Show HP as i L T j mil Q 1 P J q ir T th h e graveyard of the v t h e A ages B 3 dmn amov b wonderful wonder nl discoveries at rancho lia la brea los lios angeles by E W robinson probably the most unique reccea atlon park in all the world will be the one ot of thirty two acres lying about s seven e ven miles west irom from the court house in los angeles county count v a gift gift to the county by mr air G allen alien hancock Hanco ek son of major hancock hanchek ek and sole heir to the vast estate valued at many millions ot of dollars it will be known as hancock park and will include the area ot of that part of the rancho la brea in which lias has been found the wonderful collections ot of remains of prehistoric life said by I 1 geologists to have lived in the pleistocene age an era em which succeeded the glacial period these ancient creatures lived it is believed about years ago yet so perfectly preserved are the bones that entire skeletons ot of animals which have been extinct tor for ages some ot of which heretofore haie hae not been known to science can be collected and put together within the short space ot of six months bones ol of prehistoric mammals and birds were recovered from about thirty acres ot of swamps and pits than have previously existed in all the museums of the world bones enough are a being recovered to stock all the leading museums with such anid animals als tor for instance as the sabor toothed tiger a complete i r skeleton of which has not heretofore been found anywhere in this park to be the uneducated me may y wander along the walks and drives in the shade of the choice tree and shrubs that will adorn its byways and wonder at the ghastly skulls and skeletons that th the pits give forth and the educated may teed feed his imagination and enrica enrich his scientific knowledge irom from the concrete evidences ot of prehistoric flora and fauna no other discoveries have ever given so clear a picture ot of the faunal life ot of a partA particular cular time no other discoveries of pleistocene remains have covered such a variety ot of forms and novi nowhere liere else has there been found a tithe ot of the number of fossils belonging totham epoch as have been found here indeed it is said on good author it that the la brea fossils now in the los angeles county museum alone exceed in quantity more than five old fold all the other pleistocene collections throughout through oui the world these countless and ana varied remains unlike the ordinary fossil transformed by the action ot of silica into stone are remains which have been preserved by saturation in oil and tar around this wonderful swamp a hundred oil derricks stand like sentinels and in some ot of them the steady throb ot of the pumps may be heard lifting petroleum from the bowels of the earth tor for the use ot of man for ages the crude oil anderl underlying ying this distrait ai di thick and sticky has oozed to the surface through breaks and fissures in the rocks and formed pools in the surrounding pits and depressions pr pres into these pools animals ventured probably for water and were trapped much as lies flies are caught on the sticky surface of f fly paper unable to disen disentangle tan gle themselves they were held fast till death and with the decaying of 0 their the bones sank deeper into tile mas mais which saturated them and acted as a permanent preservative tt it is generally believed as the most reasonable explanation of the presence of the remains of do ao many kinds of animals differing so widely in habits of life being mingled and interwoven in this small smal area that the water rushing down from the mountains in n the winter seanoa sea soa formed small lakes over the tha arr and asphaltum in these depressions large animals probably waded into these thesa lakes to drink the sticky tar underlying the water entrapped them their struggles att attracted other animals seeking prey the car circled about the these 1001 pools watching tor for victims into these pools with their deceptive covert covering of dirt or after a rain with their deceptive covering of water wander ed the hie bison the masi adon or the giant aroun ground d sloth their cries ind and struggles as they found themselves trapped drew upon them the giant wolf the lion arid and the saber toothed tiger who ca caught light in the sticky mass an and all were held task fast till death the odor ol 01 the decaying bodies attracted the carrion feeders the wolves the vultures and the eagles and they too were dragged down the remains of 0 a 0 single ingle her bl verous animal have sometimes been found surrounded by the re r mains of a score of beasts and birds of prey the bones now found tell the story of thousands of 0 tragedies which doubtless were accompanied by titanic struggles find and of animal wrath and pain how thickly these bones were massed may be judged from the tact fact that at one point in a space of less than four saber tigers and of fifty wolves were taken out great quantities of bones of carrion blast beasts sand i and birds testify to the work of these scavengers to render it possible tor for so great and varied a number of animals to thrive here as these remains bear evidence it is believed southern california years ago enjoyed a much more bountiful rainfall th than a n it does today to produce the plentiful crops for so many grazing animals before the mission fathers and subsequent american settlers Gutt lers broke the soli soil and planted seeds and brought water to the parched earth it had only a sparse and desert like vegetation but in that early pleistocene period it was a rich grazing ground and therefore for the car carni ni vores a rich hunting ground some idea of the wonderful and varied output of these pits may the be had from the fact that in a single month there were taken out cleaned cleaned and delivered to the museum one hundred and sixty five saber toothed tiger skulls not a single complete skull orthis of this kind being heretofore in the possession of any museum one hundred wolf skulls eight shulls of giant ground four lion skulls seven horse skulls fourteen skulls of bison skulls of camels one mastodon ma skull two skulls of ter at ornis a bird new to science one skull and the skeleton of a species of small sloth also new to science besides these skulls box after box of disjointed bones of these animals were also excavated there is lion of the african type the skull of which are fly herf them larkosh st 0 otes 0 coxs 1 lope P badh many other there is a h havo avo b been e en n po tamus B appeal enst bear and and oth another it cypress tree found in southern 1 ties of animals an 1 malfi wore were all round it among the bran branched clie and above it only the upper part which was sufficiently sur fi close to di the surface e to have boea reached by seepage water crater had bad totted the rest of the trunk which lw Is of good size is sound throughout and could oe be used today to day in the manufacture of furniture this it Is ia believe after about two hundred thousand years yet not all of these animals date back to so remote a time there fare evidences that the death operated over a long period there may have been a continues seepage of oil to the surface sufficient to cover layor after layer the caught also a gradual building up of the surrounding formation the movement of dust and sa sand nd on their deposit upon the fusion with this oil as it constantly seeped out may well in the long procession of year shave piled up the blanket of earth which covered these animals at any rate it is plain that the remains are of unequal age there w was as tor for instance discovered an almost perfect skull and fragmentary fragment ry bones of a human being declared by scientists to have belonged io to the distinctively modern stage of evolution more recent than the low brow oil od type of europe ana probably to a time less than ten thousand years ago peacocks the golden eagle and many smaller eagles together with various species of hawks and birds of the vulture typo type have been found in abundance numerous small birds from the sparrow up have also been recovered among the mammals perhaps the most interesting discoveries ot of bones are those of the imperial elephant this huge beast was very iery much like the mammoth found in siberia but larger being by all odds the giant of the elephant species it had tusks eight inches in diameter and sixteen feet long it stood sixteen feet high it measured from tip 0 or tusks to tip of tall tail thirty feet and weighed I 1 from eight to ten tons jimno the largest modern elephant known measured only eleven feet in height heretofore the only portion of the bone frame of the imperial im elephant in any museum consisted of one tusk arid and a part of a saulli skull in a museum in the city of mexico and some fragments ot of bones found in ohio in one pit known as number nine was discovered a veritable imperial burying ground in a space of thirty feet in diameter ana thirty five in depth were nere the remains of seven elephants chants ants several masti mastodons edons and a number ol of small animals so closely were they picked that there was not enough tar or tar soaked ground enveloping them to insure pres preservation e and consequently home ome of them had partly decomposed the mammoth wai was covered with long coarie coarse outer hair supplemented by a close woolly under hair reddish brown in color one of the bast m ost remarkable animals ot of those early clays which left I 1 its remains in the la brea pits was the giant ground sloth he was a big heavy brute chomsy and slow in his movements the mounted skeleton at the museum which is twelve feet long must have weighed at least two ton tons in the flesh coarse and shaggy hair covered his tough hide along the ie inner side of which was a layer of small pebble like ike assi cles forming a thin chain i armor perhaps against the teeth i and claws of ordinary beasts of prey this armor offered some security but it could not have availed against the long sharp tangs ol 01 0 the tiger it is not known what sort of covering this saber tooth tiger bore whether sleek or hairy marked as the puma or striped like the bengal tiger or spotted like the leopard but the ravening ferocity foro elty indicated I 1 by his two long curved upper can nines fixed the appellation tiger tl er u upon poll min him as the most fitting those animals must have been Aurit int arit in ahw region as is indicated vy iy ay the wab nartui bi rf ft its ita emmins no oth mothr r an imn siar any sort has alet ifo so I 1 in 11 ny beveral hil hundred ildred r saulli keulh have I 1 V a bei acia a taen out aim as eq ri a ny DY a 0 hirt ho i been found with the alace r jur cubic yards A ir r gramins gra t 1 I the d T 7 j con about three times the he size of oj afoot dor and that thae it hid had a four sweep of 0 wings 1 ed ov the horse which once roami roam er the united stales had pratt vally vent disappeared long before the at a but ot of the white mai maa ma i ot of our tims alir ah 0 igei gab na 84 araj aro not so sc um T nn enus in thee the pits uia A cr good an anfin faals alt yet la a i d andy bono bone ha leave V f r I 1 i skulls and limb a I 1 fils Is head seems to been discovered bavier and coarser have peen Deen rather 1 blodorn ru torso but than tt omba o irately the same his size s ize was apar in has had the 1 burtor of th tb self 49 and nam the privilege of eav d laras afew be to ing more beasts albai a ai thy any scientist salow otist science perhaps th tl KIT y species ot of ot of his time over iari known have birds some not beba ap n many in been classified andrare and iare been fully stances skeletons obese magnie prepared ared and set kl Ivory like cent specimens renija Ll wwii walli in n appearance by tha 1 has as they are saturated saturate e d tir h a been the means of 0 thides sinca ahw throughout the long esleen in n the walked in life may hj ab aion earlc par ac county museum in E los angeles |