■ Petrified wood at Ocu’s Distrit.—Are well known as "Piedra de Chumico” but several 
palms and other type of trees have been found with its’ own propertis, like colors and designs. 
* Mad eras petrificadas del Distrito de Ocu .— La piedra se conoce vulgarmente como "Pie¬ 
dra de Chumico” pero se loan encontrado troncos de palmer as y de toda clase de arboles, 
los cuales conservan sits vetas y colores caracteristicos. 
ahinco. Hasta Rodrigo Nunez 
junior, a pesar de tener trece 
anos apenas, contemplo con sor- 
presa el tamano de aquellos hue- 
sos y se deshizo en exclamacio- 
nes. -Recien llegado de un cole- 
gio de Suiza y habiendo tenido 
oeasion de visitar varios museos 
de Europa, declaro rotundamen- 
te que era un hallazgo 44 muy im- 
portante”. . . 
RECON STRUCCION IMAGINA¬ 
RY DEL FOSIL 
El acuerdo a que se llego, asi 
que fueron extraidos los prinie- 
ros huesos, demostrativos de que 
en ese lugar yacian en realidad 
los restos de un animal de pro- 
porciones fuera de lo ordinario, 
iue el no excavar a tontas y lo- 
cas, a fin de permitir mas ade- 
lante y guiados por persona com- 
petente, una investigacion en re- 
gl£t. 
Habiendo logrado encontrar 
dos huesos que encajaban per- 
fectamente el uno con el otro. 
Jose Maria Munoz, un muchacho 
que reside en el pueblo, recono- 
cio sin vacilacion la articulacion 
— 12 — 
nery, is broken by the presence 
of a mountain range. Nearly , ap¬ 
pears a hill by the name of “Te- 
ta”, which owes its name to its 
curious conformation. The ridge 
of mountains follows in beautiful 
formation up to Tijera Hill , 
which is the vertex of this Andean 
branch and which conveys to the 
inhabitants of Ocu an idea si¬ 
milar to that coveyed by the Ca¬ 
na jagua to the people of Los San¬ 
tos , of a once active but now ex¬ 
tinct volcano. 
Had it not been for the op¬ 
portune advice of Manuel V ah 
divieso, who acted as guide , the 
expedition might have passed the 
ground containing the bones with¬ 
out taking notice. But that rustic 
man with the assurance of one 
who knows the land span by span 7 
indicated the exact spot saying; 
''Here Is The Thing. 7 ’ 
And the “thing” proved to be 
the incline of a small hill of pro¬ 
jecting osiers and easily loosened 
stones with a small river running 
at its end , and an abundance of 
quartz whose crystallized struc¬ 
ture immediately attracts one 7 s 
attention. 
The first bone that was extract¬ 
ed with the aid of a shovel and 
pick axe , had a knee bone of unu¬ 
sual dimensions which contribut¬ 
ed, to the interest of the excur¬ 
sionists. Jo$e Quintero, the most 
jovial of the group , in imitation 
of Vasco Nunez de Balboa raised 
a dagger and took oossession of 
the place, while Chin Carrizo , 
natural head of the exoedition 
and the most interested in thC 
search evinced his enthusiasm by 
excavating with earnestness. 
Rodrigo Nunez Jr., thirteen 
years old, contemplated with sur¬ 
prise the size of the bones and 
outdid himself in exclamations. 
Being recently from college in 
Switzerland , and having visited 
various museums in Europe , he 
declared explicately that the dis¬ 
covery was “a very important 
one.” 
IMAGINARY RECONSTRUC¬ 
TION OF THE FOSSIL 
After the first bones were ex¬ 
tracted[, it was agreed that the ex¬ 
cavation of the remaining bones 
of this extraordinary animal 
should be done under the gui¬ 
dance of some competent person. 
Two bones that fitted perfectly 
—one with the other—were found 
—and Jose Maria Munoz, a re¬ 
sident of the district , recognized 
the articulation of the knee, which 
is called “Chocozuela” in that 
interior region. Being in posses¬ 
sion of a similar date , we were 
able to calculate the relative di¬ 
mensions of a foot of the fossil 
and then the approximate size of 
the animal. 
Withen an hour were found 
segments of ribs, some vertebraes 
possibly of the neck or tail , a 
larger piece which resembled the 
pelvis bane, and many Oliver 
booken ribs of impossible iden¬ 
tification at the moment. 
In the excavation which did 
not exceed eighty centimeters 
neither teeth nor other remains 
of th*> head were found. There 
was discovered, however, a sub¬ 
stance very different from bone 
and more resembling skin or 
rather the shell of a turtle: a sub¬ 
stance whose size and shape made 
— 13 
