthey fell through the ice, equally in detach- 
 ^'^ments, and were swept out to sea. But all 
 we can safely say is that long ages ago 
 the last one perished off the face of the earth. 
 Strange it is, too, that these mighty beasts, 
 whose bulk was ample to protect them against 
 four-footed foes, and whose woolly coat was 
 proof against the cold, should have utterly van- 
 ished. They ranged from England eastward 
 to New York, almost around the world ; from 
 the Alps to the Arctic Ocean ; and in such 
 numbers that to-day their tusks are articles of 
 commerce, and fossil ivory has its price current 
 as well as wheat. Mr. Boyd Dawkins thinks 
 that the mammoth was actually exterminated 
 by early man, but, even granting that this 
 might be true for southern and western Eu- 
 rope, it could not be true of the herds that in- 
 habited the wastes of Siberia, or of the thou- 
 sands that flourished in Alaska and the western 
 United States. So far as man is concerned, 
 
THE MAMMOTH 189 
 
 the mammoth might still be living in these lo- 
 calities, where, before the discovery of gold 
 drew thousands of miners to Alaska, there were 
 vast stretches of wilderness wholly untrodden 
 by the foot of man. Neither could this theory 
 account for the disappearance of the mastodon 
 from North America, where that animal cov- 
 ered so vast a stretch of territory that man, 
 unaided by nature, could have made httle im- 
 pression on its numbers. That many were 
 swept out to sea by the flooded rivers of Si- 
 beria is certain, for some of the low islands off 
 the coast are said to be formed of sand, ice, 
 and bones of the mammoth, and thence, for 
 hundreds of years, have come the tusks which 
 are sold in the market beside those of the 
 African and Indian elephants. 
 
 That man was contemporary with the mam- 
 moth in southern Europe is fairly certain, for 
 not only are the remains of the mammoth and 
 man's flint weapons found together, but in a 
 few instances some primeval Landseer graved 
 on slate, ivory, or reindeer antler a sketchy 
 outhne of the beast, somewhat impressionistic 
 perhaps, but still, like the work of a true artist, 
 
190 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 preserving the salient features. We see the 
 curved tusks, the snaky trunk, and the shaggy 
 coat that we know belonged to the mammoth, 
 and we may feel assured that if early man did 
 not conquer the clumsy creature with fire and 
 flint, he yet gazed upon him from the safe 
 vantage point of some lofty tree or inaccessi- 
 ble rock, and then went home to tell his wife 
 and neighbors how the animal escaped because 
 his bow missed fire. That man and mammoth 
 lived together in North America is uncertain ; 
 so far there is no evidence to show that they 
 did, although the absence of such evidence is 
 no proof that they did not. That any live 
 mammoth has for centuries been seen on the 
 Alaskan tundras is utterly improbable, and on 
 Mr. C. H. Townsend seems to rest the respon- 
 sibility of having, though quite unintentionally, 
 introduced the Alaskan Live Mammoth into 
 the columns of the daily press. It befell in this 
 wise : Among the varied duties of our revenue 
 marine is that of patrolling and exploring the 
 shores of arctic Alaska and the waters of the 
 adjoining sea, and it is not so many years ago 
 that the cutter Corwin, if memory serves 
 
THE MAMMOTH 191 
 
 aright, held the record of farthest north on the 
 Pacific side. On one of these northern trips, 
 to the Kotzebue Sound region, famous for the 
 abundance of its deposits of mammoth bones,* 
 the Corwin carried Mr. Townsend, then natu- 
 rahst to the United States Fish Commission. 
 At Cape Prince of Wales some natives came 
 on board bringing a few bones and tusks of 
 the mammoth, and upon being questioned as 
 to whether or not any of the animals to which 
 they pertained were living, promptly replied 
 that all were dead, inquiring in turn if the 
 white men had ever seen any, and if they 
 knew how these animals, so vastly larger than 
 a reindeer, looked. 
 
 Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was on 
 board a text-book of geology containing the 
 well-known cut of the St. Petersburg mam- 
 moth, and this was brought forth, greatly to 
 the edification of the natives, who were de- 
 lighted at recognizing the curved tusks and 
 the bones they knew so well. Next the na- 
 
 * Elephant Point, at the mouth of the Buchland River, is so 
 named from the numbers of mammoth bones which have accumu- 
 lated there. 
 
192 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 tives wished to know what the outside of the 
 creature looked like, and as Mr. Townsend 
 had been at Ward's estabUshment in Roches- 
 ter when the first copy of the Stuttgart resto- 
 ration was made, he rose to the emergency, 
 and made a sketch. This was taken ashore, 
 together with a copy of the cut of the skele- 
 ton that was laboriously made by an Innuit 
 sprawled out at full length on the deck. Now 
 the Innuits, as Mr. Townsend tells us, are 
 great gadabouts, making long sledge journeys 
 in winter and equally long trips by boat in 
 summer, while each season they hold a regular 
 fair on Kotzebue Sound, where a thousand or 
 two natives gather to barter and gossip. On 
 these journeys and at these gatherings the 
 sketches were no doubt passed about, copied, 
 and recopied, until a large number of Innuits 
 had become well acquainted with the appear- 
 ance of the mammoth, a knowledge that natu- 
 rally they were well pleased to display to any 
 white visitors. Also, like the Celt, the Alas- 
 kan native delights to give a " soft answer," 
 and is always ready to fiirnish the kind of in- 
 formation desired. Thus in due time the news- 
 
THE MAMMOTH 193 
 
 paper man learned that the Alaskans could 
 make pictures of the mammoth, and that they 
 had some knowledge of its size and habits ; so 
 with inference and logic quite as good as that 
 of the Tungusian peasant, the reporter came 
 to the conclusion that somewhere in the frozen 
 wilderness the last survivor of the mammoths 
 must stiU be at large. And so, starting on 
 the Pacific coast, the Live Mammoth story- 
 wandered from paper to paper, untU it had 
 spread throughout the length and breadth of 
 the United States, when it was captured by 
 Mr. Tukeman, who with much artistic color 
 and some realistic touches, transferred it to 
 McClure's Magazine, and — unfortunately for 
 the officials thereof — to the Smithsonian In- 
 stitution. 
 
 And now, once for all, it may be said that 
 there is no mounted mammoth to awe the visitor 
 to the national collections or to any other; 
 and yet there seems no good and conclusive 
 reason why there should not be. True, there 
 are no hve mammoths to be had at any price ; 
 neither are their carcasses to be had on de- 
 mand; still there is good reason to believe 
 
194 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 that a much smaller sum than that said to 
 have been paid by Mr. Conradi for the mam- 
 moth which is not in the Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution, would place one there.* It probably 
 could not be done in one year ; it might not 
 be possible in five years ; but should any man 
 of means wish to secure enduring fame by 
 showing the world the mammoth as it stood in 
 life, a hundred centuries ago, before the dawn 
 of even tradition, he could probably accomplish 
 the result by the expenditure of a far less sum 
 than it would cost to participate in an interna- 
 tional yacht race. 
 
 * Since these lines were written another fine example of the 
 Mammoth has been discovered in Siberia and even nom (Oct., 
 1901 J an expedition is on its may to secure the skin and skele- 
 ton for the Academy of Natural Sciences at St. Petersburg. 
 
THE MAMMOTH 195 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 The mxnmted skeleton of the mammoth in the museum 
 of the Chicago Academy of Science is still the only one on 
 exhibition in the United States ; this specimen is probably 
 the Southern Mammoth, Elephas columbi, a species, or 
 race, characterized by its great size cmd the coarse struct- 
 ure of the teeth. Remains of the mammoth are common 
 enovgh but, save in Alaska, they are usually in a poor 
 state of preservation or consist of isolated bones or teeth. 
 A great many skeletons of mammoth have been found by 
 gold miners in Alaska, and with proper care some of 
 these could vmdoubtedly have been secured. Naturally, 
 however, the miners do not feel like taking the time and 
 trouble to exhume bones whose value is uncertain, while 
 the cost of transportation precludes the bringing out of 
 
 Some reports of mammoths have been based on the 
 bones of whales, including a skull that was figured in 
 the daily papers. 
 
 Almost every museum has on exhibition teeth of the 
 mammoth, and there is a skull, though from a small in- 
 dividual, of the Southern Mammoth in the American 
 Museum of Natural History, New York. 
 
 The tusk obtained by Mr. Beach and mentioned in 
 the text still holds the record for mammoth tusks. The 
 
196 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 greatest development of tusks occwrred in Elephas ga/ne- 
 sa, a species fownd in Pliocene deposits of the Siwcdik 
 Hills, India. This species appears not to have exceeded 
 the existing elephant in bulk, but the tusks are twelve feet 
 nine inches long, and two feet two incites in drcwnfer- 
 ence. How the animal ever carried them is a mystery, 
 both on account of their size and their enormous leverage. 
 As for teeth, an upper grinder of Elephas columbi in the 
 United States National Museum is ten and one-half 
 inches high, nine inches wide, the grinding face being 
 eight by five inches. This tooth, which is unusually per- 
 fect, retaining the outer covering of cement, came from 
 Afton, Indian Territory, and weighs a little over fifteen 
 pounds. The lower tooth, shown in Fig. 38, is twelve 
 inches long, and the grinding face is nine by three and 
 one-half inches; this is also from Elephas columbi. 
 Grinders of the Northern Mammoth are smaller, and the 
 plates of enrnnel thinner, and closer to one another. 
 Mr. F. E. Andrews, of Gunsight, Texas, reports hav- 
 ing found a femur, or thigh-bone five feet four inches 
 long, and a humerus measuring four feet three inches, 
 these being the largest bones on record indicating an 
 animal fourteen feet high. 
 
 There is a vast amount of literature relating to the 
 mammoth, some of it very untrustworthy. A list of aM 
 discoveries of specimens in the flesh is given by Nordens- 
 
THE MAMMOTH 197 
 
 kiold in " The Voyage of the Vega,"" and " The Mammoth 
 amd the Flood" hy Sir Henry Howorth, is a mime of in- 
 formation. Mr. Townsend''s "Alaska Live-Mammoth 
 Story " mny be fovmd in " Forest and Stream " for 
 August 14., 1897. 
 
 Fig. 37. — The Mammoth as Engraved by a Primitive 
 Artist on a Piece of Mammoth Tusk. 
 
XI 
 
 THE MASTODON 
 
 "... who shall place 
 A limit to the Rant's unchained strength ? " 
 
 The name mastodon is given to a number of 
 species of fossil elephants differing from the 
 true elephants, of which the mammoth is an 
 example, in the structure of the teeth. In the 
 mastodons the crown, or grinding face of 
 the tooth, is formed by more or less regular 
 y\-shaped cross ridges, covered with enamel, 
 while in the elephants the enamel takes the 
 form of narrow, pocket-shaped plates, set up- 
 right in the body of the tooth. Moreover, in 
 the mastodons the roots of the teeth are long 
 prongs, while in the elephants the roots are 
 small and irregular. A glance at the cuts will 
 show these distinctions better than they can 
 be explained by words. Back in the past, how- 
 ever, we meet, as we should if there is any truth 
 
 198 
 
THE MASTODON 199 
 
 in the theory of evolution, with elephants hav- 
 ing an intermediate pattern of teeth. 
 
 There is usually, or at least often, another 
 point of difference between elephants and mas- 
 todons, for many of the latter not only had 
 tusks in the upper, but in the lower jaw, and 
 these are never found in any of the true ele- 
 phants. The lower tusks are longer and larger 
 
 Fig. 38. — Tooth of Mastodon and of Mammoth. 
 
 in the earlier spepies of mastodon than in 
 those of more recent age and in the latest spe- 
 cies, the common American mastodon, the lit- 
 tle lower tusks were usually shed early in life. 
 These afford some hints of the relationships of 
 the mastodon ; for in Europe are found re- 
 mains of a huge beast well called Dinotheri- 
 um, or terrible animal, which possessed lower 
 tusks only, and these, instead of sticking out 
 
200 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 from the jaw are bent directly downwards. 
 No perfect skull of this creature has yet been 
 found, but it is beUeved to have had a short 
 trunk. For a long time nothing but the skull 
 was known, and some naturalists thought the 
 animal to have been a gigantic manatee, or sea 
 cow, and that the tusks were used for tearing 
 food from the bottom of rivers and for anchor- 
 ing the animal to the bank, just as the walrus 
 uses his tusks for digging clams and climbing 
 out upon the ice. In the first restorations of 
 Dinotherium it is represented lying amidst 
 reeds, the feet concealed from view, the head 
 alone visible, but now it is pictured as stand- 
 ing erect, for the discovery of massive leg- 
 bones has definitely settled the question as to 
 whether it did or did not have limbs. 
 
 There is another hint of relationship in the 
 upper tusks of the earher mastodons, and this 
 is the presence of a band of enamel running 
 down each tusk. In all gnawing animals the 
 front, cutting teeth are formed of soft dentine, 
 or ivory, faced with a plate of enamel, just as 
 the blade of a chisel or plane is formed of a 
 plate of tempered steel backed with soft iron ; 
 
THE MASTODON 201 
 
 the object of this being the same in both tooth 
 and chisel, to keep the edge sharp by wearing 
 away the softer material. In the case of the 
 chisel this is done by a man with a grindstone, 
 but Avith the tooth it is performed automat- 
 ically and more pleasantly by the gnawing of 
 food. In the mastodon and elephant the tusks, 
 which are the representatives of the cutting 
 teeth of rodents, are wide apart^ and of course 
 do not gnaw anything, but the presence of 
 these enamel bands hints at a time when they 
 and their owner were smaller and differently 
 shaped, and the teeth were used for cutting. 
 Thus, great though the disparity of size may 
 be, there is a suggestion that through the mas- 
 todon the elephant is distantly related to the 
 mouse, and that, could we trace their respec- 
 tive pedigrees far enough, we might find a com- 
 mon ancestor. 
 
 This presence of structures that are appar- 
 ently of no use, often worse than useless, is 
 regarded as the survival of characters that once 
 served some good purpose, hke the famiUar 
 buttons on the sleeve or at the back of a man's 
 coat, or the bows and ruffles on a woman's 
 
202 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 dress. We are told that these are put on " to 
 make the dress look pretty," but the student 
 regards the bows as vestiges of the time when 
 there were no buttons and hooks and eyes had 
 not been invented, and dresses were tied to- 
 gether with strings or ribbons. As for ruffles, 
 they took the place of flounces, and flounces 
 are vestiges of the time when a young woman 
 wore the greater part of her wardrobe on her 
 back, putting on one dress above another, the 
 bottoms of the skirts showing hke so many 
 flounces. So buttons, ruffles, and the vermi- 
 form appendix of which we hear so much all 
 fall in the category of vestigial structures. 
 
 Where the mastodons originated, we know 
 not: Senor Ameghino thinks their ancestors 
 are to be found in Patagonia, and he is very 
 probably wrong ; Professor Cope thought they 
 came from Asia, and he is probably right ; or 
 they may have immigrated from the conven- 
 ient Antarctica, which is called up to account 
 for various facts in the distribution of animals.* 
 
 * During the past year, 1901, Mr. C. W. Andrews of the 
 British Museum has discovered in Egypt a small and prirrdtive 
 species of mastodon, also the remains of another animal which he 
 
THE MASTODON 203 
 
 Neither do we at present know just how many 
 species of mastodons there may have been in 
 the Western Hemisphere, for most of them are 
 known from scattered teeth, single jaws, and 
 odd bones, so that we cannot tell just what dif- 
 ferences may be due to sex or individual varia- 
 tion. It is certain, however, that several dis- 
 tinct kinds, or species, have inhabited various 
 parts of North America, while remains of others 
 occur in South America. The mastodon, how- 
 ever, the one most recent in point of time, and 
 the best known because its remains are scat- 
 tered far and wide over pretty much the length 
 and breadth of the United States, and are 
 found also in southern and western Canada, 
 is the well-named Mastodon americanus* and 
 unless otherwise specified this alone will be 
 meant when the name mastodon is used. In 
 some localities the mastodon seems to have 
 abounded, but between the Hudson and Con- 
 necticut Rivers indications of its former pres- 
 
 thinks may be the long sought ancestor of the elephant family, 
 which includes the mammoth and mastodon. 
 
 * This has also been called giganteus and ohioticus, but the 
 name americanus claims priority, and should therefore be used. 
 
204 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 ence are rare, and east of that they are practi- 
 cally wanting. The best preserved specimens 
 come from Ulster and Orange Counties, New 
 York, for these seem to have furnished the 
 animal with the best facilities for getting mired. 
 Just west of the CatskiUs, parallel with the 
 vaUey of the Hudson, is a series of meadows, 
 bogs, and pools marking the sites of swamps 
 that came into existence after the recession of 
 the mighty ice-sheet that long covered eastern 
 North America, and in these many a masto- 
 don, seeking for food or water, or merely wal- 
 lowing in the mud, stuck fast and perished 
 miserably. And here to-day the spade of the 
 farmer as he sinks a ditch to drain what is left 
 of some beaver pond of bygone days, strikes 
 some bone as brown and rugged as a root, so 
 Uke a piece of water-soaked wood that nine 
 times out of ten it is taken for a fragment of 
 tree-trunk. 
 
 The first notice of the mastodon in North 
 America goes back to 1712, and is found in a 
 letter from Cotton Mather to Dr. Woodward 
 (of England?) written at Boston on November 
 17th, in which he speaks of a large work in 
 
THE MASTODON 205 
 
 manuscript entitled Biblia Americana, and 
 gives as a sample a note on the passage in Gen- 
 esis (VI. 4) in which we read that " there 
 were giants in the earth in those days." We 
 are told that this is confirmed by " the bones 
 and teeth of some large animal found lately in 
 Albany, in New England, which for some 
 reason he thinks to be human ; particularly a 
 tooth brought from the place where it was 
 found to New York in 1705, being a very large 
 grinder, weighing four pounds and three quar- 
 ters ; with a bone supposed to be a thigh-bone, 
 seventeen feet long," the total length of the 
 body being taken as seventy-fiive feet. Thus 
 bones of the mastodon, as well as those of the 
 mammoth, have done duty as those of giants. 
 And as the first mastodon remains recorded 
 from North America came from the region 
 west of the Hudson, so the first fairly com- 
 plete skeleton also came from that locality, 
 secured at a very considerable outlay of money 
 and a stiU more considerable expenditure of 
 labor by the exertions of C. W. Peale. This 
 specimen was described at some length by 
 Rembrandt Peale in a privately printed pam- 
 
206 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 phlet, now unfortunately rare, and described 
 in some respects better than has been done by 
 any subsequent writer, since the points of dif- 
 ference between various parts of the mastodon 
 and elephant were clearly pointed out. This 
 skeleton was exhibited in London, and after- 
 wards at Peale's Museum in Philadelphia 
 where, with much other valuable material, it 
 was destroyed by fire. 
 
 Struck by the evident crushing power of the 
 great ridged molars, Peale was led to believe 
 that the mastodon was a creature of carnivor- 
 ous habits, and so described it, but this error 
 is excusable, the more that to this day, when 
 the mastodon is well known, and its description 
 published time and again in the daily papers, 
 finders of the teeth often consider them as be- 
 longing to some huge beast of prey. 
 
 Since the time of Peale several fine speci- 
 mens have been taken fi'om Ulster and Orange 
 Counties, among them the well-known " War- 
 ren Mastodon," and there is not the slightest 
 doubt that many more will be recovered from 
 the meadows, swamps, and pond holes of these 
 two counties. 
 
208 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 The next mastodon to appear on the scene 
 was the so-called Missourium of Albert Koch, 
 which he constructed somewhat as he did the 
 Hydrarchus (see p. 61) of several individuals 
 pieced together, thus forming a skeleton that 
 was a monster in more ways than one. To 
 heighten the effect, the curved tusks were so 
 placed that they stood out at right angles to 
 the sides of the head, like the swords upon 
 the axles of ancient war chariots. Like Peale's 
 specimen this was exhibited in London, and 
 there it still remains, for, stripped of its super- 
 fluous bones, and remounted, it may now be 
 seen in the British Museum. 
 
 Many a mastodon has come to light since 
 the time of Koch, for while it is commonly 
 supposed that remains of the animal are great 
 rarities, as a matter of fact they are quite 
 common, and it may safely be said that during 
 the seasons of ditching, draining, and well-dig- 
 ging not a week passes without one or more 
 mastodons being unearthed. Not that these 
 are complete skeletons, very far from it, the 
 majority of finds are scattered teeth, crum- 
 bhng tusks, or massive leg-bones, but still the 
 
THE MASTODON 209 
 
 mastodon is far commoner in the museums of 
 this country than is the African elephant, for 
 at the present date there are eleven of the 
 former to one of the latter, the single skeleton 
 of African elephant being that of Jumbo in 
 the American Museum of Natural History. 
 If one may judge by the abundance of bones, 
 mastodons must have been very numerous 
 in some favored localities such as parts of 
 Michigan, Florida, and Missouri and about 
 Big Bone Lick, Ky. Perhaps the most note- 
 worthy of aU deposits is that at Kimmswick, 
 about twenty miles south of St. Louis, where 
 in a limited area Mr. L. W. Beehler has ex- 
 humed bones representing several hundred 
 individuals, varying in size from a mere baby 
 mastodon up to the great tusker whose worn- 
 out teeth proclaim that he had reached the 
 limit of even mastodonic old age. The spot 
 where this remarkable deposit was found is at 
 the foot of a bluff near the junction of two 
 little streams, and it seems probable that in 
 the days when these were larger the spring 
 floods swept down the bodies of animals that 
 had perished during the winter to ground in 
 
210 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 an eddy beneath the bluff. Or as the place 
 abounds in springs of sulphur and salt water 
 it may be that this was where the animals 
 assembled during cold weather, just as the 
 moas are believed to have gathered in the 
 swamps of New Zealand, and here the weaker 
 died and left their bones. 
 
 The mastodon must have looked very much 
 like any other elephant, though a Uttle shorter 
 in the legs and somewhat more heavily built 
 than either of the Uving species, while the 
 head was a trifle flatter and the jaw decidedly 
 longer. The tusks are a variable quantity, 
 sometimes merely bowing outwards, often 
 curving upwards to form a half circle ; they 
 were never so long as the largest mammoth 
 tusks, but to make up for this they were a 
 shade stouter for their length. As the masto- 
 don ranged well to the north it is fair to sup- 
 pose that he may have been covered with long 
 hair, a supposition that seems to be borne out 
 by the discovery, noted by Rembrandt Peale, of 
 a mass of long, coarse, woolly hair buried in one 
 of the swamps of Ulster County, New York. 
 And with these facts in mind, aided by photo- 
 
THE MASTODON 211 
 
 graphs of various skeletons of mastodons, Mr. 
 Gleeson made the restoration which accom- 
 panies this chapter. 
 
 As for the size of the mastodon, this, like 
 that of the mammoth, is popularly much over- 
 estimated, and it is more than doubtfiil if any 
 attained the height of a full-grown African 
 elephant. The largest femur, or thigh-bone, 
 that has come under the writer's notice was 
 one he measured as it lay in the earth at 
 Kimmswick, and this was just four feet long, 
 three inches shorter than the thigh-bone of 
 Jumbo. Several of the largest thigh-bones 
 measured show so striking an unanimity in 
 size, between 46 and 47 inches in length, that 
 we may be pretty sure they represent the aver- 
 age old " bull " mastodon, and if we say that 
 these animals stood ten feet high we are 
 probably doing them full justice. An occa- 
 sional tusk reaches a length of ten feet, but 
 seven or eight is the usual size, with a diameter 
 of as many inches, and this is no larger than 
 the tusks of the African elephant would grow 
 if they had a chance. It is painful to be 
 obliged to scale down the mastodon as we have 
 
212 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 just done the mammoth, but if any reader 
 knows of specimens larger than those noted, 
 he should by all means pubUsh their measure- 
 ments.* 
 
 The disappearance of the mastodon is as dif- 
 ficult to account for as that of the mammoth, 
 and, as wiU be noted, there is absolutely no 
 evidence to show that man had any hand in it. 
 Neither can it be ascribed to change of cUmate, 
 for the mastodon, as indicated by the wide dis- 
 tribution of its bones, was apparently adapted 
 to a great diversity of climates, and was as 
 much at home amid the cool swamps of Mich- 
 igan and New York as on the warm savannas 
 of Florida and Louisiana. Certainly the much 
 used, and abused, glacial epoch cannot be held 
 accountable for the extermination of the creat- 
 ure, for the mastodon came into New York 
 after the recession of the great ice-sheet, and 
 tarried to so late a date that bones buried in 
 
 * As skeletons are sometimes mounted, they stand a full foot 
 or more higher at the shoulders than the animal stood in life, 
 this being caused hy raising the body until the shoulder-blades 
 are far belotv the tips of the vertebrce, a position they never as- 
 sume in life. 
 
THE MASTODON 213 
 
 the swamps retain much of theu- animal mat- 
 ter. So recent, comparatively speaking, has 
 been the disappearance of the mastodon, and 
 so fresh-looking are some of its bones, that 
 Thomas Jefferson thought in his day that it 
 might still be living in some part of the then 
 unexplored Northwest. 
 
 It is a moot question whether or not man 
 and the mastodon were contemporaries in 
 North America, and while many there be who, 
 like the writer of these lines, believe that this 
 was the case, an expression of behef is not a 
 demonstration of fact. The best that can be 
 said is that there are scattered bits of testi- 
 mony, shght though they are, which seem to 
 point that way, but no one so strong by itself 
 that it could not be shaken by sharp cross- 
 questioning and enable man to prove an alibi 
 in a trial by jury. For example, in the great 
 bone deposit at Kimmswick, Mo., Mr. Beehler 
 found a flint arrowhead, but this may have lain 
 just over the bone-bearing layer, or have got 
 in by some accident in excavating. How easily 
 a mistake may be made is shown by the report 
 sent to the United States National Museum of 
 
214 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 many arrowheads associated with mastodon 
 bones in a spring at Afton, Indian Territory. 
 This spring was investigated, and a few masto- 
 don bones and flint arrowheads were found, 
 but the latter were in a stratum just above the 
 bones, although this was overlooked by the first 
 diggers.* Koch reported finding charcoal and 
 arrowheads so associated with mastodon bones 
 that he inferred the animal to have been de- 
 stroyed by fire and arrows after it became 
 mired. It has been said that Koch could have 
 had no object in disseminating this report, and 
 hence that it may be credited, but he had just 
 as much interest in doing this as he did in fab- 
 ricating the Hydrarchus and the Missom-ium, 
 and his testimony is not to be considered se- 
 riously. It seems to be with the mastodon 
 much as it is with the sea-serpent ; the latter 
 never appears to a naturahst, remains of the 
 former are never found by a trained observer 
 
 * This locality has just been carefully investigated by Mr. 
 W. H. Holmes of the United States National Museum who 
 found bones of the mastodon and Southern Mammoth associated 
 with arrowheads. But he also found fresh bones of bison, 
 horse, and tvolf showing that these and the arrowheads had 
 simply sunk to the level of the older deposit. 
 
THE MASTODON 215 
 
 associated with indications of the presence of 
 man. Perhaps an exception should be made 
 in the case of Professor J, M. Clarke, who 
 found fragments of charcoal in a deposit of 
 muck under some bones of mastodon. 
 
 We may pass by the so-called "Elephant 
 Mound," which to the eye of an unimaginative 
 observer looks as if it might have been in- 
 tended for any one of several beasts ; also, with 
 bated breath and due respect for the bitter con- 
 troversy waged over them, pass we by the ele- 
 phant pipes. There remains, then, not a bit 
 of man's handiwork, not a piece of pottery, en- 
 graved stone, or scratched bone that can un- 
 hesitatingly be said to have been wrought into 
 the shape of an elephant before the coming of 
 the white man. True, there is " The Lenape 
 Stone," foimd near Doyleston, Pa., in 1872, 
 a gorget graven on one side with the represen- 
 tation of men attacking an elephant, while the 
 other bears a number of figures of various an- 
 imals. The good faith of the finder of this 
 stone is unimpeachable, but it is a curious fact 
 that, while this gorget is elaborately decorated 
 on both sides, no similar stone, out of all that 
 
216 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 have been found, bears any image whatsoever. 
 On the other hand, if not made by the aborig- 
 ines, who made it, why was it made, and why 
 did nine years elapse between the discovery of 
 the first and second portions of the broken or- 
 nament ? These are questions the reader may 
 decide for himself; the author will only say 
 that to his mind the drawing is too elaborate, 
 and depicts entirely too much to have been 
 made by a primitive artist. A much better bit 
 of testimony seems to be presented by a fi-ag- 
 ment of Fulgur shell found near HoUyoak, 
 Del., and now in the United States National 
 Museum, which bears a very rudely scratched 
 image of an animal that may have been in- 
 tended for a mastodon or a bison. This piece 
 of shell is undeniably old, but there is, unfort- 
 unately, the uncertainty just mentioned as to 
 the animal depicted. The famUiar legend of 
 the Big Buffalo that destroyed animals and 
 men and defied even the hghtnings of the 
 Great Spirit has been thought by some to 
 have originated in a tradition of the mastodon 
 handed down from ancient times ; but why 
 consider that the mastodon is meant ? Why 
 
THE MASTODON 217 
 
 not a legendary bison that has increased with 
 years of story-telling? And so the co-exist- 
 ence of man and mastodon must rest as a case 
 of not proven, although there is a strong prob- 
 ability that the two did live together in the 
 dim ages of the past, and some day the evi- 
 dence may come to light that will prove it be- 
 yond a peradventure. If scientific men are 
 charged with obstinacy and unwarranted in- 
 credulity in decUning to accept the testimony 
 so far presented, it must be remembered that 
 the evidence as to the existence of the sea 
 serpent is far stronger, since it rests on the tes- 
 timony of eye-witnesses, and yet the creature 
 himself has never been seen by a trained ob- 
 server, nor has any specimen, not a scale, a 
 tooth, or a bone, ever made its way into any 
 museum. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 There are at least eleven mmmted skeletons of the 
 Mastodon m the United States, and the writer trusts he 
 may he pardoned for mentioning ordy those which are 
 most accessible. These are in the American Museum of 
 Natural History ^ New YorJc; the State Mmetmi, 41- 
 
218 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 hcmy, N. Y. ; Field Columlnan Museum, Chicago ; Car- 
 negie Museum, Pittshwrg; Museum of Comparative 
 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. There is no mmmted skele- 
 ton in the United States National Museum, nor has there 
 ever been. 
 
 The heaviest pair of tusks is in the possession of T. O. 
 Tuttle, Seneca, Mich., and they are nine amd one-half 
 inches in diameter, and a little over eight feet long; 
 very few tusks, however, reach eight inches in diameter. 
 The thigh-bone of an old male mastodon meoMtres from 
 forty-five to forty-six and one-half inches long, the hu- 
 merus from thirty-Jive to forty inches. The height of 
 the mounted skeleton is of little value as an indication of 
 size, since it depends so much upon the manner in which 
 the skeleton is mounted. The grinders of the mastodon 
 have three cross ridges, save the last, which has four, and 
 a final elevation, or heel. This does not apply to the 
 teeth of very young animals. The presence or absence 
 of the last grinder will show whether or not the amkndl is 
 of full age and size, while the amount of wear indicates 
 the comparative age of the spechnen. 
 
 The skeleton of the " Warren Mastodon " is described 
 at length by Dr. J. C. Warren, in a quarto volivme en- 
 titled " Mastodon Gigamteus.'" There is much imforma- 
 tion in a little book by J. P. MacLean, "Mastodon, 
 Mammoth, and Man," but the reader must not accept all 
 its statements unhesitatingly. The first volume, 1887, 
 
THE MASTODON 
 
 219 
 
 cf the New Scribner's Magazine contains am. article on 
 " American Elephant Myths,"" by Professor W. B. Scott, 
 hut he is under am, erroneous impression regarding the 
 size of the mastodon, amd photographs of the Maya 
 carvings show that their resemblance to elephants has been 
 exaggerated in the wood cuts. The story of the Lenape 
 Stone is told at length by H. C. Mercer in " Tlie Lenape 
 Stone, or the Indian and the Mammoth.'" 
 
 Fig. 41. — The Lenape Stone, Reduced. 
 
xn 
 
 WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 
 
 " And Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp 
 Abode his destined Hour and went his way." 
 
 It is often asked " why do animals become ex- 
 tinct ? " but the question is one to which it is 
 impossible to give a comprehensive and satis- 
 factory reply ; this chapter does not pretend 
 to do so, merely to present a few aspects of 
 this complicated, many-sided problem. 
 
 In very many cases it may be said that act- 
 ual extermination has not taken place, but 
 that in the course of evolution one species has 
 passed into another ; species may have been 
 lost, but the race, or phylum endures, just as 
 in the growth of a tree, the twigs and branches 
 of the sapling disappear, while the tree, as a 
 whole, grows onward and upward. This is 
 what we see in the horse, which is the living 
 representative of an unbroken line reaching 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 221 
 
 back to the little Eocene Hyracothere. So in 
 a general way it may be said that much of 
 what at the first glance we might term extinc- 
 tion is really the replacement of one set of 
 animals by another better adapted to surround- 
 ing conditions. 
 
 Again, there are many cases of animals, and 
 particularly of large animals, so peculiar in 
 their make up, so very obviously adapted to 
 their own special surroundings that it requires 
 little imagination to see that it would have 
 been a difficult matter for them to have re- 
 sponded to even a shght change in the world 
 about them. Such great and necessarily slug- 
 gish brutes as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus, 
 with their tons of flesh, small heads, and feeble 
 teeth, were obviously reared in easy circum- 
 stances, and unfitted to succeed in any strenu- 
 ous struggle for existence. Stegosaurus, with 
 his bizarre array of plates and spines, and huge- 
 headed Triceratops, had evidently carried spe- 
 cialization to an extreme, while in turn the 
 carnivorous forms must have required an abun- 
 dant supply of slow and easily captured prey. 
 
 Coming down to a more recent epoch, when 
 
222 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 the big Titanotheres flourished, it is easy to see 
 from a glance at their large, simple teeth 
 that these beasts needed an ample provision of 
 coarse vegetation, and as they seem never to 
 have spread far beyond their birthplace, cli- 
 matic change, modifying even a comparatively 
 limited area, would suffice to sweep them out 
 of existence. To use the epitaph proposed by 
 Professor Marsh for the tombstone of one of 
 the Dinosaurs, many a beast might say, " I, 
 and my race perished of over speciaUzation." 
 To revert to the horse it will be remembered 
 that this very fate is beheved to have overtaken 
 those almost horses the European Hippotheres ; 
 they reached a point where no further progress 
 was possible, and fell by the wayside. 
 
 There is, however, still another class of cases 
 where species, families, orders, even, seem to 
 have passed out of existence without sufficient 
 cause. Those great marine reptiles, the Ich- 
 thyosaurs, of Europe, the Plesiosaurs and Mo- 
 sasaurs, of our own continent, seem to have 
 been just as well adapted to an aquatic life as 
 the whales, and even better than the seals, and 
 we can see no reason why Columbus should 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 223 
 
 not have found these creatures still disporting 
 themselves in the Gulf of Mexico. The best 
 we can do is to fall back on an unknown " law 
 of progress," and say that the trend of hfe is 
 toward the replacement of large, lower animals 
 by those smaller and intellectually higher. 
 
 But why there should be an allotted course 
 to any group of animals, why some species 
 come to an end when they are seemingly as 
 well fitted to endure as others now living, we 
 do not know, and if we say that a time comes 
 when the germ-plasm is incapable of fiui;her 
 subdivision, we merely express om- ignorance 
 in an unnecessary number of words. The 
 mammoth and mastodon have already been 
 cited as instances of animals that have unac- 
 countably become extinct, and these examples 
 are chosen from among many on account of 
 theu- striking nature. The great ground sloths, 
 the Mylodons, Megatheres, and their allies, are 
 another case in point. At one period or an- 
 other they reached from Oregon to Virginia, 
 Florida, and Patagonia, though it is not 
 claimed that they covered aU this area at one 
 time. And, while it may be freely admitted 
 
2t4 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 that in some portions of their range they may 
 have been extirpated by a change in food-sup- 
 ply, due in turn to a change in climate, it seems 
 preposterous to claim that there was not at all 
 times, somewhere in this vast expanse of terri- 
 tory, a cUmate mild enough and a food-supply 
 large enough for the support of even these 
 huge, sluggish creatures. We may evoke the 
 aid of primitive man to account for the disap- 
 pearance of this race of giants, and we know 
 that the two were coeval in Patagonia, where 
 the sloths seem to have played the role of do- 
 mesticated animals, but again it seems incred- 
 ible that early man, with his flint-tipped spears 
 and arrows, should have been able to slay even 
 such slow beasts as these to the very last indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 Of course, in modem times man has directly 
 exterminated many animals, while by the in- 
 troduction of dogs, cats, pigs, and goats he has 
 indirectly not only thinned the ranks of ani- 
 mals, but destroyed plant life on an enormous 
 scale. But in the past man's capabilities for 
 harm were infinitely less than now, while of 
 course the greatest changes took place before 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 225 
 
 man even existed, so that, while he is responsi- 
 ble for the great changes that have taken place 
 in the world's flora and fauna during recent 
 times, his influence, as a whole, has been insig- 
 nificant. Thus, while man exterminated the 
 great northern sea-cow, Rytina, and Pallas's 
 cormorant on the Commander Islands, these 
 animals were already restricted to this circum- 
 scribed area* by natural causes, so that man 
 but finished what nature had begun. The ex- 
 termination of the great auk in European 
 waters was somewhat similar. There is, how- 
 ever, this unfortunate difference between ex- 
 termination wrought by man and that brought 
 about by natural causes : the extermination of 
 species by nature is ordinarily slow, and the 
 place of one is taken by another, while the de- 
 struction wrought by man is rapid, and the gaps 
 he creates remain unfilled. 
 
 Not so very long ago it was customary to 
 account for changes in the past life of the 
 globe by earthquakes, volcanic outbursts, or 
 
 * It is possible that the cormorant may always have been con- 
 JiTied to this one spot, but this is probably twt the case with the 
 sea-cow. 
 
226 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 cataclysms of such appalling magnitude that 
 the whole face of nature was changed, and en- 
 tire races of hving beings swept out of exist- 
 ence at once. But it is now generally conceded 
 that while catastrophes have occurred, yet, vast 
 as they may have been, their effects were com- 
 paratively local, and, while the life of a limited 
 region may have been ruthlessly blotted out, 
 Ufe as a whole was but httle affected. The 
 eruption of Krakatoa shook the earth to its cen- 
 tre and was felt for hundreds of miles around, 
 yet, while it caused the death of thousands of 
 hving beings, it remains to be shown that it 
 produced any effect on the life of the region 
 taken in its entirety. 
 
 Changes in the hfe of the globe have been in 
 the main slow and gradual, and in response to 
 correspondingly slow changes in the level of 
 portions of the earth's crust, with their far- 
 reaching effects on temperature, climate, and 
 vegetation. Animals that were what is termed 
 plastic kept pace with the altering conditions 
 about them and became modified, too, while 
 those that could not adapt themselves to their 
 surroundings died out. 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 227 
 
 How slowly changes may take place is 
 shown by the occurrence of a depression in the 
 Isthmus of Panama, in comparatively recent 
 geologic time, permitting free communication 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific, a sort of nat- 
 ural inter-oceanic canal. And yet the altera- 
 tions wrought by this were, so to speak, super- 
 ficial, affecting only some species of shore fishes 
 and invertebrates, having no influence on the 
 animals of the deeper waters. Again, on the 
 Pacific coast are now found a number of shells 
 that, as we learn from fossils, were in Pliocene 
 time common on both coasts of the United 
 States, and Mr. DaU interprets this to mean 
 that when this continent was rising, the steeper 
 shore on the Pacific side permitted the sheU-fish 
 to move downward and adapt themselves to 
 the ever changing shore, while on the Atlantic 
 side the drying of a wide strip of level sea-bot- 
 tom in a relatively short time exterminated a 
 large proportion of the less active moUusks. 
 And in this instance " relatively short " means 
 positively long ; for, compared to the rise of a 
 continent from the ocean's bed, the flow of a 
 glacier is the rapid rush of a mountain torrent. 
 
228 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 Then, too, while a tendency to vary seems to 
 be inherent in animals, some appear to be vastly 
 more susceptible than others to outside influ- 
 ences, to respond much more readily to any 
 change in the world about them. In fact, Pro- 
 fessor Cook has recently suggested that the in- 
 born tendency to variation is sufficient in itself 
 to account for evolution, this tendency being 
 either repressed or stimulated as external con- 
 ditions are stable or variable. 
 
 The more uniform the surrounding condi- 
 tions, and the simpler the animal, the smaller 
 is the liability to change, and some animals 
 that dwell in the depths of the ocean, where 
 light and temperature vary little, if any, re- 
 main at a standstill for long periods of time. 
 
 The genus Lingula, a small shell, traces its 
 ancestry back nearly to the base of the Ordo- 
 vician system of rocks, an almost inconceivable 
 lapse of time, while one species of brachiopod 
 shell endures unchanged from the Trenton 
 Limestone to the Lower Carboniferous. In 
 the first case one species has been replaced by 
 another, so that the shell of to-day is not ex 
 actly like its very remote ancestor, but that 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 229 
 
 the tjrpe of shell should have remained un- 
 changed when so many other animals have 
 arisen, flourished for a time, and perished, 
 means that there was slight tendency to varia- 
 tion, and that the surrounding conditions were 
 uniform. Says Professor Brooks, speaking of 
 Lingula: " The everlasting hiUs are the type of 
 venerable antiquity ; but Lingula has seen the 
 continents grow up, and has maintained its in- 
 tegrity unmoved by the convulsions which 
 have given the crust of the earth its present 
 form." 
 
 Many instances of sudden but local exter- 
 mination might be adduced, but among them 
 that of the tile-fish is perhaps the most strik- 
 ing. This fish, belonging to a tropical family 
 having its headquarters in the Gulf of Mexico, 
 was discovered in 1879 in moderately deep 
 water to the southward of Massachusetts and 
 on the edge of the Gulf Stream, where it was 
 taken in considerable numbers. In the spring 
 of 1882 vessels arriving at New York reported 
 having passed through great numbers of dead 
 and dying fishes, the water being thickly dotted 
 with them for miles. From samples brought 
 
230 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 in, it was found that the majority of these were 
 tile-fish, while from the reports of various ves- 
 sels it was shown that the area covered by dead 
 fish amounted to somewhere between 5,000 
 and 7,500 square miles, and the total number 
 of dead was estimated at not far from a billion. 
 This enormous and widespread destruction is 
 believed to have been caused by an unwonted 
 duration of northerly and easterly winds, which 
 drove the cold arctic current inshore and south- 
 wards, chOling the warm belt in which the tile- 
 fish resided and killing all in that locality. It 
 was thought possible that the entire race might 
 have been destroyed, but, while none were 
 taken for many years, in 1899 and in 1900 a 
 number were caught, showing that the species 
 was beginning to reoccupy the waters from 
 which it had been driven years before. 
 
 The effect of any great fall in temperature 
 on animals specially adapted to a warm cUmate 
 is also illustrated by the destruction of the 
 Manatees in the Sebastian River, Florida, by 
 the winter of 1894-95, which came very near 
 exterminating this species. Readers may re- 
 member that this was the winter that wrought 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 231 
 
 such havoc with the blue-birds, while in the 
 vicinity of Washington, D. C, the fish-crows 
 died by hundreds, if not by thousands. 
 
 Fishes may also be exterminated over large 
 areas by outbursts of poisonous gases from 
 submarine volcanoes, or more rarely by some 
 vast lava flood pouring into the sea and actually 
 cooking all living beings in the vicinity. And 
 in the past these outbreaks took place on a 
 much larger scale than now, and naturally 
 wrought more widespread destruction. 
 
 A recent instance of local extermination is 
 the total destruction of a humming-bird, Bel- 
 lona ornata, peculiar to the island of St. Vin- 
 cent, by the West Indian hurricane of 1898, 
 but this is naturally extirpation on a very small 
 scale. 
 
 Still, the problems of nature are so involved 
 that while local destruction is ordinarily of 
 little importance, or temporary in its effects, it 
 may lead to the annihilation of a species by 
 breaking a race of animals into isolated groups, 
 thereby leading to inbreeding and slow decUne. 
 The European bison, now confined to a part of 
 Lithuania and a portion of the Caucasus, seems 
 
232 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 to be slowly but surely approaching extinction 
 in spite of aU efforts to preserve the race, and 
 no reason can be assigned for this save that the 
 small size of the herds has led to in-breeding 
 and general decadence. 
 
 In other ways, too, local calamity may be 
 sweeping in its effects, and that is by the de- 
 struction of animals that resort to one spot dur- 
 ing the breeding season, hke the fur-seals and 
 some sea-birds, or pass the winter months in 
 great flocks or herds, as do the ducks and elk. 
 The supposed decimation of the Moas by severe 
 winters has been already discussed, and the 
 extermination of the great auk in European 
 waters was indirectly due to natural causes. 
 These birds bred on the small, almost inac- 
 cessible island of Eldey, off the coast of Ice- 
 land, and when, through volcanic disturbances, 
 this islet sank into the sea, the few birds were 
 forced to other quarters, and as these were, un- 
 fortunately, easily reached, the birds were slain 
 to the last one. 
 
 From the great local abundance of their re- 
 mains, it has been thought that the curious 
 short-legged PHocene rhinoceros, Aphelopsfos- 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 233 
 
 siger, was killed off in the West by blizzards 
 when the animals were gathered in their win- 
 ter quarters, and other long-extinct animals, 
 too, have been found under such conditions as 
 to suggest a similar fate. 
 
 Among local catastrophes brought about by 
 unusually prolonged cold may be cited the 
 decimation of the fur-seal herds of the Prib- 
 ilof Islands in 1834 and 1859, when the breed- 
 ing seals were prevented from landing by the 
 presence of ice-floes, and perished by thou- 
 sands. Peculiar interest is attached to this 
 case, because the restriction of the northern 
 fur-seals to a few isolated, long undiscovered 
 islands, is believed to have been brought about 
 by their complete extermination in other lo- 
 cahties by prehistoric man. Had these two 
 seasons kiUed all the seals, it would have been 
 a reversal of the customary extermination by 
 man of a species reduced in numbers by nature. 
 
 In the case of large animals another element 
 probably played a part. The larger the ani- 
 mal, the fewer young, as a rule, does it bring 
 forth at a birth, the longer are the intervals 
 between births, and the slower the growth of 
 
234 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 the young. The loss of two or three broods 
 of sparrows or two or three htters of rabbits 
 makes comparatively little difference, as the 
 loss is soon supplied, but the death of the 
 young of the larger and higher mammals is a 
 more serious matter. A factor that has prob- 
 ably played an important r61e in the extinction 
 of animals is the relation that exists between 
 various animals, and the relations . that also 
 exist between animals and plants, so that the 
 existence of one is dependent on that of an- 
 other. Thus no group of Uving beings, plants 
 or animals, can be affected without in some 
 way affecting others, so that the injury or 
 destruction of some plant may result in seri- 
 ous harm to some animal. Nearly everyone is 
 familiar with the classic example given by Dar- 
 win of the effect of cats on the growth of red 
 clover. This plant is fertilized by bumble bees 
 only, and if the field mice, which destroy the 
 nests of the bees, were not kept in check by 
 cats, or other small carnivores, their increase 
 would lessen the numbers of the bees and this 
 in turn would cause a dearth of clover. 
 
 The yuccas present a still more wonderfiil 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 235 
 
 example of the dependence of plants on ani- 
 mals, for their existence hangs on that of a 
 small moth whose peculiar structure and hab- 
 its bring about the fertilization of the flower. 
 The two probably developed side by side until 
 their present state of inter-dependence was 
 reached, when the extinction of the one would 
 probably bring about that of the other. 
 
 It is this inter-dependence of living things 
 that makes the outcome of any direct inter- 
 ference with the natural order of things more 
 or less problematical, and sometimes brings 
 about results quite different from what were 
 expected or intended. 
 
 The gamekeepers on the grouse moors of 
 Scotland systematically kUled off all birds of 
 prey because they caught some of the grouse, 
 but this is believed to have caused far more 
 harm than good through permitting weak and 
 sickly birds, that would otherwise have fallen 
 a prey to hawks, to live and disseminate the 
 grouse distemper. 
 
 The destruction of sheep by coyotes led the 
 State of California to place a bounty on the 
 heads of these animals, with the result that in 
 
236 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 eighteen month^ the State was called upon to 
 pay out $187,485. As a result of the war on 
 coyotes the animals on which they fed, notably 
 the rabbits, increased so enormously that in 
 turn a bounty was put on rabbits, the damage 
 these animals caused the fi^it-growers being 
 greater than the losses among sheep-owners 
 from the depredations of coyotes. And so, 
 says Dr. Palmer, " In this remarkable case 
 of legislation a large bounty was offered by a 
 county in the interest of fruit-growers to coun- 
 teract the effects of a State bounty expended 
 mainly for the benefit of sheep-owners 1 " 
 
 Professor Shaler, in noting the sudden dis- 
 appearance of such trees as the gums, magno- 
 lias, and tuhp poplars from the Miocene flora 
 of Europe has suggested that this may have 
 been due to the attacks, for a series of years, 
 of some insect enemy like the gipsy moth, and 
 the theory is worth considering, although it 
 must be looked upon as a possibility rather 
 than a probability. StiU, anyone familiar with 
 the ravages of the gipsy moth in Massachu- 
 setts, where the insect was introduced by ac- 
 cident, can readily imagine what might have 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 237 
 
 been the eifect of some sudden increase in the 
 numbers of such a pest on the forests of the 
 past. Trees might resist the attacks of ene- 
 mies and the destruction of their leaves for" 
 two or three years, but would be destroyed by 
 a few additional seasons of defdUation. 
 
 Ordinarily the abnormal increase of any in- 
 sect is promptly followed by an increase in the 
 number of its enemies ; the pest is killed off, 
 the destroyers die of starvation and nature's 
 balance is struck. But if by some accident, 
 such as two or three consecutive seasons of 
 wet, drought, or cold, the natural increase of 
 the enemies was checked, the balance of nature 
 would be temporarily destroyed and serious 
 harm done. That such accidents may occur 
 is familiar to us by the damage wrought in 
 Florida and other Southern States by the un- 
 wonted severity of the winters of 1893, 1895, 
 and 1899. 
 
 If any group of forest trees was destroyed in 
 the manner suggested by Professor Shaler, the 
 eflfects would be felt by various plants and ani- 
 mals. In the first place, the insects that fed 
 on these trees would be forced to seek another 
 
238 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 source of food and would be brought into a 
 silent struggle with forms already in posses- 
 sion, while the destruction of one set of plants 
 would be to the advantage of those with which 
 they came into competition and to the disad- 
 vantage of vegetation that was protected by 
 the shade. Finally, these changed conditions 
 would react in various ways on the smaller 
 birds and mammals, the general effect being, 
 to use a well-worn simile, Uke that of casting 
 a stone into a quiet pool and setting in motion 
 ripples that sooner or later reach to every part 
 of the margin. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to warn the reader 
 that for the most part this is purely conjectu- 
 ral, for from the nature of the case it is bound 
 to be so. But it is one of the characteristics 
 of educated man that he wishes to know the 
 why and wherefore of everything, and is in a 
 condition of mental unhappiness until he has 
 at least formulated some theory which seems 
 to harmonize with the visible facts. And 
 from the few glimpses we get of the extinction 
 of animals from natural causes we must formu- 
 late a theory to fit the continued extermina- 
 
WHY DO ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT? 239 
 
 tion that has been taking place ever since liv- 
 ing beings came into the world and were pitted 
 against one another and against their sur- 
 roundings in the silent and ceaseless struggle 
 for existence. 
 
xin 
 
 A RETROSPECT 
 
 The twelve years that have elapsed since this 
 book was issued have added much to our 
 knowledge of Animals of the Past and have 
 greatly increased our acquaintance with the 
 structure of these creatures, big and little, and 
 of the conditions under which they hved. And 
 through our increased knowledge of ani- 
 mals, we gain a better knowledge of ancient 
 geography, of the former extent of the conti- 
 nents and of the way in which the present dis- 
 tribution of land animals has been brought 
 about. 
 
 Exploration of the desert region of the 
 Fayum, northeastern Africa, has led to the dis- 
 covery of the ancestor of the elephant ; and as 
 the horse is descended from a four-toed ances- 
 tor no bigger than a collie dog, so the elephant, 
 and his extinct gigantic relatives, the mammoth 
 and mastodon, trace their pedigree back to a 
 
 240 
 
A RETROSPECT 241 
 
 creature in size and appearance something be- 
 tween a pig and a tapir, with only good-sized 
 canine teeth to suggest the future appearance 
 of tusks: Moeritherium this animal has been 
 called. In this same region lived a race of 
 huge animals, curiously suggestive of the Ti- 
 tanotheres of our western Miocene. Here, 
 too, have been found the forerunners of our 
 modern sea cows, manatees and dugongs, very 
 much like their modern relatives, but possess- 
 ing — ^as theoretically they should — ^hind pad- 
 dles as well as fore. 
 
 The additions to our knowledge of those 
 huge and ever-interesting reptiles, the Dino- 
 saurs, have been many and important. 
 
 From the Cretaceous of Alberta comes 
 Ankylosaurus clad in armor of bony plates 
 from tip of nose to end of tail, a beast some 15 
 feet long aptly described by Lull as "the most 
 ponderous animated citadel the world has ever 
 seen." And yet he and his kindred have been 
 swept out of existence as completely as if he 
 were naked. From our west, too, comes Ty- 
 rannosaurus, well-named tyrant lizard, for he 
 was absolutely the most formidable creature 
 th'at ever stalked the earth; a creature standing 
 
242 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 when erect 18 feet high, with talons fit to hold 
 an ox, and double-edged dagger-like teeth two 
 and three inches long set in a mouth with a 
 yard wide gape. Seemingly nothing living 
 could have withstood the attack of such a 
 monster: and yet he, too, played his part and 
 succumbed to the slow and insidious attacks of 
 a changing climate and gradually progressing 
 world of life. 
 
 Brontosaurus and Diplodocus no longer hold 
 the record for size: discoveries in Central 
 Africa and in our own western states have re- 
 vealed the former existence of still more gi- 
 gantic reptiles, peculiar in the great length of 
 their fore legs, standing as high as a small 
 house and with a body quite as large. An 
 idea of their size may be gained from the fact 
 that the thigh bone of one of these creatures 
 was 6 feet 9 inches long and a rib 9 feet in 
 length. 
 
 Discoveries in Russia, the United States and 
 Africa have thrown much additional light on 
 the strange reptiles of the Permian age and in- 
 creased the probability that in them we have a 
 clue to the ancestors of mammals. 
 
 Our knowledge of the past history of birds 
 
A RETROSPECT 243 
 
 remains practically unchanged, we know a few 
 more species; one or two remarkable forms, 
 like the giant vulture of La Brea, greatest of 
 the birds of flight, but we have no new light on 
 the origin and early variations of birds. An 
 additional specimen of the toothed diver, 
 Hesperornis, confirms the conclusions made re- 
 garding the pose of the legs and shows that 
 they did extend at right angles to the body. 
 
 One of the most interesting discoveries, part- 
 ly because of its peculiar nature, has been that 
 of the asphalt beds at La Brea, Southern Cali- 
 fornia. Here the soft, sticky beds of asphalt, 
 besprinkled with little pools of water, served as 
 a gigantic trap for unsuspecting animals of the 
 Pleistocene. Hither, if we read the story 
 aright, came great ground sloths to quench 
 their thirst and here they became first caught, 
 then engulfed in the treacherous pitch. It 
 needs the pen of Wells to depict the tragedies 
 that took place about this innocent looking, 
 black hearted lake of pitch; to tell of the 
 mighty struggles of ponderous Mylodon to 
 free himself from the trap only at each throe to 
 sink a little deeper in its semi-solid depths. 
 Then we see the prowling wolf of those days 
 and the vicious sabre-toothed tiger snarUng and 
 
244 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 quarreling over their helpless, hapless prey 
 only to find themselves in turn trapped and 
 slowly sucked down to death. Nor did the 
 chain of destruction end here, for birds of 
 prey, eagles and vultures, flocking to the scene, 
 also became ensna,red and perished miserably. 
 Truly, as Dr. White so well put it, Nature is 
 extravagantly wasteful and terribly cruel. 
 
 From the discoveries thus briefly touched 
 upon, we are enabled to make certain general 
 deductions in regard to the geography of the 
 past. It is clear that for a long time Africa 
 and South America were, like Australia, inde- 
 pendent continents within which were slowly 
 developed peculiar and curious forms. Later 
 on, when Africa was united with Europe and 
 Asia, its huge elephants migrated east and 
 west into new territory and established them- 
 selves for a while over practically the whole 
 northern hemisphere. Similarly, South Amer- 
 ica, in Pliocene times, was united with North 
 America and the Giant Ground Sloths, Mega- 
 therium and Mylodon, with some of the quaint 
 armored glyptodons, slowly made their way 
 along the coast to Florida and even South 
 Carolina. 
 
 And then came the evening of these races of 
 
A RETROSPECT 245 
 
 great lumbering animals and one by one they 
 fell by the wayside leaving only two species of 
 elephants as reminders of the time when the 
 greater part of the world was theirs. 
 
 It has been, and it is, an ever changing 
 world. The great diflFerence between past and 
 present is that now by the agency of man it is 
 changing much more rapidly. Man with his 
 disregard of the past and small thought of the 
 future destroys in a year what it took Nature 
 ages to produce — ^man sweeps away forests, 
 the growth of centuries, and with them wipes 
 out of existence races of animals that represent 
 the culmination of thousands of years of evo- 
 lution ever onward and upward. 
 
 With the disappearance of the forests comes 
 the shrinking of streams and at the same time 
 the sweeping away by floods of fertile soil that 
 results from long ages of growth. 
 
 Moreover, man turns his attention to his 
 fellow man and blots out whole races, or, if 
 they survive, it is with changed customs. 
 
 We live, as we are often told, in a period of 
 transition and no one with certainty may pre- 
 dict the outcome. Meanwhile Nature, who 
 has in Time a mute but resistless ally, smiles 
 atj, or tolerates, the ravages of pimy man. 
 
246 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
 
 There is good reason to believe that we of the 
 northern hemisphere may be living in the midst 
 of an interglacial epoch, and, if this be so, that 
 even now slowly but relentlessly the hosts of 
 the ice king are being marshalled to dispossess 
 man of his fair heritage in the north. Twice, 
 at least, in the past, our northern states, as well 
 as Europe, have been buried beneath thous- 
 ands of feet of ice and snow even as is the 
 south pole to-day. Gradually is being as- 
 sembled the army that will sweep man before 
 it even as it did the mammoth and mastodon in 
 past ages: advancing a few feet this year, re- 
 treating a foot or two next season, but never 
 losing all the ground it has gained, the great 
 ice sheet is slowly shaping out of mist and snow 
 the vast fighting machine that will drive man 
 from the populous cities of the north. And 
 who shall say that 100,000 years from now, 
 when the great earth pendulum has swung the 
 other way, some race of supermen, working 
 northwards as the climate changes, may not be 
 investigating the site of this museiun and re- 
 constructing the habits of the poor, unintelli- 
 gent inhabitants of what was once New York. 
 
 American Museum of Natural History. 
 March 1, 191S. 
 
A RETROSPECT 247 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 Examples of the various animals mentioned in this 
 chapter, as well as in the others, will be fownd in the 
 American Museum of Natural History. Among them 
 may be mentioned a mounted skeleton of Brontosau- 
 rus, two of Trachodon (Thespesius) and the remark- 
 able "mummied" specimen showing the texture of the 
 skin. The skull and limbs of the great predatory 
 Tyrannosaurus are shown, pending the construction 
 of an addition to the Museum that will provide room 
 for the complete skeletons. 
 
 The historic Warren Mastodon was acquired some 
 years ago and is placed near the skeletons of Ju/mbo 
 and of a mammoth from Indiana. The past history 
 of the horse is very completely illustrated not only by 
 many examples of feet and skulls, but by numerous 
 complete skeletons showing well the progress from 
 the little four-toed Eohippus- — as he is now called — 
 to the modern horse. What differences in size and 
 build have taken place in recent times through the 
 agency of man is shown by skeletons of recent horses 
 varying in size and build from the massive dray horse 
 to the graceful Arabian and the Shetland Pony. 
 Those especially interested in the horse may obtain 
 very complete information from the Guide Leaflet on 
 the Evolution of the Horse. 
 
 Other exhibits deal with the brief (comparatively) 
 but remarkable career of the great Titanotheres, and 
 the evolution of the camel, while the great Mylodon 
 and his relatives and the asphalt trap of La Brea 
 with its prey are both displayed. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 The asterisk denotes that the animal or object is figured 
 on or opposite the page referred to. 
 
 iEpyomis, egg of, 145, 148,* 147, 157 
 
 eggs found in swamps, 148 ; found floating, 148 
 
 eggs used for bowls, 145 
 
 origin of fable of Roc, 144, 145 
 Alaskan Live Mammoth Story, 190-193, 197 
 Anomcepus tracks, 39 
 Apteryx egg, 147 
 Archaeopteryx, description of, 77, 78 
 
 discovery of, 77 
 
 earliest known bird, 70 
 
 restoration, 89* 
 
 specimens of, 70,* 88 
 
 wing, 72,* 73 
 Archelon, a great turtle, 54 
 
 Basilosaurus, 60 
 
 See also Zeuglodon 
 Beehler, L. W., 209, 213 
 Birds, always clad in feathers, 71, 127 
 
 earliest, 70 
 
 351 
 
252 INDEX 
 
 Birds, first intimation of, 76 
 
 rarity of fossil, 86i 87 
 
 related to reptiles, 92 
 
 wings of embryonic, 73 
 
 with teeth, 79, 88 
 Bison, European, 231 
 Books of reference, xix, 17, 32, 47, 69, 89, 110, 187, 
 
 158, 176, 197, 218 
 Breeding of large animals, 233 
 Brontornis, size of leg-bones, 149 
 Brontosaurus, size of bones, 96,* 97,* 109 
 Brooks, W. K., on Lingula, 229 
 Buffalo legend, 216 
 Buttons as vestigial structures, 202 
 
 Carcharodon ainriculatus, 66 
 
 teeth, 66 
 
 megalodon, 65 
 
 estimated size, 66 
 
 teeth, 65, 67 
 Carson City footprints, 46 
 Casts, how formed, 10, 11 
 Cats and clover, 234 
 Cephalaspis, 24* 
 Ceratosaurus, habits, 106 
 
 restoration, 106* 
 
 skull, 110* 
 Changes in Nature slow, 227 
 Cheirotherium, 43 
 
INDEX 253 
 
 Chlamydosaurus, 129 
 
 Claosatirus. See Thespesius 
 
 Climate, changes in western United States, 174 
 
 Clover and cats, 234 
 
 Cold, effects of, on animals, 230, 231, 233 
 
 Cold winters, 230 
 
 CoUecting fossils, 17, 112-116 
 
 Color of large land animals, 134 
 
 of yoimg animals, 136 
 Covering of extinct animals sometimes indicated, 131, 
 
 132 
 Coyotes, effect of their destruction on fruit, 236 
 
 Dall, W. H., theory as to extinction of mollusks, 
 
 227 
 Dinosaurs, bones of, 109, 110 
 
 brain of, 93 
 
 collections of, 109 
 
 compared to marsupials, 95 
 
 first discovered, 90 
 
 food required by, 98 
 
 hip-bones mistaken for shoulder-blade, 120 
 
 Professor Marsh's epitaph for, 222 
 
 range, 92 
 
 recognized as new order of reptiles, 91 
 
 related to ostrich and alligator, 91 
 
 size of, 95, 96, 98 
 
 tracks, ascribed to birds, 88 
 Dinotherium, 200 
 
264 INDEX 
 
 Diplodocus, estimated weight, 99 
 supposed habits, 99 
 
 Egg of ^pyomis, 147, 148 ; Apteryx, 147 ; Ostrich, 
 
 146; Moa, 148 
 Eggs, casts of, 87 
 Elephant, size, 180 
 
 size of tusks, 181, 182 
 Elephas ganesa, tusks, 196 
 Encrustations, 14 
 Extermination. See Extinction 
 Extinction, ascribed to great convulsions, 225 
 
 ascribed to primitive man, 188, 224 
 
 of Dinosaurs, 221 
 
 local, 225 
 
 by man, 224, 225 
 
 of Marine Reptiles, 222 
 
 often unaccountable, 222, 223 
 
 of Pliocene rhinoceros, 232 
 
 sometimes evolution, 221, 226 
 
 of Titanotheres, 222 
 
 Feathers, imprints of, 76, 132 
 Fishes, abundance of, 25 
 
 armored, 23, 24, 25, 28 
 
 collections of, 32 
 
 killed by cold, 230 
 
 killed by volcanoes, 231 
 Fish-crows, killed by cold, 231 
 Flesh does not petrify, 10 
 
INDEX 255 
 
 Flightless birds, absent from Tasmania, 155 
 
 present distribution, 154, 155 
 
 relation between flightlessness and size, 156 
 Folds and frills, 129 
 Footprints, collections of, 47 
 
 books on, 47 
 
 See also under Tracks 
 Fossil birds, reirity of, 86 
 Fossil mfin, 13 
 
 Fossilization a slow process, 10 
 Fossils, conditions under which they are formed, 6, 7 
 
 collecting, 112-116 
 
 definition of, 1 
 
 deformation of, 16 
 
 impressions, 2, 3 
 
 not necessarily petrifactions, 2 
 
 preparation of, 117-119 
 
 why they are not more common, 5, 15, 16 
 Fowls, muscles of, 81 
 Frill of Triceratops, 102 
 Fur-seals killed by ice-floes, 233 
 
 Gar pikes, destruction of, 26 
 
 Giant birds, reasons for distribution and flightlessness, 
 
 153 
 Giant Moa, 141 
 
 leg compared with that of horse, 152* 
 Giant Sloth, domesticated by man, 224 
 
 struggle between, 46 
 
256 INDEX 
 
 Giant Sloth, tracks at Carson City, 46 
 Gilfort, Robert, 167 
 Great Auk, extermination of. 
 Grouse on Scotch moors, 
 
 Hawkins, B. W., restorations by, 137 
 Hesperornis, description of, 80 
 impressions of feathers, 132 
 position of legs, 83, 84 
 restoration of, 82* 
 Hippotherium, 166, 167 
 Hoactzin, habits of, 74, 76* 
 Horn does not petrify, ISO 
 Horse, abundant in Pleistocene time, 164 
 
 books on, 176 
 
 of bronze age, 163, 167 
 
 collections of fossil, 176 
 
 development of, 167, 168,* 175 
 
 differences between fossil and living, 163 
 
 early domestication, 165 
 
 evidence as to genealogy, 170-173 
 
 extra-toed, 172, 173 
 
 found in South America in 1630, 166 
 
 of Julius Caesar, 172 
 
 none found wild in historic times, 165 
 
 Pliocene, 166 
 
 possibility of existence in America up to the time 
 of its discovery, 169, 170 
 
 primitive, 160, 161* 
 
INDEX 257 
 
 Horse, sketched by primitive man, 163 
 
 teeth of, 170 
 
 three-toed, 166 
 Humming-bird, exterminated by hurricane, 231 
 Hydrarchus, 62* 
 Hyracotherium, 160, 161,* 170, 174 
 
 Ichthyosaurs, silhouettes of, 132 
 Iguanodons, foimd at Bemissart, 104 
 Impressions of feathers, 131 
 
 of scales, 131 
 
 of skin, 131 
 Inbreeding, elFects of, 231, 232 
 Information, sources of, xvi 
 Innuits, habits, 192 
 
 Interdependence of animals a;nd plants, 234, 235, 238 
 Ivory, fossil, 2, 4, 188, 189 
 
 Jaw of Mosasaur, 54* 
 of reptiles, 53 
 
 Killing of the Mammoth, story, 177, 193 
 Kimmswick, deposit of Mastodon bones, 209 
 Knight, Charles R., restorations by, xviii, 136 
 Koch's Hydrarchus, 61, 62* 
 Missourium, 207,* 208 
 
 Leaves, impressions of, 3, 13 
 Leg of Brontomis, 149* 
 
258 INDEX 
 
 Leg of the Great Brontosaurus, 96* 
 
 of Giant Moa, 152* 
 
 position in Hesperomis, 83 
 
 positiion in ducks, 84 
 Lenape Stone, 216, 216, 219* 
 Life, earliest traces of, 21, 34 
 Lingula, antiquity of, 228 
 
 Professor Brooks on, 229 
 Loricaria, 24* 
 
 Mammoth, adapted to a cold climate, 134 
 Alaskan Live, Story, 190 
 believed to live underground, 178 
 bones taken for those of giants, 185 
 contemporary with man, 189 
 derivation of name, 178 
 description, 179 
 
 discovery of entire specimens, 183, 187 
 distribution, 184, 186 
 drawn by early man, 189, 197* 
 entire specimens obtainable, 194 
 reasons for extermination, 188 
 killing of the, 177 
 literature on, 197 
 misconception as to size, 179 
 moimted skeleton, 179 
 not now living, 190 
 presei-vation of remains, 187 
 skeletons in Alaska, 181, 195 
 
INDEX 
 
 Mammoth, in Chicago Academy of Sciences, 179 
 
 at St. Petersburg, 183* 
 
 restoration, 176 * 
 
 size, 179, 180, 181 
 
 size of tusks, 181, 196 
 
 teeth, 196, 199* 
 
 teeth dredged in North Sea, 184 
 
 tusks brought into market, 188, 189 
 Man contemporary with Mammoth, 189 
 
 fossil, 13 
 
 of Guadeloupe 13 
 Manatees killed by cold, S30 
 Marsh, Prof. O. C, collection of fossil horses, 176 
 
 on Dinosaurs, 222 
 
 on toothed birds, 79, 89 
 Mastodon, bones taken for those of giants, 205 
 
 thought to be carnivorous, 206 
 
 covering, 210 
 
 description, 210 
 
 distribution, 203, 210, 21* 
 
 extinction, 212 
 
 literature, 218 
 
 and man, 215, 216 
 
 first noticed in America, 204 
 
 origin unknown, 202 
 
 remains abundant, 208, 209 
 
 remains in Ulster and Orange counties. New York, 
 204, 206 
 
 restoration, 210* 
 
260 INDEX 
 
 Mastodon, size, Sll 
 
 skeletons on exhibition, 218 
 
 species, 203 
 
 teeth, 198, 199,* 218 
 
 tusks, 199, 200 
 Mesohippus, 167 
 Mimicry, not conscious, 128 
 Missourium of Koch, 207,* 208 
 Moas, collections of, 166, 167 
 
 contemporary with man, 143, 144 
 
 deductions from distribution, 143 
 
 destruction of, 143, 144 
 
 discovery of bones, 140 
 
 elephant- footed, 142 
 
 feathers of, 141 
 
 Giant, 141 
 
 supposed food of, 142 
 
 legends of, 139, 140 
 
 literature, 168 
 
 scientific names, 146 
 
 size of, 141 
 
 species of, 141 
 Moloch, an Australian lizard, 1 00 * 
 Mosasam-s, abundance of, in Kansas, 62 
 
 books on, 69 
 
 collections of, 68 
 
 extinction of, 56 
 
 first discovery, 60 
 
 jaw of, 64 * 
 
INDEX 261 
 
 Mosasaurs, range of, 49 
 
 restoration, 52 * 
 
 size of, 49, 50 
 Mylodon tracks at Carson City, 45 
 
 Names, scientific, reasons for using, xvi, xvii 
 Nature, balance of, 238 
 Nuts, fossil, 11 
 
 Oldest animals, 21 
 
 vertebrates, 19, 22 
 Ostrich egg, 147 
 Over-specialization, 221 222 
 
 Peale, C. W., 205 
 
 Peale, Rembrandt, 205, 206 
 
 Pelican, mandible, 53 
 
 Penguins, depend on fat for warmth, 1 27 
 
 feathers highly modified, 128 
 
 swim with wings, 80 
 Petrified bodies, 10 
 Phororhacos, description of, 14y 
 
 mistaken for mammal, 149 
 
 Patagonian bird, 148 
 
 related to heron family, 152 
 
 restoration, frontispiece 
 
 skull, 160, 151 * 
 Protohippus, 166 
 Pteraspis, 28 
 
262 INDEX 
 
 Pterichthys, 25, 28, 32 * 
 
 mistaken for crab, 25 
 Pterodactyls, impressions of ivings, 133 
 
 from Kansas, 55 
 
 wing, 72 * 
 Pycraft, W. P., restoration of Archteopteryx, 80 
 
 Radiolarians, 15, 17* 
 
 Reconstruction of animals, 127, 130, 134 
 
 Reptiles, fasting powers of, 98 
 
 growth throughout life, 102 
 
 jaws, 53 
 Restorations, xviii 
 
 Archaeopteryx, 89 * 
 
 Ceratosaurus, 106 * 
 
 Hesperomis, 82 * 
 
 Mammoth, 176 * 
 
 Mastodon, 210* 
 
 Phororhacos, frontispiece 
 
 progress in, 137 
 
 Stegosaurus, 108 * 
 
 Thespesius, 90 * 
 
 Triceratops, 126 * 
 
 Tylosaurusy 62 * 
 Reversion of fancy stock, 171 
 Rhinoceros, exterminated by cold, 282 
 Roc, legend of, 144, 145 
 Rocks, thickness of sedimentary, 20 
 Ruffles on dresses, 202 
 
INDEX 263 
 
 Schuchert, Charles, on collecting fossils, 17 
 
 collector of Zeuglodon bones, 63 
 Seals, covering of, 128 
 Sea-serpent, belief in, 56 
 
 possibility of existence, 57 
 Shaler, Professor, on changes iQ Miocene flora of 
 
 Europe, 236, 237 
 Sharks, early, 31 
 
 Great-toothed, 65 
 
 known from spines and teeth, 29 
 
 Port Jackson, 29 
 
 teeth of, 69 
 
 White, or Man-Eater, 66 
 Skeleton, basis of all restorations, 127 
 
 best testimony of animal's relationships, 124 
 
 information to be derived from, 120, 122, 123, 
 
 124, 125, 126, 127 
 
 a problem in mechanics, 102, 124 
 
 reconstruction of, 120 
 
 relation of, to exterior of animal, 121, 127 
 
 of Triceratops, 103,* 121 
 Spines and plates, 130 
 Stegosaurus, description of, 106 
 
 restoration of, 108* 
 Survival of the fittest, 173 
 
 Teeth, birds with, 79 
 
 of gnawing animals, 169, 200 
 of grass-eaters, 169 
 
264 INDEX 
 
 Teeth, of horse, 170 
 
 of mammoth, 198, 199* 
 
 of mastodon, 198, 199* 
 
 of sharks, 29, 80 
 
 of Thespesius, 105 
 Thespesius, abundance of, 104, 105 
 
 brain of, 93 
 
 (Same as Claosaurus) 
 
 engulfed in quicksand, 8 
 
 impressions of skin, 132 
 
 restoration of, 90* 
 
 teeth of, 105 
 
 at Yale, 109 
 Tiger, preying on reindeer, 134 
 Tile-fish, destruction of, 230 
 Titanichthys, 28, 29 
 Toothed birds, collections of, 88 
 
 discovery of, 79 
 Townsend C. H., 190-192 
 Tracks, ascribed to birds, 38 
 
 ascribed to giants, 45 
 
 animals known from, 41 
 
 collections of, 47 
 
 of Connecticut Valley, 37 
 
 deductions from, 44 
 
 of Dinosaurs, 38,* 40,* 41, 47* 
 
 discovery in England and America, 37, 
 
 how formed, 35, 40 
 
 at Hastings, 44 
 
INDEX 265 
 
 Tracks, of Mylodon, 46 
 
 of worms, 3, 33 
 Ti'iceratops, brain, 94 
 
 broken horn, 102 
 
 description, 100, 101 
 
 restoration, 126* 
 
 skeleton, 103* 
 Tufa, 14 
 Tukeman, killing of the Mammoth, 177, 193 
 
 Variation in animals, 228 
 Vertebrates, oldest, 22 
 Vestigial structm-es, 201, 202 
 Volcanic outbursts, 231, 232 
 
 Webster, F. S., on destruction of gar pikes, 26 
 White, C. A., on the nature and uses of fossils, 17 
 White Shark, 65 
 Wings, 71, 72,* 73 
 
 of embryonic birds, 73 
 Wood, fossil, 9, 10 
 Worm trails, 3, 33 
 
 Yucca, fertilization, 235 
 
 Zeuglodon, abundance of remams, 60 
 same as Basilosaurus 
 description, 58, 63 
 habits, 59 
 
266 .INDEX 
 
 Zeuglodon, Koch's restoration, 6S 
 name, 58, 69 
 once numerous, 60 
 size, 58 
 
 specimen of, 68 
 structure of bones, 64 
 teeth, 58, 69*