Cardiff giant; Geology -- New York (State) -- Onondaga County
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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