wo men, which continued
during Marsh's whole life. When the one felt that he ought no longer
to spend all the money he earned, he consulted Marsh on the subject of
"salting it down," and doubtless got good advice.

As an exposer of humbugs Marsh took a prominent place. One of these
related to the so-called "Cardiff Giant." Sometime in 1869 the
newspapers announced the discovery in northern New York, near the
Canadian border, of an extraordinary fossil man, or colossal statue,
people were not sure which, eight or ten feet high. It was found
several feet below the ground while digging a well. Men of some
scientific repute, including even one so eminent as Professor James
Hall, had endorsed the genuineness of the find, and, on the strength
of this, it was taken around to show the public. In the course of
a journey through New York State, Marsh happened to pass through
the town where the object was on exhibition. His train stopped
forty minutes for dinner, which would give him time to drive to the
place and back, and leave a margin of about fifteen minutes for an
examination of the statue. Hardly more than a glance was necessary
to show its fraudulent character. Inside the ears the marks of a
chisel were still plainly visible, showing that the statue had been
newly cut. One of the most curious features was that the stone
had not been large enough to make the complete statue, so that
the surface was, in one place, still in the rough. The object had
been found in wet ground. Its material was sulphate of lime, the
slight solubility of which would have been sufficient to make it
dissolve entirely away in the course of centuries. The absence of
any degradation showed that the thing was comparatively new. On the
strength of this, Marsh promptly denounced the affair as a humbug.
Only a feeble defense was made for it, and, a year or two later, the
whole story came out. It had been designed and executed somewhere in
the Northwest, transported to the place where discovered, and buried,
to be afterward dug up and reported as a prehistoric wonder.

Only a few years ago the writer had an opportunity of seeing
with what wonderful ease intelligent men can be imposed upon by
these artificial antiquities. The would-be exhibitor of a fossil
woman, found I know not where, appeared in Washington. He had not
discovered the fossil himself, but had purchased it for some such
sum as $100, on the assurance of its genuine characte