FullReads

It is also somewhat worthy of observation that fossiliferous remains occur more frequently, than elsewhere, in marshy and swampy places in this country. Thus the low marshes known as the “Blue Licks” in Kentucky, and other similar places abound in specimens of fossil remains. These are often, indeed, quite commonly found near the surface of the ground, and it is a fact that the material and formation of marshy grounds change less through the operation of time than other places. The Pantine Marshes and the Marshfield Fens have preserved forms and characteristics for centuries upon centuries. Why is it then, that we are to be driven for a solution of the question as to the character of this curiosity to a hundred improbable and unnatural suppositions, when the thing may be explained by perfectly natural causes without violating any probabilities?

It is somewhat amusing to talk with the various advocates of the “statue theory,” as each successive one is sure to knock over his predecessor’s structure before he begins to build his own.

The endless suppositions which are produced to account for this marvelous work as a production of the sculptor are certainly a great credit to the imaginative faculties or inventive genius of our people, but people of ordinary intelligence find it hard to believe that men of wonderful genius and skill inhabited our original forests for the purpose of producing gems of art and then burying them in the marshes, or that men of culture and education go traveling in a wild and barbarous country encumbered by a piece of statuary weighing about two tons and being necessarily somewhat inconvenient to carry in our pockets.

Yours, Com.

OPINION OF PROFESSOR HALL, STATE GEOLOGIST.

Professor Hall, gives the following definite opinion, in the Albany Argus of Monday, the 20th of October:

GENTLEMEN:–Your paragraph in this morning’s issue, relative to the Onondagas Stone Giant, does injustice to the proprietor of that most remarkable object.

Dr. Woolworth and Prof. Hall left here on Thursday afternoon, with the intent of visiting, as they had been solicited to do, the supposed fossil giant or statue–for there were conflicting opinions in regard to its nature. On Friday morning they left Syracuse for Cardiff with Dr. Wieting and Judge Woolworth of the former place. As soon as practicable after their arrival, the tent was cleared of visitors, the party named were admitted and left to their undisturbed investigations for a full quarter of an hour; and when it is understood that the crowd outside were enough to twice fill the tent, and all desirous of seeing, and that the receipts of the owner for tickets were $26 per hour, it seemed scarcely civil to occupy a longer time.

The Giant, as has already been stated, is a statue of crystalline gypsum (not a cast) lying upon its back, or slightly inclining to the right side, and in an attitude of rest or sleep. The head is directed to the east, southeast, and the body, without support or pedestal, lies upon a thin stratum of gravel, which has been covered by about three feet or more of fine silt, in the bottom of which are some partially decayed roots or branches of trees– doubtless floated there at the beginning of the silt deposit. The water, oozing from the southwest, along this gravel bed, has dissolved that side of the statue and gives it a pitted appearance, such as masses of gypsum or limestone acquire when long exposed to the action of the water. The earth at the sides of the pit bear no evidence of having been disturbed since its original deposition, and, to all appearances, this statue lay upon the gravel when the deposition of the fine silt or soil began, and upon the surface of which the forests have grown for succeeding generations

Altogether, it is the most remarkable object yet brought to light in this country, id altogether, perhaps, not dating back to the stone age, is, nevertheless, deserving of the attention of archaeologists. H. Albany, NY, October 23, 1869.