30 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



Some years ago we were treated to accounts of 

 wonderful footprints in the rock of the prison-yard at 

 Carson City, Nev., which, according to the papers, not 

 only showed that men existed at a much earlier period 

 than the scientific supposed, but that they were men of 

 giant stature. This was clearly demonstrated by the 

 footprints, for they were such as might have been made 

 by huge moccasined feet, and this was all that was neces- 

 sary for the conclusion that they were made by just such 

 feet. For it is a curious fact that the majority of man- 

 kind seem to prefer any explanation ' other than the 

 most simple and natural, 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 (homo diluvii testis) ; ammonites and their allies 

 pose as fossil snakes, and the "petrified man" flourishes 

 perennially. However, in this case the prints were 

 recognized by naturalists as having most probably been 

 made by some great ground sloth, such as the Mylodon 

 or Morotherium, these animals, though belonging to a 

 group whose headquarters 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 obliterated the marks of 

 the fore. Still, a little 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 imprints 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. 



