154 WALKS AND TALKS. 



ing must be resorted to, and this sometimes becomes enor- 

 mously expensive. In regions where the strata repose in 

 nearly horizontal positions, the underlying coal beds are 

 reached through vertical shafts. In such cases, pumping 

 machinery is essential. Not unfrequently, one shaft is extended 

 down to a second or third bed of coal. In any case, after the 

 coal is reached, chambers or galleries are excavated in rectan- 

 gular directions in the bed. The roof is supported by large 

 blocks of coal left undisturbed. After most of the coal has 

 been thus removed, the supporting blocks are worked out suc- 

 cessively, and the roof of the mine may be permitted to 

 fall in. 



AMONG THE FOSSILS. 



XXVII. MONSTERS OF- A BURIED WORLD. 



EXTINCT QUATERNARY MAMMALS. 



"MR. JOHN SMITH, of the town of Sharon, in digging a 

 ditch to drain a swamp on his farm, exhumed some very large 

 bones which must have lain buried for many thousand years. 

 They appear to be the bones of a giant. They will be offered 

 to the University for sale." 



"Mr. Peter Jones discovered last week in a peat bed, a 

 nearly complete skeleton of some antediluvian monster. Mr. 

 Jones will have the skeleton set up as soon as possible, and 

 will then start on a tour of exhibition. He feels confident 

 there is a fortune in these bones." 



The above are samples of paragraphs frequently appearing 

 in the newspapers. They indicate that the peat bogs of our 

 country contain many relics of beings no longer in existence, 

 and no longer remembered. Those, however, who have had 

 much intercourse with the aborigines of the country, inform 

 us that a tradition exists of an immense quadruped "the 



