hich
he compared to loud thunder, the sight almost left his eyes, and his
heart became as small as that of a child's.'"]

[Footnote 9: A few miles from the Pacific Ocean, and at the foot of a
mountain called by the Shoshones the Dwelling of the Monster, were found
the remains of an immense lizard belonging to an extinct family of the
saurian species. Within a few inches of the surface, and buried in a bed
of shells and petrified fish, our old missionary, Padre Antonio, digged
up fifty-one vertebrae quite whole and well preserved. They were mostly
from twelve to eighteen inches in length and from eight to fourteen
inches in diameter, measuring in all more than fifteen feet in length.
Of the tail and neck but few vertebrae were found, but there were many
fragments of the ribs and of the leg-bones. All the vertebrae were
discovered in a continuous line, nearly joined together. The head, to
correspond with other parts of the animal, must have been twelve or
fourteen feet long, which would have given to the monster the almost
incredible length of eighty feet.

The Prince Seravalle, while digging, in the fall of the year 1834, for
an ammunition store on the western banks of the Buona Ventura, picked up
a beautiful curved ivory tusk, three feet long, which, had it not been
for its jet black colour, would have been amazingly alike to that of a
large elephant.

Some pieces of it (for unhappily it was sawn into several parts) are now
in the possession of the governor of Monterey and Mr. Lagrange, a
Canadian trader, who visited the territory in 1840.]

"One summer, and it was a dreadful one, the moon (_i.e._ the sun)
remained stationary for a long time; it was of a red blood colour, and
gave neither night nor days. Takwantona, the spirit of evil, had
conquered Nature, and the sages of the Shoshones foresaw many dire
calamities. The great _Medecines_ declared that the country would soon
be drowned in the blood of their nation. They prayed in vain, and
offered, without any success, two hundred of their fairest virgins in
sacrifice on the altars of Takwantona. The evil spirit laughed, and
answered to them with his destructive thunders. The earth was shaken and
rent asunder; the waters ceased to flow in the rivers, and large streams
of fire and burning sulphur rolled down from the mountains, bringing
with them terror and death. How long it lasted none is living to say;
and who could? There stood the bleeding moon; 'twas neither li