This was a peculiarly gratifying discovery, because of late times it has become fashionable to regard this creature as a myth and a superstition, a work of the inventive imaginations of our remote ancestors.

But here, indeed, was Man, perfectly preserved, in a fossil state.

And this was his burial place, as already ascertained by the inscription.

And now it began to be suspected that the caverns we had been inspecting had been his ancient haunts in that old time that he roamed the earth--for upon the breast of each of these tall fossils was an inscription in the character heretofore noticed.

One read, 'CAPTAIN KIDD THE PIRATE'; another, 'QUEEN VICTORIA'; another, 'ABE LINCOLN'; another, 'GEORGE WASHINGTON,' etc.
"With feverish interest we called for our ancient scientific records to discover if perchance the description of Man there set down would tally with the fossils before us.