THE LARGEST LIVING CREATURES 147 



Our largest fresh water fish is the alligator gar of the south- 

 ern states, ranging to Mexico and Cuba, up to lo feet and 

 said to reach 14 feet in length. 



This great sturgeon runs down into the Black Sea, while 

 the alligator gar also occurs in salt water, though primarily a 

 lake and river fish. 



The largest fish occurring only in fresh water is the Chinese 

 river sword fish, allied to our common spoon-billed cat, which 

 grows to a length of 20 feet. 



The European cat-fish is also very large, reaching 9 or 10 

 feet in length, and rarely as much as 13 feet, with a weight in 

 the Danube of from 400 to 500 pounds, and in southern Rus- 

 sia of over 600 pounds. 



The largest Mississippi cat-fish reaches a length of over 5 

 feet and a weight of 210 pounds or even more. 



In contrast to these, in the smallest of fresh water fishes the 

 males are not more than 3/4 inch in length, with the females 

 somewhat larger. 



Let us digress a bit to mention the giants of past ages. 

 The largest living things the earth has ever seen were reptiles 

 of the sort called dinosaurs. The longest of these reached a 

 length of about 100 feet. An actual skeleton of one, called 

 Diplodocus, in the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh, is 87 feet 

 in total length and 14 1/2 feet high at the hips. The tail is 

 50 feet, the body 15 feet, and the neck 22 feet in length. The 

 weight when alive is estimated to have been 15 tons or more. 

 This creature was about as long as the longest whales today, 

 though much less in bulk. But not all dinosaurs were large; 

 some were no larger than a fowl. 



From time to time one hears of giant reptiles, dinosaurs 

 or similar types, which have been seen in various places. 

 Within the past twenty years they have been reported from 

 west Africa, Alaska and New Guinea, and aquatic ones from 

 Argentina. These have the same significance as the dragons 

 of the past and are the result of fright and imagination. They 

 are based upon elephants or bears or other creatures, endowed 



