Lost Races.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 478, 7 June 1890, Page 3

Lost Races.

[All Rights Reserved.] (Copyright 1890 by S. S. McClure.) o>’E morning about three hundred years ago, a fisherman living upon the shores of the Behring Sea, swung his little boy into his fur hood upon his back, took a long, stout spear in his hands, and calling to hie pack of wolf-like dogs, strode away up the beach. The child, looting out of his resting-place, saw that his father was going hunting, and as they passed through the village several canoes pub off, the men calling to each other and arranging to meet some way up the coast at the sea-cow rookery. This little fellow had often been on fishing trips, and now, to make him reliant and fearless, his father was going to show him how big game was captured. Up the beach they went for a mile or more, then inland over a neck of land, and as they approached a rocky ridge the hunter spoke to the dogs, warning them to beep quiets and looked carefully over. The boy being high up, had the first view, and this is what he saw. Away-io the right reaching out for several acres was a level tract made up of green rushes growing in the water. In the midst of these were a number of animals, so very large that the little observer said to himself, ‘ Whales !’ But they were nob whales, though it must be confessed they were almost as large. They looked like gigantic seals, and their slow, cumbersome movements among the reeds still further carried out the idea. One largo creature especially attracted the boy’s attention. It was over thirty feet in length, with a colossal body terminating in a flute-like tail almost exactly like that of the whale. JaMMtfslpwly moving about, feeding upon the rest While they suddenly appeared men screaming and weapons. The animals at first started for the water, some going into it, but the large one seemed unable to escape, and as it floundered about the men surrounded it.

The boy had been left upon a rock, and from this place of safety saw his father rush up to the giant and hurl his spear into it. From every side it was attacked, and some of the men were in great danger, as the animal beat the water into foam with its flukes, striking terrific blows on every side, raising its ponderous head, and making ineffectual efforts to escape, to be finally driven in upon the solid land and despatched. What a sight it was as the little boy came down and was lifted upon the monster thirty-five feet long with a whale’s tail. \\ hat was it ? my readers will ask. It was a giant sea cow or manatee, the Rhytina, that lived in thoso days upon the shores of the Arctic Sea, and up to about 1755 was found in large numbers, but today it is classed among the lost races, haviiig been ontirely wiped out of existence, lb was first discovered by the Russians, and about thirty years saw its extinction. So rare is it that not a complete Bkin is known or hardly a skeleton. The animals were slaughtered without mercy, just as were the buffaloes of our western plains, and in a short time were entirely exterminated. The shores ot the Arctic Ocean and th island on its borders are the tombs of many strange creatures, that in the changes that follow have become lost races. When white men first visited the new Siberian Islands, the first objects which attracted their attention were the remains of wonderful animals of a lost age. Everywhere from the sand and frozen snow, protruded trunks of treea ; showing that here, in the waste of Arctic summer, had once trod the gleaming tusks of gigantic size, and king of elephants, and trees had flourished affording them food. Now far from here some hunters were drifting down a river when they espied a black mass standing out in bold relief against the cliff. Drawing nearer they saw it was a strange animal, one of a lost race that had once roamed the great Siberian plains. It was high above their reach, held in the firm grip of ice and gravel. The following year on their way down the river the black object was lying on the sandy beach and being torn by bears and wolves. Think of it! preserved so perfectly that now, thousands of years after its death, it served as a breakfast to the wolves and bears of to-day. The animal was a gigantic rhinoceros, not like those with which we aro fumiliar, but a huge creature covered with thick, long, woolly hair, with two horns, one over four feet in length, as tall as some of my readers. Imagine the appearance of this monster as it moves over the land ; its fierce battles with other strange animals of the time ; it must have been a bold hunter indeed who met it face to face.

That the gigantic rhinoceroses, adapted as they were for the cold and icy North, are extinct, we know, but how their end came is one of the mysteries. By some it is said that the human hunters hastened their extirpation ; bub the cause most easily understood is that they passed away tho victims of a slow and gradual change of climate. In former ages the shores of the Arctic Ocean were, comparatively speaking, warm. There were not the extremes that now mark them, and the North country was inhabited by these creatures; but the increased cold or some cataclysm, about which we know nothing, may have caused their disappearance. This we do know ; they once lived and flourished as a mighty tribe, bub now are among the lost races of tho world’s history. Young readers often fancy that the so-called monstere, dragons, and other fantastic forms are actual creatures. This is, of course, not true ; bub it can be said that the imagination of man never conjured up more wonderful creatures than really made up the races that have passed away. The sea serpents and strange, long-tailed, long-legged mon sters that roamed the cetaceous teas are almost boyond our belief, when their forms are restored by the students of science. Some of the animuls of tho sea were one hundred and twenty-five feet long, while those of the land were so long and bulky that they could hardly move. The lost races of the air are, perhaps, the most wonderful. Imagine a bat-like crea-

ture, with wings nearly thirty feet across ; not feathered, but provided with membranes stretched upon them. Imagine a with large eyes and long toothless neak, claw-armed feet, which enable the tionster to cling to cliffs and crags, and we >ave the Pteranodon, one of the most remarkable of all the flyers of the lost races. What is the dragon as depicted to-day when compared to the strange rhamphorhvnchus that actually lived in the days gone by? It was not so large as aorne others, but was a frightful object, and if man lived at that time the boys and girls of the native tribes surely did not keep this "reature as a pet. In general appearance resembled a large bat, but with prolonged vs, somewhat like those of a pelican, ar«ed with sharp jointed teeth. The -<ers of this dragon were longer than Its Holy and served to support the wing, while a membrane connected tho tail and legs. The most remarkable feature was the tail, which was long and slender like that of a rat, but at the tip branched out and became a perfect paddle in appearance, the lobes or sides being supported by bones forming a member that looked like a tennisracket, but which was in reality a rudder by which this wonderful creature probably directed its flight. This animal was so completely lost that its existence depends upon one specimen now in Yale College, which shows not only the paddle bub the delicate texture of the membrane of the wing against the stone. What would you think of an egg so large and heavy that one of my readers could not hold it out at arm’s length ; an egg that would have made omelets for a dozen men. Such a find would be worth the while, and such a one was made in Madagascar. The captain of a sailing vessel having occasion to go into the exterior came one night to a small native town, and one offered food in a dish of so curious shape that he asked what it was. *ltis an egg of the big bird,’ replied the native. ‘ But where do you find them ?’ continued the captain; and in answer the man pointed toward the mountains. The sailor investigated, and as a result it became known that a gigantic bird lived on the great island continent ages before, and the eggshell was all that remained to tell the story. In later years several of these eggshells were found in a sandy deposit, and some cf the bones of the great creature. The size of tha bird can be realised when it is known that the egg measured over a foot in its longest diameter, and was equal to many hens’ eggs. Larger than this was another bird the gastorni that once lived in France, When the skeleton was raised by the side ot a man the latter seemed very insignificant. So with the birds of New Zealand, the moas, that lived within the memory of the oldest inhabitants if we can believe them, and Burely within historical times. They were of gigantic size, some of tho bones being larger than those of an ox. Think of coming upon a flock of such huge, wingless creatures, from five to twelve feet high. What sights the girls and boys of these old days had ! and what a circus could be formed ! Imagine a procession of the lost races ! Ahead is the mighty Megatherium—a huge lizard that tore down large trees and browsed upon branches twenty-five feet from the ground ; next, hobbling along, tho Gamarasaurus—a weird giant with long, snakelike neck, tall legs that served to enable it to move in the water, and a tail long and attentuabed, ending seventy-five feet from its head. Here comes the king of the turtles, seventeen feet across the flipper, and perched upon its back the do-do, the last of the pigeons and the giant of the race. Then follows the mammoth with its curbed and glistening tusks, the hairy rhinocerous, the toed horse, and many more from different ages, but all strange and wonderful examples of the lost laces of the world. — C. F. Holder.