Show SCIENTIFIC FIND MADE IN CHINA Centuries Old Superstition Guides Modern Science to Unusual Disco Discovery ery PUKING June 7 AP AP-A AP A cen cen- old tunes Chinese ese superstition has I guld guided d the modern s science lence of paleontology paleontology pale pale- pale pale-I ontology to one o of the tho most unusual unusual unus unus- ual recent discoveries of r remains of ol animals that became extinct ages agoTo ago To Walter Granger p paleontologist of the central Asiatic expeditiOn under Roy Boy Chapman Andrews came cam reports of a thriving trade hado in dragon drag on bones used for medicines along the Yangtze rIv river H r in province While the ex expedition was wintering and ind refitting In Peking and waiting for th the barriers of ot Chinese civil war to lift antI and nd open the way s-ay for tor resumption of ot its re reSearches research researches re- re searches search s In Mongolia Gr Granger nger went to the Y Yangtze to investigate Returning Returning Returning Re Re- turning to Peking he told how he had found too be dl dragons to be from thirty live to forty animal forms ot of the pleistocene or Ice age I 1 heard that in itt the vicinity ot of V on n the Yangtze he said 1 farmers were plowing up tip in their fields and digging Out of pits in the U limestone n stone formation quantities ol ot of fossilized bones In which th there re was wasa a a regular trade I round found that the natives used them theta to make mak medicines medi roMI- cines a practice that dat dates s back to the tho twelfth or thirteenth cen century urY At twenty miles from and ten miles Innes back from the river fiver Is a limestone r nId ridge dg some some sixty or s seventy venty miles long Along th the top of this ridge there have been pits pit t ten n to twelve feel feet across t formed by the action of ot water on th the soft rock They are arenow arenow arenow now filled d with mud and by dU digging In this mud the n natives s produce r dUce literally lit lit- t tons ns of ot b bones n s yearly early which they sell to dealers for tor shipment to The excavations r re resembling resembling re- re wells ar are often oHm 75 lb to f feet et d deep en The rho salvaged d bones are dried cl cleaned n d. d and piled In a corner cornet cor cor- net nCI of the farmers farmer s house hous waiting lot for the dealer to come along i id i d pt d the thO plan lan of t visiting the natives na natives natives na- na tives engaged in this work worl encouragIng encouraging encouraging aging them to take special l c cof CAre re with the skulls for tor which I offered otter d da a pi price Ice above e the dragon bone market |