Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/342

338 in the pits the pupils see the embedded skulls and teeth of the imperial elephant and of mastodons, and the bones of saber-toothed tigers, lions, wolves, sloths, giant oxen, camels, and many birds. Here too, beside the trunk of a large cypress tree, a human skeleton has just been found, its bones intermingled with those of the giants of the past. It is not yet determined whether this rare discovery will antedate the earliest remains of man previously recorded. We may then more vividly realize how these strange creatures roamed over our mesa several hundred thousand years ago. These bones have been as perfectly preserved by the infiltrated tar, as if from animals only recently dead; and in the county museum we observe with delight the rare collection of their mounted skeletons. Frequently some bird, deceived by the brightly reflecting surface of a tar pool, alights and is drawn to death and burial in the sticky tar, thus repeating the story of the ages.

Another story from this wonderland of ancient days is added in that of the gigantic reptiles of the past, like the thunder lizard, twice as long as the school-room and so tall that its back-bone would go through the ceiling. The toothless hen, with arms as wings, adapted to flight, a rudimentary free thumb, and the other fingers fused into one piece, has descended from the first bird, with many teeth, three free clawed fingers and a long lizard-like tail having a row of feathers on either side. The ancestor of the first bird was a reptile with five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.

 To the left; skull, femur and jaws of the imperial elephant. To the right; below, femur and teeth of mastodon and femur of giant ground sloth; above, tar seepage through side wall. Photographed by L. E. Wyman, through the courtesy of Frank S. Daggett, Director, Museum of History, Science and Art.