THE BRONTOSAURUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17351, 24 December 1919, Page 9

THE BRONTOSAURUS.

BRITISH HUNTERS' QUEST. LONDON, Dee. 14. Amongst the British big-game hunters leaving in quest of the brontosaurus is Captain Lester Stevens, who is taking his great dog Laddie, half sheepdog and half wolf. The dog became famous during the war for carrying messages from the trenches. Mr. Walter Winans, a famous shot, who intends to hunt the brontosaurus, believes that the reptile lives in a subterranean lake. • ■■

j Two descriptions of the so-called "bron- | bosaurus," a monster which is reputed i to inhabit the swamps of Central Africa, have already been cabled. They differ considerably. Mr. John Jordan, a big-game hunter, stated that he encountered a brontosaurus in the vicinity of Lake Victoria Nyanza in 1907. It had a lionlike head and walrus fangs, was 18ft m length, and was covered with scales with leopard-like spottings. Capelle, a Belgian hunter, stated that during an expedition into the interior of the Congo he followed a 'strange spoor for 12 miles, and sighted a beast certainly of the rhinoceros order. It had large scales reaching far down a very thick kangaroo like tail, a horned snout, and a hump on its back. He fired shots at the monster, which threw up its head and disappeared in the swamp. The identification of such a creature with the brontosaurus seems a fantastic speculation. The brontosaurus was a huge reptile, which existed during the Jurassic penod, before the rise of the mammals to their present predominance. According to deductions made from fossil remains the brontosaurus measured from 17 to 25 yards in length. It had a small head, long neck, and long tail, and apparently walked on four legs. Each of its massive limbs had five toes, of which three bore outwardly curved toes. The story of the discovery of the brontosaurus is regarded m London with mingled amusement and scepticism. Scientists, however, have not finally consigned the reports to the realms °f °™ £ rofessor Chalmers Mitchell says: Ihe discovery *» possible, though unlikely. Similar stories have previously been current. The ex-Kaiser supplied the last wh& - visit.ng the London Zoo, he described the existence of a similar prehistoric monster in German East Africa The brontosaurus may be living in the Congo to-day, but I would feel «lf. ;„ offering £1000 to a halfpenny that ft B not Professor Smith Woodward, of the British Museum, is equally scentickl w! believes that the S y £*. appeared with the arival of the cre&eou