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diff --git a/77814-0.txt b/77814-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a5b92e --- /dev/null +++ b/77814-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6306 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77814 *** + + + + +[Illustration: Ideal Picture of Belly River Series Time, by Deckert of +the American Museum of Natural History, New York.] + + + + + HUNTING DINOSAURS + + IN + + THE BAD LANDS OF THE RED DEER RIVER + ALBERTA, CANADA + + + A SEQUEL TO + + THE LIFE OF A FOSSIL HUNTER + + BY + + CHARLES H. STERNBERG + + [Illustration] + + PUBLISHED BY CHARLES H. STERNBERG + LAWRENCE, KANSAS + 1917 + + + + + THE WORLD COMPANY PRESS + LAWRENCE, KANSAS + + + + + Copyright, 1917 + + BY + + CHARLES H. STERNBERG + + _Published, March 1917_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +My Story, “The Life of a Fossil Hunter,” published by Henry Holt & Co., +New York, 1909, met with such a splendid reception that I am tempted +to write a second volume, especially as I have since that publication +with my three sons met with the most wonderful success among the +dinosaurs of the Red Deer river, Alberta, Canada. Since 1912 we have +been in the employment of the Geological Survey of Canada, collecting +five car loads of the ancient inhabitants of Alberta. We have found +many new genera of the duck-billed dinosaurs, those wonderful swimmers +of the old lakes and bayous of the Cretaceous period, three new genera +of horned dinosaurs, learning more about them than was ever known +before, finding that instead of being covered with bony plates as has +been supposed they had thin skins with small scales like mosaic-work; +then, stranger still, the huge plated dinosaurs completely enveloped +in an armor of bony plates, some large, and others small like chained +armor, allowing motion to the body. In fact, we are building up a great +exhibit of these strange creatures of the past. I propose to write +in the same strain as in my other book, but will take my readers to +entirely new scenes; to the richest Cretaceous fossil field in the +world; will tell of our adventures and strenuous labor in the great +gorge of the Red Deer river, 500 feet deep, and many miles in length; +of the entire process of collecting, learned by experience through so +many years of ceaseless effort; also the work of preparation in our +laboratory. In 1917 it will be fifty years since I began collecting +fossils, the rich results of the past few years are due to the +splendid work done by my three sons of whom I am justly proud, and the +assistance rendered me by the Geological Survey who have honored every +requisition I have made upon them and the results have been far beyond +my wildest dreams. No other Museum in the world, except the American +in New York, can show such collections as we have made in the last few +years. I would like to tell you the whole story. Those of you who have +read my other volume and have sent me notes of appreciation I would +like to tell you of how much assistance they have been to me, giving me +fresh courage when I have been nearly discouraged. I will illustrate +the new book with fifty original photographs showing the fossil beds, +the skeletons, or huge heads in the rock, the manner of collecting, the +work of preparation in the laboratory, and the finished specimen ready +for exhibition. We have already mounted the first duck-billed dinosaur +in Canada, it is thirty-two feet long. We secured eight skeletons of a +new form with a hooded head. + + Faithfully yours, + CHARLES H. STERNBERG. + _Lawrence, Kansas._ + + + + +ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS + + +I wish to acknowledge the great kindness of Dr. L. Hussakof, at that +time Curator of Reptiles in the American Museum of Natural History, New +York for reading and correcting the first ten chapters of this book, +and for his many kind words and deeds. When I offered to pay for the +trouble he wrote me “all the pleasure of being helpful in an unselfish +way would be gone if I received pay.” Dr. W. D. Matthews, Curator of +Vertebrates in the same Museum also encouraged me greatly by hoping I +would publish my ideal picture of “Ancient Giants” after reading the +chapter I sent him under that title. All the rest I am responsible for, +as I have had no assistance, and if I have published any thing that +does not please my reader I hope they will overlook it. + +How can I thank the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, and +Deputy Minister, Mr. R. G. McConnell, who has allowed me to use the +photographs taken by my sons George and Charlie, to illustrate my +pages. The text would have been dull indeed without them. Neither +can I express my thanks for his unfailing kindness to me while I was +under his authority as a member of the Survey. All the photographs +(except the Front Piece Figures 1, 2, and 3, which were sent to me +by my old friend, Dr. Osborn, President of the American Museum of +Natural History, New York. The picture of a _Portheus_, from the +London Illustrated News, the Figure of a _Tylosaur_ by my son George +F. Sternberg. The restoration of _Diplodocus carnegii_ by Mr. C. W. +Gilmore of the U. S. National Museum, and the figures 43, 44, and 45 +taken last year by my son Levi) belong to the Survey. Mr. Clark in +charge of the Division of Photography developed the photographs, and +the Terre Haute Engraving Co. made the halftones. Neither can I forget +the unvarying kindness of the former Deputy Minister, Dr. R. W. Brock +who first employed me. For the great assistance he rendered me in +field and shop. For his earnest assistance to help me build up a great +collection of the Extinct Animals of Canada, at the Victoria Memorial +Museum at Ottawa, Ontario. I hope these gentlemen and all others who +have helped me to that end, will feel themselves included in this +letter of thanks. + + Faithfully yours, + CHARLES H. STERNBERG. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. STORY OF A MONSTER FISH 1 + + II. THE TEEMING EAST 16 + + III. IN THE EDMONTON BEDS OF THE CRETACEOUS 33 + + IV. WE EXPLORE DEAD LODGE CANYON 49 + + V. HUNTING HORNED DINOSAURS 78 + + VI. PLATED DINOSAURS 90 + + VII. THE GREAT SPIKED DINOSAUR 101 + + VIII. A TRIP TO THE JUDITH RIVER 110 + + IX. ANOTHER STRANGE DINOSAUR 120 + + X. IN THE MILK RIVER COUNTRY 127 + + XI. THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS 134 + + XII. WHAT THE CRETACEOUS SEAS BROUGHT FORTH 156 + + XIII. THE WONDERS OF THE PERMIAN 180 + + XIV. CONCLUSION 200 + + INDEX 225 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +_Front._ Ideal Picture of Belly River Series Time by Deckert, of the + American Museum of Natural History, New York. + + Fig. 1. “Dinosaur Mummy” found by George + F. Sternberg 4 + + Fig. 2. “Here the skin is preserved with its complex + arrangement of minute scales” 5 + + Fig. 3. In 1909 Charles M. Sternberg discovered + this magnificent Triceratops 8 + + Fig. 4. Portheus molossus, Cope 9 + + Fig. 5. Another skeleton George found, to add to + the trophies of his hunt 9 + + Fig. 6. Mr. C. W. Gilmore’s wax figure of his + ideal _Diplodocus carnegii_ 20 + + Fig. 7. A huge _Titanotherium_ 21 + + Fig. 8. _Trachodon annectens_, Marsh 26 + + Fig. 9. Traveling on Red Deer River, Alberta 27 + + Fig. 10. Steveville at the mouth of Berry Creek, + Alberta 48 + + Fig. 11. Charlie’s carnivore as he found it 49 + + Fig. 12. Preparing Charlie’s Carnivore 52 + + Fig. 13. Loading Carnivore with triplex tackle 53 + + Fig. 14. Quarry after Carnivore was removed 56 + + Fig. 15. Sternberg’s camp three miles below Steveville, + Alberta 57 + + Fig. 16. Skeleton of Lambe’s _Stephanosaurus_ 66 + + Fig. 17. Sections of _Stephanosaurus_ skeleton 67 + + Fig. 18. “I climbed the rugged buttes and ridges” 70 + + Fig. 19. Pillars cut from the solid rock 71 + + Fig. 20. Outlying Butte over 300 feet high 76 + + Fig. 21. Levi founded a crested dinosaur 77 + + Fig. 22. Excavation after taking out Charlie’s + _Stephanosaurus_ 82 + + Fig. 23. Charlie’s new _Trachodon_ 83 + + Fig. 24. Prepared skull of _Gryposaurus_, Lambe, + _Kritosaurus_, Brown 88 + + Fig. 25. The strata of clay thins out to nothing 89 + + Fig. 26. Discovery of George’s _Chasmosaurus_, + (_Ceratops_) 94 + + Fig. 27. George’s _Chasmosaurus_, lying in quarry 95 + + Fig. 28. Levi wrapping _Chasmosaurus_ 100 + + Fig. 29. _Chasmosaurus_ Quarry 101 + + Fig. 30. George preparing his _Chasmosaurus_ 104 + + Fig. 31. Skull of _Chasmosaurus_ restored by Weber 105 + + Fig. 32. Sternberg’s camp three miles below “Happy + Jack Ferry” 108 + + Fig. 33. _Styracosaurus_ in the bottom of gorge 109 + + Fig. 34. Top view of _Styracosaurus_, prepared by C. + H. Sternberg 112 + + Fig. 35. Charlie’s _Centrosaurus_ in the rock 113 + + Fig. 36. Putting Irons on crest of _Centrosaurus_ 120 + + Fig. 37. George at work on C. H. Sternberg’s + _Centrosaurus_, (_Monoclonius_) 121 + + Fig. 38. _Centrosaurus_, discovered by Charles H. + Sternberg 130 + + Fig. 39. Limb of _Gorgosaurus_, mounted by C. M. + Sternberg 131 + + Fig. 40. Quarry of George’s Plated Dinosaur 140 + + Fig. 41. Packing up a Loveland Ferry 1915 141 + + Fig. 42. Badlands of the Red Deer River below + Steveville 150 + + Fig. 43. Badlands near Steveville. Photograph by + Levi Sternberg 151 + + Fig. 44. Badlands near Steveville. Notice cross + bedding 160 + + Fig. 45. Quarry with skeleton of _Corythosaurus_ + lost at sea 1916 161 + + Fig. 46. Charlie letting his plated dinosaur down + 150 feet 170 + + Fig. 47. Hauling out fossil 171 + + Fig. 48. Urn-like Mass of Rock 180 + + Fig. 49. Egyptian Sphynx-like rock 181 + + Fig. 50. Dog Cr. Montana. Notice effects of vulcanism 190 + + Fig. 51. Badlands near Cow Island, Montana 191 + + Fig. 52. Badlands of the Missouri River 200 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +STORY OF A MONSTER FISH + + +When I wrote the preface to “The Life of a Fossil Hunter,” I little +thought of the wonderful discoveries and remarkable changes that +awaited me during the seven years that were to follow. Now, in a +reminiscent mood, I sit down to tell the readers of my autobiography, +the story of the last seven years spent in the fossil fields, or in the +laboratory preparing for study, the material that I have collected. + +Two seasons my sons and I collected in the Kansas Chalk, the Lance Beds +of the old Converse County that is now named Niobrara County, Wyoming, +and in the Oligocene, of the same County. Strange to say, however, +five years have been spent in the Dominion of Canada, where, with the +assistance of my three sons, I helped build up a great collection of +the Dinosaurs of the Red Deer River, Alberta, under the direction of +the Geological Survey of Canada. The present year of 1916, with the +help of my youngest son Levi, I have been engaged in the same service +for the British Museum of Natural History. As my readers will bear +witness, in the past, I have seen my choicest treasures for forty years +leave my hands forever, to add to the glories of museums I shall in all +probability never see. When the opportunity came, however, so suddenly +and unexpectedly--the opportunity of a life time--to crown my last +days with a monument that only time’s ravages or the vandal hand of +man can efface, in that growing Dominion of the North that promises to +be one of the great countries in the boundless Western Hemisphere, it +seemed to me like a call from heaven. Though the ties of a lifetime, +nearly, that bound me to many a dear friend at Lawrence, Kansas, must +be severed. Though I must leave the protecting folds of my father’s +flag and mine, and I must live under a flag that has waved a thousand +years--under a Monarch, in fact--I, a republican of republicans! Think +of it! After three years residence in the beautiful city of Ottawa, the +capital of all the broad expanse North of the international line, after +four seasons of work among buried dinosaurs and three winters spent in +the laboratory of the Victoria Memorial Museum of Ottawa, I am free to +confess I would not have known so far as personal liberty is concerned +that I was all this time in the employ of his Royal Majesty George +the Fifth of England and ruler of the British Empire. I have learned, +I believe, that a man is as much a man amidst the snows of the Lady +of the North, under the Union Jack, as under my own beloved Stars and +Stripes. Our hopes, our ideals, our aims are much the same. + +I will hurry over the first two years spent in the fossil fields of +the United States after Henry Holt and Company published “The Life +of a Fossil Hunter.” In 1910 we went to Wyoming. On Schneider Creek +my second son, Charles M., made the discovery of the most remarkable +duck-billed dinosaur the world has ever seen. The _Trachodon_ I +described in the last Chapter of “The Life of a Fossil Hunter” was the +best one that had been discovered up to that time. Professor R. S. Lull +of Yale University in speaking of the specimen George F. Sternberg had +found in 1908 says in his paper, “On Ten Years Progress in Dinosaurs,” +page 210 Proceedings of the Paleontological Society, 1912: “Impressions +of the skin of this animal (_Trachodon_ or duck-billed dinosaur), were +already known from material in Washington, and from the fragment of a +tail collected by Barnum Brown. It remained for the veteran collector +Charles H. Sternberg however, in 1908, in Converse County, to bring +to light by the aid of his three sons the most marvelously preserved +dinosaur known to (Fig. 1) science. Here the skin is preserved with +its complex arrangement of minute scales (Fig. 2) entirely bereft of +defensive armor. Together with portions of the muscles, as well as the +entire skeleton, with the exception of the hind feet and tail. This +specimen was purchased of Mr. Sternberg by the American Museum and is +now on exhibition.” + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--DINOSAUR “MUMMY.” Found by George F. Sternberg. +Page 3.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Here the skin is preserved with its complex +arrangement of minute scales. Page 3, 25.] + +In 1909 Charles M. Sternberg discovered the magnificent skull of a +_Triceratops_, also sold to the American Museum, and mounted there. +This is the best skull of this species known, with the notable +exception of the Utterback specimen at Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. +Charlie’s specimen was found on Seven Mile creek, two and a half miles +northeast of the McKeon Sheep Ranch. The skull was over five feet long. +The horns 33½ inches in length. The crest itself on weathering out was +badly shattered, the fragments having fallen from a perpendicular cliff +into a sandy ravine and becoming buried in the sand. Though we spent +much time in sifting the sand through our fingers, Dr. Osborn sent us +back the next year, when George and Levi Sternberg sifted tons of sand +and secured enough additional fragments to enable the preparators at +the American Museum to mount the skull in fine condition as is shown in +photograph reproduced here. (Fig. 3.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--1909 Charles M. Sternberg discovered the +magnificent skull of _Triceratops_ photographed by Anderson. Page 4.] + +In 1910 Charlie was again remarkably successful. He found near the +head of South Schneider Creek, a finer specimen even than the famous +one mentioned by Professor Lull. How he found the specimen is well +worth the telling. He discovered a large part of the tail sticking out +of a rounded mass of sandstone; another section was in the ditch below. +I was at the time camped on the other side of the Cheyenne River, and +it took me nearly all day to return with Charlie who came after me in +our one horse buggy. It was a bitter cold evening when we reached the +locality, and in order to sleep, we built a big fire of dead cottonwood +limbs, and when we were ready to leave the fire for bed, we raked off +the coals and rolled out our bed on the warm earth beneath. We were +under a sheltering bank that protected us from the wind. The next day +the wind again blew a gale, and we stood on the bluff and swung our +picks all day in our effort to get down to the floor on which the +skeleton lay stretched out at full length. Our eyes were soon filled +with the sand we loosened with our picks; but our enthusiasm knew no +bounds, and that evening, I believe, the other boys, George and Levi +arrived with the outfit, pitched a tent and cooked us a good meal under +cover. It was a big undertaking however, to get that dinosaur out of +the quarry and haul it to the railway at Edgemont, South Dakota, 75 +miles away. It took us two months and a half of tireless effort. The +skeleton had evidently sunk after death in quick sand, since the front +limbs were lifted up along the sides of the body and reversed, showing +the perfectly preserved webs that covered them. The head, and the neck +were stretched to their full length, while the hind feet pointed +downward. The animal lay on the ventral surface with the abdominal +wall spread out. The skull was four feet long. Trunk and head 12 feet +and 2 inches and the tail 5 feet and 6 inches. The entire body was +covered with skin, not clinging to the bones as in the American Museum +specimen George found in 1908, but covered as if with round muscles, +the sand having taken the place occupied by the original flesh. Owing +to the great size of the specimen, and as I was determined to save +every particle of the skin, the sections we took up were very heavy, +especially those composing the trunk, one of which weighed about 3,500 +pounds. It took considerable skill and the combined strength of the +four of us to handle these huge masses of rock and bone, especially as +we had no tackle. We learned, however, that with a couple of cottonwood +poles for levers and blocks of the same for fulcrums, we could hoist a +section up, and then while the boys held it a few inches above ground +I would shovel sand under it and tamp it with my shovel handle. Of +course when they loosened their hold to take a new bite, it sank deeply +into the sand again, but still we found we had gained an inch or two. +Working thus all day we not only raised a section weighing 3,500 pounds +four feet in the air, but moved it several feet to one side so we could +run the wagon under it and load. I then came to the conclusion that +if four men with nothing but poles, blocks, and sand, could move and +handle such a heavy mass that the ancient Egyptians, with millions of +laborers and endless tons of sand, could with nothing more than such +simple tools have erected the pyramids. + +The specimen when boxed weighed nearly 10,000 pounds. I sent it to +Dr. Dreverman of the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfort on the Main. I +shall never forget the effort I made to induce him to give up the +specimen, or take another in its stead. A day or two after I received +his acceptance of my offer, I received an offer from Dr. Brock of the +Victoria Memorial Museum. He wished me to mount the specimen in Ottawa, +and offered me double the price I was to receive from Senckenberg for +the unmounted specimen. But it crossed the Atlantic. The last message I +had of it, before this awful war cut off all communications, was that +the head had been prepared and it was the best of which there was any +record. + +These two specimens which my party of three sons and my self have added +to science, prove conclusively that the duck-billed saurians were +great swimmers. My readers will remember that I was coming to this +view slowly. In describing the splendid specimen George had found in +1908, on page 276 of “The Life of a Fossil Hunter,” I said “I have no +doubt that the animal with lungs expanded to their full capacity often +swam across streams of water.” I was reluctantly giving up Marsh’s and +Cope’s ideas; they believed these dinosaurs lived on land, feeding off +the tender foliage of trees; and I remarked, “The animal could use the +front limbs as clumsy hands to hold down branches of trees from which +to crop the tender foliage, or banners of moss.” When I wrote those +lines I had but a single specimen to draw my conclusions from, and even +this not yet prepared, and I had little knowledge of its habitat. + +Now after eight years in the cemeteries of the duck-billed dinosaurs, +with the discovery by my party of several new genera, as well as a +careful study of their environment: as recorded in the rocks in which +they lie buried, and eight months each year in the laboratory cleaning, +mending, preparing and mounting them--my vision has broadened; I have +indeed been forced by incontestible evidence to give up my old ideas +in regard to their habits and surroundings. In fact Paleontology, like +all human science--or rather scientific theories, for the actual facts +of science never change--progresses. Evidence to prove certain views +seemed conclusive to the old paleontologist; but better collections, +trained students and further knowledge prove these views inadequate +today. Entirely different views are held now, as in the case of the +duck-bills, for instance. These lived in the water instead of on land, +and consequently they had thin skin and strong paddles, or rather +webbed feet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--I discovered five skeletons of the tarpon-like +fish, _Portheus molossus_, _Cope_. Page 4.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Another skeleton George found to add to the +trophies after big game. Page 13.] + +I also discovered a wonderful deposit of figs a few rods from the +_Trachodon_ quarry. They fell in sand among teeth and bones of reptiles +and fishes, as well as the impressions of rushes and other aquatic +plants, and shell fishes. The sand packed solidly around them, and +when they decayed their form was firmly molded in the sand. The cavity +thus formed was filled with sand, and an exact cast of the figs was +produced. Until then, less than a dozen fossil figs were known to me. I +also discovered five beautiful palmetto palm leaves 18 inches in width, +showing that the country at the time they grew was like the everglades +of Florida, ridges between great marshes, through the center of which +ran sluggish streams almost at a level with the near by ocean. The +water was beyond tidewater, however, it was sweet. + +In 1910 I found three _Triceratops_ skulls and George one. Two of them +went to the Senckenberg Museum to make a couple of mounted skulls for +exhibition. We also secured much _Trachodon_ material in addition to +that already mentioned, a large part of a skeleton going to the British +Museum of Natural History. George also found the most perfect specimen +of a _Trachodon_ tail I had seen up to that time. I sent it to Dr. +Marcelin Boule for the Paris Museum of Natural History. + +During the winter of 1911 we were preparing a huge skull, some seven +feet long, of _Triceratops_ for the Victoria Memorial Museum. Later, +in the spring I was away, and Charlie was at work on it. One evening +he had left the shop to go home when a Kansas cyclone struck the +building and shoved one of the brick walls in as easily as if the +building had been a house of cards. The weight of the brick falling on +the skull not only crushed it so badly that it could not be restored +and had to be thrown away, but it drove the heavy tailor’s table it +was on through the floor. Mr. Constant the owner of the building saw +the storm coming and ran upstairs to shut the west window. But before +he could reach it the wall fell in and he had to run for his life up +the falling floor, and fortunately reached the steps and got out of +the building safely. Though the loss of so valuable a specimen that +had cost me much time and labor was bitter indeed, the thought that my +son had so narrowly escaped with his life made me more reconciled to +the loss. I have, as already related, both seen, and been in cyclones, +but this was the first one that ever destroyed such a valuable fossil +for me. In the same building, but farther towards the east, we had a +great fish (_Portheus_), skeleton 14 feet long. But when the floor from +above fell in, the rafters covered it in such a way that it was not +injured, and though covered with lath and plaster, it came out without +a scratch, and is now mounted in the Victoria Memorial Museum. Our +camp was visited by George’s wife and babies in 1910. We were camped +on the Cheyenne River, and it was a great comfort and pleasure to +have a woman in camp, and we soon noticed a change in the culinary +department. It seemed like home to have a daughter and grandchildren +in this desert land, and when we came in from a hard day’s work in the +fossil beds they helped make us forget our labor and our care. These +records of work in the Laramie, or rather as they are now called, the +Lance beds (from Lance Creek in the immediate vicinity), show plainly +that persistent, untiring efforts in a field (that was supposed to be +exhausted by other explorers), by trained collectors, will meet with +good results. Thirteen _Triceratops_ skulls, I believe, were recorded +by Hatcher, who with others spent years here. We not only secured six +_Triceratops_ skulls, but, what was worth far more, the nearly entire +skeletons of two trachodonts wrapped in their skins, giving science an +entirely new conception of these dinosaurs. + +In 1911, I sent George to western Kansas with a party to collect in +the Chalk and with wonderful results; for though I had secured four +skeletons of the famous Tarpon-like fish of the Cretaceous, named +_Portheus molossus_ by Cope, he succeeded in finding the most complete +skeleton known to science, now mounted in the British Museum of +Natural History, in London. Mr. Pycraft, has pictured it in the London +Illustrated News for March 1, 1913. “The giant to which I refer now” +(he says), “has been dead a very long while, a million years or so +[over 5,000,000 C. H. S.]. It remains in a most extraordinary state +of preservation--will be found in the Geological Gallery. Measuring +just fourteen feet in length, it must have weighed between four and +five hundred pounds [a thousand likely C. H. S.]. It was obtained +from the chalk of Kansas, and has quite a remarkable history. It was +found by Professor Sternberg who has achieved a world-wide fame for +his discovery of fossil fish and his quite amazing skill in digging +his finds from the rock in which they are embedded. The specimen was +found [by George F. Sternberg], exposed at the surface of the ground, +and was much the worse for wear-and-tear of wind and rain and sun. But +Professor Sternberg was equal to the occasion. For just as there are +two sides to every question, so there are two sides to every fossil. +The resourceful discoverer determined to get at the other side of this +very stale fish; for the exposed side was useless. Accordingly he +covered it with a thick layer of plaster-of-Paris and when this was +set he proceeded to dig out the fossil from the bed of chalk. This +accomplished, he cut away the rock from the specimen, and eventually +succeeded in exposing the whole fish.” [The underside at least C. H. +S.] (Fig. 4.) + +I have quoted Mr. Pycraft at length as he has given the facts about as +they occurred except only in giving me, instead of my son credit for +the discovery. Why did this monster fish whose remains are not only +abundant in the thousand feet of Kansas Chalk, but fragments of whose +skeletons have been found in many parts of the world become extinct? +From my long experience in the fossil beds I most surely believe that +he had his day and disappeared, as has the Moa, and Great Auk, and +many other species. I have collected redwood leaves and cones from the +Dakota Group, Cretaceous, in Kansas, and in the Upper Cretaceous of +Alberta, and Wyoming. Now however they range over a small territory +along the Coast Range of California, and their days are numbered. + +Animals come on the stage of life, exist for a greater or lesser period +as it may happen, and then disappear; and the old saw “that every dog +has his day” is literally true of the past as of the present. Another +fine skeleton George found, to add to the trophies of his hunt after +big game, was a beautiful little _Tylosaur_, or ram-nosed mosasaur. It +was twelve feet long only, but was very complete indeed. This also went +to Senckenberg Museum. (Fig. 5.) + +In 1911, a young man I had employed, Mr. Jasperson of Lawrence, +Kansas, found a fine skull of a _Triceratops_. Charlie prepared it in +the same region since he had taken a homestead for a ranch, married, +built himself a house, and spent the winter there, not only preparing +the skull for the Paris Museum, but in cleaning the bones of a great +_Titanotherium_, I had discovered near Seaman’s Old Ranch in the Seaman +Hills. The fall of the same year, my sons, Charlie and Levi, and I with +our assistant Mr. Jasperson, explored a new region in the Oligocene, +on Plum Creek, 25 miles North East of Lusk, Wyoming, Niobrara County, +a few miles south of the Lance Creek beds. We found an old river bed +with its flood plain exposed on either side. It was wonderful indeed +to gaze on the dry bed, that had been cemented together into solid +conglomerate, of gravel sand, water-worn fossil wood and bones, while +the old flood plains were as real, (though solidified now), as if +they were flooded, but yesterday. This flood plain had been scarred, +however, by ravine and canyon, ridge and bluff, that had bisected and +thus exposed more of the contents than in the days high water covered +it. Scattered everywhere was the richest harvest of fossil mammals I +had ever seen, before or since. On the 11th of September, I secured +the now famous skeleton of a huge _Titanotherium_, already mentioned. +George and I mounted it the next winter in the Victoria Memorial +Museum of the Geological Survey of Canada. The first great mammal to +be mounted there. It stands 6 feet high at the hips, is 11 feet long +to drop of the tail, 4 feet wide at the hips. Over the flood plain of +the ancient river bed, that cut diagonally across the country, and in +the Seaman Hills, we secured great numbers of Oreodons, a hog-like +creature that once lived in great herds. I found myself fifty skulls, +and the boys a hundred more. + +A large number of these specimens were purchased by the Survey and +are preserved in the Museum at Ottawa. The Miocene (Oligocene) beds +are extensively exposed. Sculptured by wind and sand, rain and frost, +into great square towered buttes, or oblong ones topped with a thick +rock that weathers into perpendicular escarpments 20 feet or more in +height, making very pleasing scenery. Below the hard stratum, are +several hundred feet of greyish marl, some beds with more clay than +others, which weathered into small chunks of clay, that covered the +rocks, or others again disintegrated into dust. Other strata contained +considerable fine sand, greenish in color. The lowest rocks of all, +a purplish marl, rested unconformably upon the chalk of the Niobrara +Cretaceous, filled with the typical _Ostrea congesta_, an oyster shell +no bigger than a cent piece. Some of the canyons cut deeply into the +chalk, put me in mind of those in the Kansas chalk with which I was so +familiar. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +“THE TEEMING EAST” + + +Leaving Charlie and his wife on their ranch, Levi and I returned to +Lawrence, George and I prepared the material for sale. As I had sold a +20 foot _Platecarpus_, George had found during the summer, a 14 foot +fish, and the _Titanotherium_ skeleton to the Victoria Memorial Museum +at Ottawa with the agreement that I was to mount them, I took my son +George with me on a trip to the “Teeming East,” we left Lawrence on the +17th of March, 1912, by the Pennsylvania Route. After leaving St. Louis +we passed through the level reaches of southern Illinois, crossed the +Mississippi. The farms along the lowlands were covered with water. Farm +houses with ornamental trees around them were pleasing to look upon. +In places the land swelled into gentle curves with groves topping the +rounded elevations. The less pretentious houses occupied by renters +were sprinkled in among the nobler buildings. Snow was still lying on +the open stretches. Great wood piles attested to the fact that they had +not destroyed all the timber. Woods of black oak were still common. +Straw stacks and corn shocks were not very common, showing the silos +had gathered in all the green stuff, and the long winter had consumed +the straw. Everything available for food had been fed to the cattle. + +As we go farther east we get among hills with narrow valleys, we cross +a river from the north, likely the Kaskaskia, with canal beside it, but +both are beneath a flood of water making one great stream. Everywhere +are old stump fields: showing the destruction of timber--that once +covered all the land--is still in progress. In a decade all will +disappear as there is no young timber to replace it. So man destroys +his best friends. Not a single rock did I see across Illinois. East +of Casey we passed the great oil fields of Indiana; in the field +everywhere were the silent pumps at work, attached by wire to an +engine, that drives a number at once. The oil is pumped into pipes +that in turn carry it to the great tanks many miles away. They covered +acres of ground, each tank holding many car loads of oil. At 10 a.m. +we reached Terre Haute, where I noticed a huge Court House crowned +with a high dome. The country roughens as we go eastward. There are +many fine homes with elevated water tanks too, showing that the farm +houses are provided with the modern improvements. What more can one +ask, with daily mail and telephones in every home? So we swing merrily +along through the great coal fields of Indiana. Everywhere we see the +shaft and elevator with cars loading on the tracks, there are no +storage buildings; if the miners stop work a week or more the consumer +must suffer. Here too I noticed the ruthless hand of man among the +trees. They are cut down to lie and rot on the ground. We pass through +sand hills, and belts of timber, there are more rail fences than in +Illinois, where the last ones are being cut for posts for wire fences. +They always follow the destruction of timber. At 2:30 p.m. we are in +Indianapolis. As we enter Ohio beyond Richmond, we observe the improved +condition of farm houses and barns, and we see some fine residences +of brick and wood. Even the posts along the roads are painted. They +have quantities of drainage tiles scattered around preparing to drain +off the water, as the ground is soaked from the melting snow. So we +speed along, and when we wake in the morning we find ourselves in +Pennsylvania among the Allegheny Mountains traveling down Monongahela +river, towards Pittsburgh. Towering mountains on either side the +rapid streams covered with second growth timber with but few houses. +The rocks that have been metamorphised by heat, are tipped up at all +angles, often on edge, or leaning against the mountains as if for +support. At last we reach the Smoky City, at the head of the Ohio River +a wonderfully rich city. But her millionaires never made their money +out of the ground from which they were taken, but from the bowels of +the earth. They have delved like Vulcan among the Black Diamonds, +Iron-Ore, Gas and Oil. + +Here the great Steel King Carnegie has dug out his countless millions. +Every where the red furnaces belch forth smoke tinted with the glow of +the molten mass below. Sometimes gorgeous colors flare out upon the +night, or columns of smoke black as midnight ascend and belly outward. +Many smoke stacks throw out their fumes until every thing in the narrow +valley, the most expensive marble buildings, as well as the humblest +huts, are covered with an enamel of a uniform dirty color. + +On the 19th of March I stood on the bridge between Carnegie’s Institute +and his Technique School, a noble bridge of cement. The Institute, or +Museum is beyond my feeble pen to describe. The entrance to the Hall of +Music on the West, is one of the noblest of human monuments; the floor +is of colored inlaid marble from the famous quarries of earth, with +great pillars of marble supporting balconies, twenty or more columns +costing $8,000 each. The balconies and walls are inlaid with gold. The +magnificent building cost 6,000,000 dollars. Every moment I could spare +was in the Paleontological Museum, among the skeletons of animals which +have disappeared from the earth of today to return no more, except as +life is breathed into the dry old bones by hunters and students, who +have given their life to their collection and study. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Mr. C. W. Gilmore’s wax figure of his ideal +_Diplodocus carnegii_, Hatcher. Page 20.] + +One of the most famous and world renowned here, is Hatcher’s +_Diplodocus carnegii_. It is seventy-two feet long and stands twelve +feet high at the hips. Casts of this noble specimen have been sent +to many of the State Museums of Europe. Mr. Hatcher told me that he +received a cable from Mr. Carnegie once in England asking him what it +would cost to make a plaster restoration of this specimen. He wired +back “ten thousand dollars” and immediately received orders to go ahead +and make the restoration. This was presented to the British Museum. +But Mr. Carnegie’s liberality has known no bounds, and many of the +great museums of Europe, have received reproductions. At this writing, +however, I am glad to say that the famous collector and student, +Mr. Douglas, has discovered a still larger specimen, as I remember, +eighty-two feet in length and sixteen feet high at the hips. The last +time I was in The Carnegie Museum it was rapidly being completed for +exhibition. Hatcher’s specimen was found in Albany County, Wyoming. +One of the remarkable things about it is the long neck and tail that +lengthens out in a whip-like lash. The head itself is very small +with teeth above and below for nipping off the tender tree moss, or +other succulent herbage, on which it evidently fed. But it seems +incredible, that such a small head could feed so huge a creature. I +have always been opposed to the restoration that has been made of a +number in a swamp. When we all know that a lizard of such gigantic +proportions, would certainly sink out of sight, as some of them in +the illustrations are in the act of doing (See page 79, “The Life of a +Fossil Hunter”.) I believe the idea of Prof. Marsh that the huge body +needed the support of water to buoy it up, is untenable. If they ever +went into a body of water to bathe, there would have been a gravely +bottom, with no aquatic plants growing in it. _Brontosaurus_ is another +genus of the same family, the Thunder Lizard, of Professor Marsh, who +imagined that his tread on earth shook it, and produced a sound like +the roll of distant thunder. It has been the dream of my life to take +up some of these gigantic Jurassic Reptiles but as yet I have not had +the opportunity. Every thing in Carnegie Museum of Fossil Vertebrates +is dwarfed by the great _Dinosaur_ named after the Iron King. (Fig. 6.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--On the 11th of September I secured the +famous skeleton of a _Titanotherium_. Page 14.] + +Another remarkable skeleton is _Morophus_, a toed ungulate about +twelve feet long, and eight feet high. It has a powerful neck, a head +resembling a horse, while the coffin bones are cleft down the center. +There is a beautiful three toed horse skeleton two feet high, and +many other splendidly mounted skeletons of the extinct animals of the +west. I was delighted to see my specimen of the great turtle, Cope’s +_Protostega gigas_, The First Great Roof, mounted here, as well as the +_Clidastes_ and a great fish I sold to Mr. Hatcher just before his +death. + +But time would fail me to tell of the many delights of Pittsburgh. +I was especially interested in the Fern Tree Group from Australia. +Gigantic tree ferns they were, and it seemed to me I had gone back +millions of years, to the Tree Fern Forests of the Carboniferous. + +On the 25th of March we went to Washington and were the guests of my +brother, General George M. Sternberg at 2005 Massachusetts Avenue. I +had not seen him for years. + +I met for the first time Mr. C. W. Gilmour, Curator of Fossil Reptiles, +and Mr. Gidley, Curator of Fossil Mammals. In the National Museum I +went over with them the grand mounts in the Museum. Among them the +first example of a mounted skeleton of _Triceratops_. They have a +wealth of _Triceratops_ skulls and other material, collected largely by +the late Mr. J. B. Hatcher. Here also are groups of smaller dinosaurs, +and of mounted skeletons of the Duck-billed form, and many mammals. We +passed a most enjoyable time here also. + +They were mounting a fine skeleton of a great Stegosaur, or Plated +Saurian, one of the most unique of the dinosaurs. The huge dermal +plates of bone that line the back bone alternately, in double rows, are +often two and a half by three feet in size, while the enormous spines +that stick out from the top surface of the tail, are, some of them, +over two feet in length. Since that enjoyable March, they have mounted +this noble dinosaur as he lay entombed in his rocky cemetery, enough +of it removed to show the bones in bold relief. + +On Saturday we went to the National funeral of the sailors and +marines, who lost their lives when the Maine was blown up by out side +explosives, in 1898. This was the most remarkable spectacle I have ever +seen. I stood at the Army Building and looking up Pennsylvania Avenue +to the Capital. It was filled with marching men and the sidewalks were +crowded with people. First came a platoon of mounted police clearing +the crowded streets for the procession, consisting of troops of +Cavalry, Artillery, Infantry, of Sailors, and Marines, and the Grand +Army of the Republic. They escorted thirty-two caissons on which rested +double coffins of the martyrs of the Maine, completely hidden beneath +a wealth of flowers. Several bands played funeral marches. The great +column was reviewed by the President. A cold rain set in that lasted +all day, but the soldiers made the solemn march to Arlington through +it all, in full dress. The brilliant uniforms of the officers were +unprotected from the violent down-pour. As the procession was hours in +reaching the Cemetery, we went ahead to Arlington House, which stands +surrounded with grand old trees on an elevation overlooking Washington, +across the Potomac. It was too wet to look at the cemetery, where +thousands of the soldiers of the Union perished, that our country +should continue one and inseparable, with the foul blot of slavery +washed out in the blood of our patriots. In one tomb are the bones +of 2,000 unknown dead gathered from the battle fields, who live in +story and died that we might live and enjoy the blessings of American +Citizenship, the most prosperous nation on God’s green earth. Printed +on a white board is the poet’s tribute to the soldier dead: + + “On Fame’s eternal camping ground + Their silent tents are spread, + And glory guards with solemn round + The bivouac of the dead. + The muffled drums sad roll has beat + The Soldier’s last tattoo, + No more on life’s parade shall meet + The brave the fallen few.” + +They laid the Martyrs to rest, with the countless soldiers and sailors +of the great Republic dead. “Peace to their ashes.” Monday we left for +New York. + +It would be useless for me to attempt to describe the wonders of the +American Museum at 77th street and Central Park West, in New York +City. There is no museum on our continent to compare with it as far +as I know, and I have visited nearly all. I have rarely been able to +spare the time to visit any part of it, except that of Vertebrate +Paleontology, neither have I time now, to describe their most noted +specimens, and since Barnum Brown has added six car loads of the wealth +of Dinosaur material, from the Edmonton and Belly River series of +the Red Deer River, Alberta, no man can measure the wonders of her +“Animals of the Past.” How grand for science, to have such a man as +Professor Osborn its President, a man who has given his life and wealth +to augment its riches from “The Story of the Past,” and those other men +like Morris Jessup, who have given their millions into the treasury. +I was proud indeed when I entered her walls to know that the nucleus +of those vast collections was the “Cope Collection,” and to remember +that I had been a contributor to that collection for seven years of +the best, if not the most fruitful years of my life. I saw here the +strange ladder-spined lizard I collected in the Permian of Texas, +part of my John Day River Collection of Oregon, etc. But what pleased +me most were the more perfect specimens of a horned and duck-billed +dinosaur from Wyoming, and the great fish _Portheus_. Here lies the +prepared specimen of George’s _Trachodon annectens_, wrapped in its +skin as in a mantle. Here, too, in the Invertebrate Department, is the +great Inoceramus shell 3′ 4″ × 3′ 7″ in size. The second shell of these +huge dimensions I sent to Tübingen University. Although they strew the +rocks of the Kansas chalk in great numbers, they are always broken into +small pieces, and these are scattered by the winds of heaven. It seems +impossible to preserve them. But George and I learned the secret, and +after finding a shell with lips or hinge exposed, we carefully removed +the loose chalk above it, then put a frame of two by four lumber around +it, in which we poured plaster. On hardening this stuck securely to the +shattered shell, holding the fragments in place. Then we dug beneath +and turned over the panel, and in the shop removed the chalk, leaving +one side of the shell exposed in the solid plaster. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--_Trachodon annectens_, Marsh. Page 45.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9--Traveling on Red Deed River, Alberta. Page 49.] + +From New York I went to Yale, and met Professors Lull, Schuchert and +Weiland, and the preparator, Mr. Hugh Gibbs. What a splendid time we +had in what the oldest American Paleontologist, Prof. S. W. Williston +used to call “a Paradise of Dry Bones.” We saw the treasures Prof. +Marsh had gathered through so many years, some of them the most famous +among fossil vertebrates. Time or space would not allow me to go +deeply into the study and description of these wonders of creation. +Dr. Weiland told me that if five of the most perfect fossil turtles +were chosen from all the museums of the world, his great extinct +monster turtle, _Archelon ischyros_, from South Dakota, would rank +first, and the one I sent him from the Kansas chalk would be second +in the list. You may call it egotism, to recall these delights, but +it is the very spice of life to know that years spent in the barren +and desolate fossil fields of North America, have not been barren of +results. Please remember, if I am still collecting in the year of +grace 1917, it will mean that I have been a collector, or if you +please a Fossil Hunter for fifty years. So I should be excused, if I +bring before you the choice of the big game I have gleaned through +half a century. We visited these great museums not only for pleasure, +but to learn something about the processes of making “Open Mounts,” +for I must confess, neither George or I had ever done this kind of +work, although I had bound myself with George’s aid, to mount the +_Titanotherium_ skeleton in this way, that is, mount it free from +the rock in which it was entombed. Fortunately, the preparators told +us of many mistakes in their own mounts, and warned us not to fall +into the same pits. Unfortunately, however, they were not mounting a +titanothere at the American Museum and the one we studied was among +their first mounts, and they have been improving on it ever since. With +the maxim of the late Professor Cope ringing ever in my ears “What +man has done he can do again, and he can do a little more.” With the +little knowledge we had gained we crossed the International Line, and +found ourselves in Ottawa, Canada. We found that the great room that +was to be the exhibition room of vertebrate fossils, was filled with +boxes and barrels, and there was not a tool in sight. As I was obliged +to mount the _Titanotherium_ at my own expense, I could not afford +an elaborate machine shop. I remembered how Charlie in a little log +cabin on Old Woman Creek, Wyoming, was preparing a great skull of a +horned dinosaur. A _Triceratops_, for the Paris Museum, with little +more than a knife or two, a few chisels and brushes and sacks of +plaster, in a room that had only about two feet of extra space around +the skull. Also with similar tools, he had taken the skeleton of the +_Titanotherium_, out of the hardest kind of rock. We certainly, with +a few simple tools should be able to mount it. We did it too. We were +indeed handicapped. For an anvil we secured a disk of solid steel, a +strong vise, the necessary half oval, and round steel, and iron tubing +for supports, etc. We made a great sand-table first, and laid out on +it the skull and column to get the pose, often getting above it and +moving a bone here and there until we were satisfied. We then cut a +board so as to fit the contour of the under part of the column, as we +had arranged it on the sand-table. This board was fastened to bases +by two half round pieces of steel that were fastened to either side +of the board in pairs, one in front, and one behind. These coming +together beneath made a round rod of iron that passed into iron tubes a +little larger, and held them where we wished, with thumb screws. These +supports in turn were fastened to broad bases, so they would not fall +over. We took a cast of the under side of the centra of the vertebrae, +and covering the board that served as our model with moulding wax, we +stuck the vertebrae in on the central line, giving the exact pose the +column had on the sand-table. An iron rod was bent so as to pass down +the neural canal. The skull too, was fastened to this iron support, +which in turn was fastened to the strong supports that were to secure +the skeleton to the base. Although this is the most complete skeleton +of a _Titanotherium_ with which I am familiar, there were several +missing bones. We secured a box full of duplicate material from the +American Museum, and we succeeded in finding nearly enough to complete +some of the feet. We found however, that we had only one femur and +one radius and ulna. So we were obliged to attempt another trade with +which we were not familiar, that of modeling the missing bones in clay. +And then making a cast of them to replace the missing ones. When I +attempted to make a femur in wax using as my model the bone we already +had, I found difficulties I had not bargained for. It would have been +comparatively easy to have made a copy of the one we had, but it would +have been useless. In other words I must make one exactly the reverse +of the model, i.e., if there was a great trochanter on my model, I +must put it on the reverse side on my wax copy, or as I told George, +I must think exactly opposite to what the model was, like thinking +backward. In other words the mental picture I must follow, would be +the reverse of the femur I was looking at. It seems we both overcame +these difficulties. We made one mistake however, I have been sorry +for, and hope to rectify, and that was we followed the old mount in +the American Museum, covering the iron half ovals that were fastened +to the limb bones with plaster to give the skeleton a standing pose. +I am sure it would look better if the iron was exposed. Some time we +will rectify that error. I can never give you a pen picture of the +difficulties we met with; they were legion. We overcame them however. +Among the most important, perhaps, was the fact that we had to work +in cold iron, as we could not use a forge on the fine floor of the +Exhibition Room. If we bent the rod a little too much it would break. +Then it was very hard to give the exact shape it must have, or the +skeleton would be distorted. Any thing the least out of line, you know, +is quickly detected by the human eye, and any thing out of plum would +be an eye sore to the visitor instead of an eye opener, or educator as +we hoped. At last we got to the ribs, and we thought our worst troubles +were over. But we found they had just begun. They were badly broken, +and no cement we were familiar with, would hold them together. All the +bones we must bore into, to hold our irons in place, were as hard as +flint, it often taking three hours to bore a hole three-quarters of +an inch deep. The ribs broken into many fragments, we found must have +a hole into the end of each piece, a little rod of iron perhaps two +inches, or an inch and a half long, must have their ends flared out, +umbrella-like, to prevent coming out when the cement is set. We used a +solution of gum Arabic, and made a paste as thick as cream with dental +plaster. To prevent spoiling, we poisoned it with corrosive sublimate, +and to prevent the cement from hardening too soon, we put into each +rubber cup in which we mixed it a few drops of a thin solution of +LaPage’s glue. Please remember we did not have then, as now a fine +press drill, the best manufactured, but a breast drill. One of us would +often have to hold the rib, while the other bored a hole, and the time +it took was trying to both. The boy who turns the grindstone had a +picnic compared to us. If a mistake was made, too much force used, the +rib would be broken, and fall to the floor and break again into a dozen +pieces. So it became a byword with me, when we actually finished a rib, +and had it fast in its place, “We are one rib nearer home.” We soon +learned, that it was absolutely impossible to tell when a skeleton of +this kind could be mounted. If we dropped a rib it might take a week +to bore into the ends of the fragments and insert the small rods of +battered iron, and cement them together. But patience will always win, +no matter what the obstacle. At last our skeleton was mounted, but I +notified Dr. Brock, the Director, and Mr. Lambe the Paleontologist too +soon, forgetting the base had to be made of plaster. Just at the moment +our plaster was hardening and we needed our wits about us, we ourselves +were covered to the eyes with it, these gentlemen stepped down to view +our mount. We were kept too busy to remember the plight we were in +to entertain company. George took a picture of me, I here reproduce. +Certainly I felt proud of that first open mount we ever made, and, as +I say, the criticism that could be made, we hope to rectify if we ever +have time. (Fig. 7.) + + + + +CHAPTER III + +IN THE EDMONTON BEDS OF THE CRETACEOUS + + +Having entered the Geological Survey of Canada, as Head Collector and +Preparator of Vertebrate Fossils with the assistance of my two sons, +Charlie and Levi, (George entered later), Westward we sped, and as +even the longest journey will end, we reached Edgemont, South Dakota, +and were driven to Charlie’s ranch. My youngest son, Levi, and A. E. +Easton, from Quinter, Kansas, joined us here. We drove in with our +outfit on the 18th of July. A neighbor hauling in to Edgemont the fine +skull of _Triceratops_ Charlie had prepared during the winter. This we +shipped to Dr. Boule for the Natural History Museum in Paris. It was +a remarkably cold day for this time of the year and the mercury hung +close to the freezing point. Loading team and outfit on the car and +leaving it in charge of Mr. Eastman, we went on ahead. I took a sleeper +on the night of the 19th, and woke next morning in the foot hills +of the Rocky Mountains--rugged indeed, showing snow in their darker +recesses. Part of the day we passed through the Crow Indian Reserve, +many of the Indians still living in tents. In the evening we reached +Great Falls. I walked across the bridge here, of several spans or a +thousand and fifty feet in length. + +The river is swift and full of falls and rapids. We passed through much +country covered with the black alkaline shales of the marine Pierre +beds. Some exposed sections are at least three hundreds feet thick, +covered with a scanty growth of short grass. We passed a large lake, +miles in length, covered with wild ducks and other water fowls. No +trees grew along the shore. + +We crossed the International Line at Sweet Grass and Coutts. Here we +noticed a change; the country is a rich loam thickly covered with +buffalo grass. We left Lethbridge on the 21st of July. This is a pretty +town, with a beautiful park that promises to be a beauty spot some day +in the near future. The country north is largely settled, I am told, +by farmers from the United States, and they are making the desert to +blossom as the rose. We could see the Canadian Rockies looming up in +the West. + +At Calgary I stopped to have a row boat made and Charlie went on to +Acme. Calgary is the metropolis of Alberta. I noticed many comfortable +farm houses, fields of wheat, oats and flax, or herds of horses and +cattle. On my way to Acme I saw plenty of hay on the open prairie. They +speak of raising 120 bushels of oats to the acre and sixty bushels of +wheat. Certainly a farmer’s paradise. Our car arrived at last after +being eight days on the road. At Acme we got well acquainted with the +pest of the north, for myriads of mosquitoes made life a burden. We +were obliged to wear nets while traveling and to keep a smoke going +to protect ourselves and horses from their murderous attack when we +made camp. We took the road between Rosebud and Knee Hill Creek to +Drumheller, a small town at that time with a couple of stores. Ten days +after leaving Wyoming we arrived in the valley of the Red Deer River, +encamped three-quarters of a mile above Drumheller. On the 13th of +July we found our first dinosaurian bone of a trachodon or duck-billed +saurian. We soon began to find great numbers of loose bones piled up as +jetsam and flotsam of the sea. They were first carried out, by river +or lagoon, and at time of high tide were returned with dead seaweeds +of the ocean to clog the shore. The best localities we found were +above the river near the prairie level. They are usually preserved in +iron-stone concretions, or a bog iron covers the bones. They lie in +sandstone that has a yellow streak through it. + +The valley of the Red Deer River at Drumheller is a great chasm cut +by the river four hundred feet deep into the heart of the prairie. +Across from plain to plain it is nearly two miles. Tributary creeks +and coulees have cut narrow trenches farther back into the plain while +in the main valley, especially near the brink of the prairie, are long +ridges, table lands, buttes and knolls, pinnacles and towers down whose +sides a rolling stone would bring up in a sudden halt in the waters +of the river three or four hundred feet below. All this region, except +of course the main channel and flood plain of the river, has been +transformed by nature’s sculpturing into fantastic badland scenery. +The rocks carved into the most intricate patterns entirely devoid of +vegetation, except perhaps, along the northern slope of some butte or +rounded bluff where sponge-moss and dwarf cedar and spruce with many +flowers, found a resting place. The slopes are usually covered with +cherty fragments that threaten to slip or roll under the feet and hurl +the adventurous fossil hunter into the gorge below. The canyons are +rich in coal, and now that the Canadian Northern Railway has terminals +at Calgary there is great demand for it. + +The Edmonton beds are brackish water origin. On top is a great bed +of oyster and clam shells. Below the principle bone-beds are about +200 feet of greyish clay (that crumbles under the feet), interlaid +with dark shales and seams of coal. Many of the clay beds have hard +iron concretions scattered through them. As these are practically +indestructible they remain scattered over the surface, the other +material having been carried away by water. There is a bed of massive +sandstone within a hundred feet of the top, and it weathers out +into table lands. Below, the soft clays form conical mounds, often +capped with grey sandstone that is fluted by weathering. The rain +water becomes so thick with clay that it never settles but gradually +evaporates into mud. + +I was interested in the study of two problems: First, the environments +of the duck-billed, horned and plated, and carniverous dinosaurs. +Second, the story of how this river has cut out of the heart of the +prairies, this great canyon 400 feet deep and over a mile wide. I find +in answer to the first question that the deposits were uniform through +a great length of time, showing that the climatic conditions and the +altitude were the same during the time the four hundred feet of strata +were laid down. Further, in order to retain the same conditions the +land subsided at the rate of deposition. The fine material of which +they are composed, showed it to be ocean mud, and the mud, accumulated +in lake or bayous, like the everglades of Florida. Swamps and bayous +were the natural habitat of the duck-billed dinosaurs, while on the +rising land were groves of redwood, sycamore, figs and other trees, +with low heavily grassed plains covered with high grass horse-tail, +rushes, etc., through which wandered the horned plated and carniverous +dinosaurs. How often in my day dreams some stately dinosaur has passed +before my mental vision! The forests, the rivers, the lakes and +oceans of those ancient days have appeared in imagination as though +they actually existed. So I ask the reader to put on my glasses: +A low country but little above sea-level, great flats near the sea +covered with high swamp grass, rushes and moss, through which meander +sluggish streams, lagoons, and bayous, often widening out into lakes of +considerable size, all receiving the high and low tides of the near by +ocean. On the rising land the giant redwoods cast their shadows across +the silent streams. They grow in fairy circles with the parent tree in +the center often, or in case she has dropped out, a hollow circle is +formed. Palms, sycamores, figs, magnolias and many other trees that +now adorn our forests thrived along the Cretaceous everglades. Such +an environment was the home of the ancient dinosaurs. They were the +rulers of land and water. There were many soft-shelled turtles in the +streams, as well as countless gar-pike and sturgeon. The scene was a +vast panorama of beauty. The sheen of the water, the salt-meadows of +living green, the dark forests moaning in the background, and over all, +the sun revolving on its western course. Perhaps our imagination has +carried us back to a bayou of the Edmonton Cretaceous. Yes! See yonder +the foam ripple off the huge back and tail of a swimming reptile, +a duck-billed dinosaur or trachodont! He is rapidly approaching +a specially seductive patch of horse-tail rushes just across the +bayou from us. The enormous head, over three feet in length, swings +gracefully on a long delicate curved neck, his front limbs, six feet +long, and hind ones eight. The front foot is elegantly proportioned +and a strong web stretches across the four fingers. The hind limbs are +pillar-like and terminate in three great hoofs with coarse web between +the three great toes to assist in swimming, and to prevent sinking +deeply into the mud of the bayou when he stopped to feed. The great +trunk, projecting half way above the water, and the enormous tail over +fifteen feet long. This tail he uses with great effect to hurry him to +his pasture ground. It dashes the water into foam as we have already +seen. The whole body is covered with a thin skin in which are arranged +like mosaic-work small polygonal scales or small tubercles, ornamented +with larger scales arranged in rosettes. The whole in parallel rows +glowing pattern blends harmoniously with the reeds and rushes near the +shore. See how the patches of foam rise high in the air, tinted by +the sun’s rays so they show the colors of the rainbow. Now he passes +us at full speed like a racing yacht and comes to a sudden halt, by +planting his powerful hind feet in the muddy bottom. The toes spread +out covering a square yard of mud. With his front limbs converted into +arms, he draws into his huge mouth, large mouthfuls of the luscious +forage to be sheared into shreds by his scissor-like teeth behind, +after it has been nipped off by the hard horny duck-bill in front. + +There are three rows of teeth in the cutting surface and magazines +below, containing two thousand teeth in all. As fast as one tooth +is worn out it is shed and another takes its place. Further, they +are so arranged that only alternate teeth can drop out at a time. +Professor Marsh has called this giant lizard _Trachodon annectens_. +We have certainly a fine view of him. Back of the head a frill rises +gently to the shoulders. The sun light reflects from the water every +shining scale and contour of the graceful body, and exhibits the play +of the strong muscles. He is in his natural habitat and has finished +breakfast, if you please. Lifting his head he turns towards the narrow +neck of land that separates him from a bayou just beyond. He wades +through the mass of rank vegetation towards shore, and as he reaches +the muddy slope between high and low tide, he rests his front feet on +the sloping bank. Then with body raised a few feet above the mud, and +dragging his tail behind him when he reaches the fringe of bushes, +he pushes his duck-bill into them nosing around as if to scent some +danger. As the coast seems clear he hurries across the narrow strip of +land. + + The cooling touch of morning breeze + Waft incense from a censor hidden + The gentle sighing of trees + Add music to the scene unbidden. + +As he hies himself away “to fresh scenes and pastures green.” But hark! +a noise that thrills us, what can mean it? See! It is the tiger of the +Everglades rushing forward toward his prey. His two powerful limbs on +which his body is posed are full ten feet in length. The three toes +armed with claws of hardened horn are over ten inches long. He spans +full thirty feet in length. Small front limbs are hardly noticeable. He +drags a long tail on the ground. His long and powerful jaws are armed +with horrid teeth. Some six inches in length with double edges serrated +on their cutting surfaces. Our herbivore, knowing his weakness, rushes +frantically back towards the water, but he is unable to reach it. +His enemy is upon him and with relentless fury strikes blows at his +unprotected body, with first one, and then the other claw-armed hind +foot that tears open the tender fresh and pours a flood of life-blood +on the ground. The awful terror of the scene has rendered us speechless +with horror, coming so swiftly in the peaceful redwood forest. The sun +was not darkened, the perfume of flowers still scented the air; the +gentle breeze sighed in the branches over head. Though the victim was +a cold blooded reptile, we had become deeply interested in him and we +were unprepared for such a woodland tragedy. + +Coming back to the second question that has so interested me: How has +this great canyon been cut out of the heart of the prairie through the +rocks of the Edmonton Cretaceous? + +The recession of the cliffs of the main canyon and its side coulees +is very rapid. The upper beds, composed of uncemented fine sand and +clay, under the action of rain, or frost, cave off in great avalanches +of shaken up material that rapidly disintegrate and is carried off by +the rains to the Red Deer River, where the high water hurries it on to +augment the sediment accumulated by the lake or river’s mouth or Lake +Winnipeg itself. + +Often acres of the margin of the prairies slide down and fill a coulee, +or drop into the river, through which a passage is rapidly cut and +the mass is shoved on by other masses behind, until it has all been +carried away. Every time it rains the fine clay and sand dissolves like +soft soap, and as mud is carried into the river. The deeper canyons +have their ridges bisected by lateral ravines until they meet and form +buttes and knolls that in turn weather into hay-stacks or sugar-loaf +mounds that are being constantly reduced by wind and rain and frost, +until now, often we find a perfect labyrinth of intricate gorges, +buttes, towers, and table lands of every conceivable form, strewn, with +traveled boulders, from the prairie above, or masses of bog iron that +have withstood the disintegrating action of the elements. But for this +constant corroding of the rocks and the consequent recession of cliffs, +we would know nothing of the wealth of extinct forms that lie here in +their last sleep. Nothing of the fauna and flora of the day when these +dry bones were full of life and vigor, when the marshes and lowlands +echoed to the formidable tread of reptiles, and the crush of mighty +carnivores rushing relentlessly on their prey. + +In addition to boulders, and iron concretions, the faces of the bluffs +are covered with cherty chips that accumulate often in some shallow +wash. These slip under the feet, and made it difficult to climb the +steeper ascents. More than once I measured my full length on the steep +surface cutting face and hands by the impact. But strange to say when +it was wet, and the clay beds were as treacherous as if covered with +soft soap, where ever the cherty fragments accumulated, one could climb +on them in safety, as they were pressed into the slick clay, and held +the feet securely as if there were spikes in the shoes. On account of +these fragments I was able to travel over the beds on a wet day, and +found the best deposit we discovered of fossil bones, in the coulee +through which the Canadian Northern has its right of way, on the west +side of the Red Deer River. We made a large collection of scattered +bones here. + +Near here, also, we secured a great collection of redwood leaves, and +branches with their narrow leaflets as beautifully preserved in the +flinty rock as if impressed in wax, but yesterday. The Red Letter Day +for us, however, was when Charlie found on the 13th of August, 1912, +the wonderfully complete skeleton of a duck-billed dinosaur, the first +ever mounted in Canada. It is thirty-two feet long. The end of the +tibia only was exposed, within a hundred yards of the shack of Dan +McGee, forty yards above the forks of McCheche Creek, six miles west of +Drumheller. The entire skeleton except the tail was present. Lying on +its right side, the hind limbs were doubled on themselves, the front +ones at right angles to the body, and the head bent towards the front +limbs. We got the skeleton uncovered and discovered the ribs were +expanded and in natural position. The animal lay like a dead dog; I +thought I had never seen any thing so pitiful, and forlorn. + +Charlie and I mounted it the next winter, and were careful to put +a little life in the dead skeleton by straightening out the neck a +little, and giving a sense of motion as it were to the tail so that +the animal would not look as repulsive as it otherwise would to some +observers; for there is such a thing as breathing life into the +skeletons that have been buried out of sight these three million years +or more. We have mounted it then with the slight changes in the neck, +and one hind limb that otherwise would have covered important bones +in the original matrix, and in the position in which it was floated +to bank, and was covered up with mud. Even the skin impression is +preserved along the pelvis; and the rows of ossified tendons that cross +each other in three rows, like basket work, showing they were used +to bind the muscles of the back and tail together. They were likely +flexible as whale-bone in life. + +The figure 8 shows the skeleton as now mounted in the Victoria Memorial +Museum, of Ottawa, Ontario. It was no easy undertaking to save and +mount this wonderfully complete skeleton; it was buried in fine sandy +clay that was cracked in all directions, as were the bones, cracked +into thousands of fragments. Only our years of experience in the field, +and my faith in the skill and patience of Charlie gave me courage to +believe that it could ever be mounted. It could never have been saved, +but for knowledge of the plaster process of collecting. + +I will try and give my readers the process by which we not only kept +the bones (broken into countless fragments and ready to fall into +powder), in their places, but saved the shattered matrix in which they +were embedded. My whole party worked in what I call for a better term +“a quarry.” The first thing to do was to remove with pick and shovel +the loose sand and clay and lay bare a floor in the cliff large enough +so we would have plenty of elbow room, and could work down around the +skeleton. We first traced the lateral spines so there was no danger of +digging into the bones from above. This work was done with a digger and +crooked awl, and only the merest trace of the bones were developed; +when bones were exposed, they were instantly filled with shellac. They +fall to powder on exposure without this precaution. The dorsal spines +were traced in the same way and the ribs in front. Then we cut down +several feet outside the skeleton so we could get under it. The skull +was covered with burlap soaked in plaster and removed. The front limbs +came next; and here we learned a lesson that was of inestimable value +to us in taking up the vast bulk of the trunk region. When we turned +the front limbs over a lot of shattered rock fell out and threatened to +bring the bones with it and thus ruin the bones. No human being would +have been able to mend these bones if they were once jumbled together, +so we thanked God, and resolved not to attempt the big sections without +covering the entire trunk beneath as well as above with plaster and +burlap to hold the rock in place, and, of course, the broken bones. A +surgical operation, in fact, in which the broken joints are kept in +place until they reach the skilled preparator in the Museum laboratory. +We dug a very narrow trench under the skeleton, after the upper surface +had been heavily covered with plaster and burlap, and willow poles to +hold it firmly together, dividing the trunk into two sections. Each +weighed about 3,000 pounds. After our trench had been dug we found that +the plastered strips would not stick and pulled part of the rotten rock +off with them, and threatened to allow the bones to fall out too. Our +only plan under the circumstances was to stick the ends of our burlap +strips securely to either side of the skeleton, above and when we +had a number of them firmly attached we threw loose dirt under them +and tamped it firmly thus forcing the plaster strips in place until +they hardened or set and held the loose rock and bones. Then we built +supports under the hardened strips, and continued the process until +the whole section was held firmly together. It was separated at the +dividing line by leaving one section untouched and firmly bedded in +its native rock. We then cut a narrow channel to the bones, above and +below, and by removing the supports broke off the sections through the +bones. The other section was prepared in the same way, the ends were +covered, and our skeleton was ready for transportation. + +When we threw out the earth from above and around the specimen we built +a platform so we could back a wagon up to it. Dan McGee who had handled +heavy logs in the eastern woods built a runway of two inch planks to +the wagon. Then the boys, under Charlie’s management started to load +a heavy section, Dan with bar sunk deeply in the earth to act as a +snubbing post, a strong rope around the section and one end in a half +hitch around the bar. They edged the mass towards the slide. What was +their surprise, when the section started in obedience to the law of +gravity, to see the crow bar torn from Dan’s hands and thrown to one +side, and the section unrestrained gaining momentum at an amazing +rate. The men below who were guiding it sprang out of the way, and the +huge mass never stopped until it landed in the bottom of the wagon. +The careful wrapping had prevented any damage, and without doubt it +would have rolled to the bottom of the ravine without hurt. I must +acknowledge that I was very doubtful whether it would be possible ever +to mend the broken front limbs. They had been near the surface, and +had been subject to the effects of frost, and plants, their rootlets +had severed the broken fragments, and fed on their edges destroying +often the contact faces. But Charlie’s patience and endurance settled +the question. And after six weeks of constant effort he had filled +the bones with shellac, picked up the fragments with small tweezers, +cemented them, and pressed them into place. No one without close +inspection could tell that the front limbs had ever been broken. The +tail I restored from scattered bones picked up in the bone-beds, +building it up by comparison with the one I sent to Paris, rather an +enlarged photograph of the specimen made by the division of Photography +of the Geological Survey. + +Levi found a second specimen, larger than Charlie’s in the Edmonton, +near Wigmore Ferry, a few miles west of Munson. This we have not yet +prepared. So we returned to Ottawa after three months hunt for big +game in the Edmonton rocks at Drumheller, Alberta, with a carload of +fossils. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Steveville at the mouth of Berry Creek, +Alberta. Page 52.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Charlie’s Carnivore, as he found it. Page 55.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WE EXPLORE DEAD LODGE CANYON + + +We reached Drumheller, where we purchased from Mr. Moore of the same +place a five horse power motor boat; we also built a flat boat 12 feet +by 28 feet. We pitched two tents on deck, one for sleeping in, the +other for a kitchen. Jack McGee and I went aboard. We threw a rope to +Charlie in his motor boat, which he fastened to a post on the small +deck behind. Some kindly hand pushed us off into the stream, Charlie +got up power and dragged us into the current. The women and children +were on hand to see us off. Our motor boat under Charlie’s management +went chug, chug, down the river at the rate of five miles an hour. The +water was at full flood, covered with drift wood and floating logs, +but we rapidly passed them. Levi had taken the team and wagon over +the rough road to Steveville. As we swiftly glided along, the table +buttes, haystack-like mounds, and long naked ridges that mark out the +exposures of the Edmonton Series, were in full view on either side. +The heads of ravines, under the prairie level were packed with clumps +of aspen and other trees, as was the narrow flood plain and scattered +islands with cottonwoods. We reached the mouth of Willow Creek at one +thirty in the afternoon. The scenery in ever-shifting panoramas, was +beautiful indeed. The rushing river hurried us on from one prospect +to another, each one seemingly more beautiful than the last. The grey +sandstone beds increased in thickness, and the visible coal seams +thinned out. Fifteen miles below Drumheller the Edmonton beds ran under +the river, the yellow silt of the Pleistocene capping the older beds. +Great land slides impinged on the curves of the ox-bows of the winding +stream. Concretions stuck out of the sandstone ledges, like toad stools +on a pine log. The river was about 600 feet wide. At three in the +afternoon the upper buttes had disappeared. Sharply rounded haystack +buttes, or sugar loaves, and narrow ridges that tongued out from the +prairie on the south, were visible. On the north, long grassy slopes +were frequent. The valley widened and the hills retreated towards the +distant prairie. There were ranches along the flood plain. At four +thirty we reached a ranch twenty-five miles below Drumheller. We now +got into the marine Fort Pierre. These beds underlie the Edmonton, and +were exposed along the river’s edge. Rounded bluffs, with here and +there an exposure of dark shales were the order of the day. The timber +shrunk and the grass was short; showing the effects of the unfriendly +alkaline shales on the soil. By five o’clock we had left the last +of the Edmonton beds behind. The Pierre and Pleistocene occupy all +the country. The flood plain widens to about three miles. We tied up +for the night at a willow thicket, and the tireless chug, chug, of +the motor ceased. We prepared to spend the night there. After supper +I went into the Pierre hills, and found numberless large concretions +that contained huge ammonites. But just as the rock was shattered by +the weather so also were the shells. I could not find a good specimen. +We got a number of beautiful ones, however, over the Belly river beds, +where the Pierre again appears, showing that before, as well as after, +the country was occupied with the fresh water beds of the Cretaceous, +the sea had covered the country for a long period of time. We were +early astir, and Charlie hauled us in mid-stream. A strong east wind +blew in our faces, it was disagreeable, because we had to lower our +tents to the deck, as they acted as sails, and the power of the wind on +them was stronger than the current and the five horse power motor would +have driven us up stream. The choppy waves beat constantly against the +front and sides of our scow curling over the deck itself. The wind +howled in the few cottonwoods along the shore and on the islands, that +we passed. The hills on either side were lower; at Bull Pond Creek, +scarcely seventy-five feet in height. About nine o’clock we reached the +fifth ferry below Drumheller. The ferry man had stretched a barbed +wire across the river; Charlie saw it as he drove his motor under it +and shouted to us, Jack rushed for the rear guiding oar and I for the +front one, they were both stuck several feet up in the air, and if the +wire had caught one, it would have swamped us. Jack had his back to the +wire and when he released the oar and stood up, it caught his hat and +threw it in the river. If the wire had been six inches lower, or the +river six inches higher, it would have cut his head off as easily, and +thrown it into the river. + +We were also thankful the tents were down. If they had not been, they +would have been torn from the deck. We soon got into a new horizon. I +knew this by the change in the sculpturing of the bluffs. We tied up +to a willow thicket for dinner; the wind began to fall. At ten minutes +of five in the afternoon the naked buttes, towers and ridges of the +Belly River Series of the Cretaceous loomed up in the distance. We soon +reached Steveville, (Fig. 10) and managed to make a landing in the +swift stream, just below the Ferry, and below the mouth of Berry Creek +on whose border the little town stood. A hospitable town it proved to +us; especially have we often enjoyed the hospitality of Steve Hall’s +Hotel; after this jolly good fellow the town gets its name. We were +not far from Mr. Brown’s camp. He had a party here collecting for the +American Museum. I was delighted to learn that my son George, who had +been working for the American Museum under Brown for over a year, had +been appointed on the Geological Survey of Canada, and would join my +party. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Charlie’s Carnivore. Preparing sections +wrapped in plaster. Page 55.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Charlie’s Carnivore. Loading with Triplex. +Page 57.] + +We found that we had made the eighty miles from Drumheller in sixteen +hours (Fig. 10) travel. And though the trip had been delightful, and +exciting, I was glad to walk again on solid ground. I had gotten used, +however, to the cheerful chug, chug of the little motor, saying “all’s +well.” It took good judgment on Charlie’s part to choose always the +deep water route, on a stream he had never navigated before, to know +which side of an island to take when the current parted, and always +choose the strongest. Mr. Shaw the ferryman at Steveville, showed me +a ledge of rock at the water-level, about a hundred yards above the +ferry, that was literally packed with plants, especially water lily +leaves, that were as perfectly preserved as if impressions were made +of them in wax. I secured a large collection for the Victoria Memorial +Museum. Charlie and I went down the river to spy out the land. We found +a large exposure of the strata on the south side of the river. He was +so fortunate as to find the skeleton of a carnivore that promised to be +the most perfect one known to science at that time, from the Cretaceous +(Fig. 11). This has since been proved to be the truth. In this specimen +the ventral ribs and one front limb appear in their normal position +for the first time in a carniverous dinosaur from the Cretaceous. The +figure shows it as he found it. The double row of ventral ribs, the +head and the hind limbs, with one foot lying on the slope in sight. +Our work was thus laid out for us and on the Fourth of July we moved +our camp to the site shown in the figure, about three miles below +Steveville on the southern side of Red Deer River. Our camp was near a +large area of badlands. A splendid flat for the horses, wood and water +without end. If you will reread my explorations of the Kansas Chalk, +where we had cow chips to burn, and alkaline water to drink, beneath +a burning sun, you will realize how much we enjoyed this camp. (Fig. +15.) It was not perfect, however, the mosquitoes made life a burden, +but with smudges ever going, our nets over our shoulders when we moved +in the sage brush, we were reasonably comfortable, especially as we +got fresh butter, eggs and chickens every week from a neighboring +farmer. This proved the richest camp I ever made. Further, to add to +our blessings we were only three miles from the post office, and a trip +for the mail on our motor boat, was a delightful change from the heavy +work in the beds. Levi came into camp with the outfit and George soon +joined us, and no one ever had so many born fossil hunters in one party +before, full of enthusiasm, each trying to find better specimens than +the other, but with friendly rivalry; we put in the most profitable and +delightful summer I have ever experienced. Charlie took possession +of Jack McGee and settled down to the heavy work of excavating the +carnivore from the face of the cliff. I show you a picture (Fig. +12) taken by Charlie himself of the two men at work, after they had +nearly finished wrapping the two heavy sections of the trunk; Jack is +cutting burlap strips, while Charlie is mending some bones that tore +out when they separated the two sections. Then again (Fig. 13) with +triplex block they are hoisting a section into the wagon. The two men +put in six strenuous weeks, removing the great mass of rock that lay +above the bones, blasting out tons of rock, and dumping it below on +the side of the gulch to make a road. Jack used to say in regard to +the skeleton “it is altogether wonderful.” To which sentiment I fully +agreed. You will get some idea of the labor required if you look at the +picture with Charlie standing in the quarry after the specimen had been +removed. (Fig. 14.) When they hauled the sections out it was along a +ridge so narrow that if the horses had balked or a wheel had slipped +they would have been dashed to pieces in the gorge below. So important +seemed this specimen to me I wanted the advice of the principle +paleontologists in the Eastern United States, before we mounted it. So +with authority from the Director of the Survey, Charlie and I visited +Pittsburgh first, where we were cordially received by Dr. Holland, +the Director. Both Dr. Holland and Mr. Peterson the paleontologist +and also Mr. Earl Douglass, the noted collector and preparator of the +huge _Brontosaurus_ material from Nevada. All three agreed, that in +their opinion we should make a panel mount of the carnivore, not taking +it out of the original matrix. They used the argument that a student +could then come to his own conclusions in regard to it as easily as if +he had collected it himself, while if we made an open mount of it, he +would have to depend on the veracity of the preparator. We were kindly +treated here and saw the magnificent _Brontosaur_ Mr. Douglas had found +in Nevada. It is a fourth larger than the famous _Diplodocus carnegii_. +World renowned, because of the casts Mr. Carnegie has sent to the +Museums of Europe. The _Brontosaur_ is sixteen feet high at the hips +and eighty-two feet long. We hurried on to Washington, and there both +Mr. Gilmour and Gidley, the vertebrae paleontologists, were warm in +their opinions that it would be a crime to take it out of its original +matrix, and thus lose the authority that goes with it. Mr. Gilmour +showed me the fine skeleton of a _Stegosaur_ they had just mounted in +the way he proposed we should mount ours. It lies on a base a couple of +feet above the floor, in the rock in which it was buried. He assured me +that people showed more interest in this mount than in any other in the +National Museum though they had some splendid open mounts. Mr. Gilmour +claims that to advance our science rapidly, complete articulated +skeletons should be left in the original rock in which they were +buried. The scattered skeletons and those well known might be exhibited +in open mounts. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Quarry after Carnivore was removed. Page 57.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Sternberg’s Camp 3 miles below Steveville. +Page 54.] + +At Philadelphia, I saw Dr. Nolan who has been the Secretary of the +Philadelphia Academy of Science since he was first elected in 1876. +He thought a slab mount the most impressive, and could not realize +how any one would think of mounting it otherwise. Then we traveled +out to Princeton, and this was the first and only time I have been +there. I greatly enjoyed their magnificent collection. I was especially +interested in Waterhouse Hawkins’ paintings on the ceilings, of troops +of _Laelaps_, or duck-billed dinosaurs running on their powerful hind +limbs, carrying their huge tails clear of the ground--a pose that many +paleontological artists stick to with amazing tenacity. I have proved +over and over again that these animals were swimmers. We were invited +to the home of Prof. W. B. Scott, and after I told him the condition of +our carnivore, he at once said the bones should not be taken out of the +matrix. He instanced the case of the great collection of _Iguanodonts_ +in the Brussels Museum, some thirty individuals. Many mounted in their +rocky sepulchers. Our carnivore should lie as we found him on a slab +in bold relief. I must confess that my original idea that it should +be mounted over the partial skeleton of a _Trachodont_ on which he +was to be feeding was fast falling away from me in the face of such +opinions by the greatest of our paleontologists. When we reached New +York we met in the American Museum, the President, Dr. Henry F. Osborn, +Dr. Mathews the Curator of Vertebrate Fossils, and his assistants, Mr. +Granger and Barnum Brown. Dr. Osborn gave the opinion that was held by +all the others, that we should mount it as we found it, clearing away +the rock so all the bones stand out from their matrix, but held in it, +except where limb bones might cover some other bones; in which case +they must be removed and mounted clear. I had not a foot to stand on, +when I visited the authority on dinosaurs, Dr. Lull of Yale. He took us +out to lunch and agreed with the other students, without question. I +was glad indeed, therefore to reconsider my first opinion and recommend +to the Director of the Geological Survey, that we should mount it as +the paleontologists had indicated, as I believe this would be a world +specimen in which all students of ancient life would be interested. Mr. +Lambe agreeing with this opinion also. + +Charlie spent the greater part of eight months, including the winter +of 1913, in preparing it. There is a great deal more to do before it +is finally mounted permanently in the Museum at Ottawa. Mr. Lambe, +the Vertebrate Paleontologist of the Geological Survey of Canada, has +called this noted specimen _Gorgosaurus libratus_, or in English, if +you please, “The fierce looking easily balanced carniverous dinosaur.” +The skull is about three feet long, with all the teeth in place; +they are from four to five inches in length, slightly recurved, with +flattened sides, double edged, with serrated margins. Fierce indeed +must he have looked, when he slunk up on his prey, his eyes flashing +cruelty, with glistening teeth also, and forked tongue. His entire body +from the front of the jaws, to end of the tail was twenty-nine feet in +length. His powerful hind limbs, on which the entire body was balanced, +were ten and a half feet in length. He had three great, claw-armed +toes, and one not so large, raised from the ground like the spur of a +rooster. His front limbs were mere vestigials, only twenty-three inches +long; and the digits were reduced to two, with weak claw bones. We are +unable to imagine to what use they could have been put. The abdominal +walls were protected in front by 16 pairs of ventral ribs, that were +united to the regular ribs by rods of bone on each side; they passed +each other midway in front, in order to allow the increase and decrease +in the walls during the act of breathing, sliding at their ends, back +and forth with each breath. They were as effectively protected as if +sheathed in iron hoops. The long bones were hollow, and the feet like +those of a running bird. In front of the pelvic arch the pubic bones +were provided with two large feet, that, in position, were in a line +with the ventral ribs. In order to rest on these he must have been +able to flex his limbs like a living _Sphenodon_, or New Zealand lizard +(eighteen inches or more in length) does. This seems a more reasonable +pose to me than the one usually given Cretaceous carniverous dinosaurs. +I cannot believe he always made a conspicuous object of himself when +he was hunting over the grassy and rushy plains for his prey, the +herbivorous dinosaurs. I would rather think he slunk along their spoor +or the trails, they had beaten through the rank vegetation, as a tiger +would crawl up on his victim. So I picture him, when I try to put +life into his old dry bones. It has been the habit of paleontologists +to make a composite animal of a dinosaur, with characters of birds, +mammals and reptiles. Several trachodonts and horned dinosaurs I have +seen painted, with a thick rhinoceros-like skin, when we now know they +had scales patterned after the Gila Monster of Arizona today as far as +the scales go. The bones on the underside of the tail, called chevrons, +are shaped like runners, as if to carry out my belief, that he dragged +his tail behind him like a lizard of today. What was his ventral armor +for, if not to protect the vital organs from the hard tough rushes +and swamp grass of his habitat? What would be the use of the ventral +ribs otherwise? From my work in shop and quarry, I am convinced these +great reptiles will be treated and posed as lizards some day. Now the +Vertebrate Paleontologists follow Cope, and Marsh in their views of +these animals when, in reality they are simply reptiles that have long +since become extinct, leaving no living representatives. The nearest +being the lizards. + +I climbed the rugged buttes and ridges. Many are entirely devoid of +vegetation. Our work was in a canyon four or five hundred feet deep +and measuring a mile from prairie to prairie, with long creeks or +coulees running back into the flats. Their head branches spreading +out like an open fan, as on Sand Creek, exposing thousands of acres +of denuded rock to the sun. I was so fortunate as to find two more or +less complete skeletons of a new duck-billed dinosaur, one with much of +the beautiful skin impression preserved. The small scales, often mere +tubercles, polygonal in shape arranged like mosaic-work in a pavement +with ornamental elevations “limpet-like” in form, they are arranged in +parallel rows along the abdominal walls and were reduced in size and +number in the tail. Mr. Lambe has figured some of these lovely scales. +He calls the new creature _Stephanosaurus marginatus_[A] or the crowned +lizard. Barnum Brown discovered a wonderfully complete skeleton here, +he gives it the name of _Corythosaurus casuarius_. Because the crested +head resembles a Cassowary. I am delighted to be able to use with the +permission of The American Museum authorities Deckert’s restoration +for my Front Piece. With all the wonderfully complete skeletons my +party have found of Cretaceous dinosaurs, I am forced in this specimen, +to yield the palm to Mr. Brown, I am glad to acknowledge the wonderful +skill of this indefatigable Collector and Paleontologist. Science can +never repay what she owes him for grand skeletons of the Cretaceous +Dinosaurs with which he has enriched the American Museum. Half a mile +away from the skin impression and some of the skeleton, I found part +of the head, and many of the bones, including the ischia, or the two +pelvic bones that point backward and the further ends of these bones +were footed, showing that he could bring his huge body down to the +ground and rest it partly on these strong feet. Unfortunately only half +of the head was present and its top was not complete. However, enough +was preserved to show these saurians with footed ischia had crested +heads, and were different in this respect from the _Trachodon_ already +referred to from the Edmonton Formation. I was so fortunate as to find +in the same beds at Loveland Ferry, ten miles below the mouth of Dead +Lodge Canyon, (a new locality Charlie located in 1915) two skeletons, +within fifteen feet of each other, one with most of the tail, the +trunk to shoulder blades, and the hind limbs. The other contains three +caudal, or tail vertebrae, and the whole column in front, with arches, +front and hind limbs, except that one hind foot and one fore foot were +missing. A very fine head was found pressed back against the back bone, +showing that the animal had died in the water, when the gases raised it +to the surface and the pressure of so large a body against the head, +forced it back. When the gases were liberated the body settled in a mud +bank where it became covered over, and lay buried, through all these +ages, undisturbed until the recession of the bluffs carried away the +tail. Underground channels destroyed the two feet. + +[A] The Ottawa Naturalist, January, 1914. + +But of these bones themselves; how can I describe their condition, I +have been faithfully at work on them for over three months, (at this +writing), and am just beginning to see that I will have a fine skull +when it is cleaned (See Fig. 16). I have since finished it. It was +preserved in a clay sandstone that chips at right angles to the bones, +breaking them into thousands of pieces. Then the bones are enclosed +with a heavy coating of bog iron, and between bones and around them, is +stone as hard at flint. The bones themselves are poorly petrified. The +spongy bone not filled with rocky material. If the thin outer covering +is broken through, the spongy bone within crumbles like an egg shell. +If a tool should slip through the covering, the bone within is broken +to fragments. How is it possible with such obstacles to ever overcome +them and prepare the skeleton for study and exhibition? Well! first of +all, whenever after the most careful scraping and cutting I got some +bone exposed, I filled it with diluted shellac or a thin solution of +ambroid, a cement I like better than shellac, although it is costly. +Then it must be left, (for a bone wet with shellac is like mud), until +thoroughly dry, and hard. The rock, too, must be held together and +strengthened in the same way. What seemed for weeks an impossible +task, became possible; as I got the bones harder and harder. I had a +solid mass to work against with steel tools. These were either small +chisels or scrapers, made by beveling off the end of large harness +makers straight awls, (made in Germany), or I used tools George made +especially for me. He became quite skilful in tempering tools. It +is needless to say that the tools that can be used in preparing one +specimen cannot be used for another. Where the rock is not too hard, +a saddler’s crooked awl is very useful, but with the skull referred +to it would have been of no use whatever. Patience, and unremitting +enthusiasm, and the hope of success, even with this specimen the worse +one to prepare I ever saw, have made success possible. + +So the preparation of these Red Deer River Dinosaurs, require courage +and patience, not only for me, but for the boys, working incessantly +and going slowly to the finish. We must have complete control of our +nerves, a moment’s impatience might wreck a specimen we have sought for +years. It is a great achievement to mount one of the noble relics of +God’s creative power in the past. Our laboratory is Holy Ground. The +earth is a great plant, from which, for countless millions of years the +Creator has been turning out the creatures of his hand. Each, “having +seed in itself.” It is discouraging when I think of the multitudes that +throng our Exhibition Hall, to know how few carry any thing away with +them. They simply satisfy a curiosity, with little conception of the +enormous energy the collector and preparator expend, in heart breaking +months of exploration, and nerve trying labor in the shop. Yet some are +really interested, I remember talking for an hour or more in shop and +exhibition hall, with a minister of the Church of England. When he left +he remarked “I feel as if I had been talking with God” so closely had I +led him to Nature’s great heart. When after months of anxiety and labor +we get a specimen mounted permanently for study or exhibition, we are +relieved of a strain few can comprehend. The nearly complete skeleton +of _Stephanosaurus_ of Lambe, or _Corythosaurus_, of Brown is seen +in (Fig. 16). The front limbs, the shoulders, and half the trunk has +been covered and separated into two sections. I am sitting down to the +right at work on the less perfect specimen. With a little restoration, +however, both individuals can be made into fine mounts. What is missing +in one, can be supplied by making casts of the parts present in the +other. A vast amount of labor was expended in taking up these two +specimens, done chiefly under the management of Charles M. Sternberg. +We might have even lost the one that proved so fine but for him. I had +only found a few toe bones and a tibia and fibula covered with heavy +concretions; his labor, however, developed the greater part of the +skeleton with the best skull of these crested duck-bills we have found. + +The rocks of the Belly River series of the Cretaceous are quite +different from those of the Edmonton. There are many layers of gray +sandstone beautifully fluted, often with outlying mushroom-like pillars +(See Fig. 19), as in the picture. Lying around too, are the traveled +boulders that once lay on the prairie that has been carried away by +water piece meal, leaving them behind. The fluting too, is beautifully +represented in this picture showing also, concretions sticking out +at different levels that will sooner or later form pillars under the +processes of the recession of the cliff. The concretions capping them, +preserve them from destruction. Here, (Fig. 20), is a great outlying +butte over three hundred feet high. It borders the flood plain of the +Dead Lodge Canyon. In the central ground, you will notice, if your +eyes are sharp enough, Levi at work on a fossil saurian’s skull. This +has since been figured and described by Barnum Brown under the name +of _Prosaurolophus_. Levi found a very good specimen of a crested +duck-bill lying athwart a precipitous trail down over the badlands from +the prairie. The tail was partially exposed, and not noticed by the +Indians and Cow Boys who for years had traveled on this trail (Fig. +21). Charlie found two in the same quarry. He had discovered the first +one with the tail sticking out from under a mass of clay about 18 feet +high. The prospect of heavy labor never discouraged us. So we attacked +the bank and uncovered the skeleton. At the further end of his specimen +he found the tail of another leading still farther into the face of the +excavation. As there was new surface ground to still explore we covered +it with tons of earth to discourage any would-be explorer here, and +went back to it the next year. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Skeleton of Lambe’s _Stephanosaurus_. Page +67.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Sections of _Stephanosaurus_ after wrapping. +Page 67.] + +In Figure 22 the reader will see the excavation left after the two +duck-billed dinosaurs were removed. During the season of 1913, Charlie +had the most remarkable success. For though he spent six weeks of +incessant labor collecting his carnivore, he discovered a duck-bill on +his way to assist the teamster with a load. On another occasion while +walking to his carnivore he found a new trachodont at the point of a +hill (See Fig. 23). This skeleton was preserved in a hard siliceous +concretion. During the winter of 1914-15 George prepared the skull for +permanent exhibition (Fig. 24). It was placed in the Hall of Fossil +Vertebrates, the most perfect duck-billed dinosaur skull I have ever +seen. It is in its natural condition, not flattened or otherwise +injured by pressure, as is usually the case. We think the skeleton +over thirty feet in length, we secured much of the skin impression +with it, showing a different pattern from the other known forms. Mr. +Lambe calls it _Gryposaurus_, the high nosed lizard. It will take +months of labor to prepare this skeleton. Mr. Lambe in his summary of +our work says in the blue book Summary for 1913, of the Geological +Survey of Canada, page 293: “The principal field work consisted of +an expedition to the Red Deer River, Alberta, to collect dinosaurian +and other vertebrate remains from the Belly River Cretaceous in the +neighborhood of, and below Berry Creek (Steveville). The party was +composed of Charles H. Sternberg and three assistants, its success is +to be attributed not only to the skill and experience of those forming +the party, [my three sons], but also to the manner in which it was +equipped. The party was on Red Deer River from June 20th to October +3. The collection from these rocks, made by the expedition of 1913, +reveals in a striking manner the wonderful variety of the dinosaurian +life of the period. The field collection of 1913 includes members +of the _Ceratops_ (horned dinosaurs, quadrupedal, plant eaters), +_Trachodontidae_ (duck-billed dinosaurs, plant eaters), _Theropoda_ +(flesh eaters), and _Stegosauridae_, (heavily armoured plant eaters), +_Plesiosaurs_, crocodiles, turtles, amphibians, and fishes are +abundantly represented, and some mammalian remains were also found.” +I know of no wilder or more fascinating scenery than that in the Dead +Lodge Canyon of the Red Deer river of Alberta. The great layers of +sandstone are often beautifully fluted. The strata of clay between +sometimes thin out to nothing (Fig. 25). The constant change in butte, +and tower ridge and pinnacle, with great concretions, or small ones +sticking out of escarpments, like window sills of a skyscraper. Some +of the photographs will give a faint idea of the beauty of this great +canyon. I here wish to place on record my appreciation of the splendid +skill developed by my sons Charlie and George, who took all the +photographs I have used to illustrate this book, except those to whom +credit will or has been given. Levi too, is learning the art rapidly +as evidenced by the illustrations for my expedition for the British +Museum for 1916. Great credit too is due Mr. Clark, the head of the +Photographic Division of the Survey, who developed and printed these +fine photographs. Neither can I forget the kindness of both directors +under whom I served, Dr. Brock and Mr. McConnell, who presented me with +full sets of the photographs we have taken in field and shop, and +Museum and also lantern slides of many. + +While in camp, often after supper when our day’s work was at an end, +in a reminiscent mood, I told the boys stories. They had often heard +before, of my adventures in other fossil fields, and other days, but +as distinctly printed on memory’s pages, as if they had occurred but +yesterday. I remember recalling an adventure of George and myself in +the chalk of Kansas. We had been up towards Monument Rocks and were +returning to camp at Elkader, at the mouth of Beaver Creek in Logan +county, when we observed a storm gathering in the northwest, and +northeast quite threatening indeed. We were three miles away, and drove +like Jehu to get to shelter before the storm broke upon us. However, in +spite of our efforts, the storm overtook us on the level prairie. The +thunder clouds threw forked lightning to the ground around and in front +of us. Where it struck the dry grass of the prairie a little cloud of +dust would rise, and the grass would take fire to spread a few yards +in a circle, when the rain would follow up and put it out. The thunder +cracked in deafening peals with tongues of electricity following at +once. A calf was struck and killed a short distance from us, but we +escaped with a good soaking. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.--I climbed the rugged buttes and ridges. Page +62.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Pillars cut out of the solid rock. Page 66.] + +A still more remarkable incident happened to Levi and me at +Livingstone’s ranch in Gove county, Kansas, seven miles south of +Quinter. Our tents were pitched on Hackberry Creek near the ranch barn, +a large affair covered with sheet iron. Towards evening we saw a great +dust cloud coming towards us from the northwest. I sent Levi to the +barn to put the horses in, they had been standing in the corral near +by. He had hardly accomplished this, when the storm was upon us; the +gravel and sand beat on the iron roof like hail. He stood in the door +with a lighted lantern. I feared the roof might fall in and break the +lamp, and set fire to the hay, and I shouted to him to put it out, but +he could not hear me. It became instantly dark as midnight, as the air +was dense with gravel, sand and dirt driven at terrible speed by the +raging wind. I started to the barn a hundred yards away, and got my +face cut with the flying sand, my eyes blinded with dirt. But I reached +him and put out the light and we attempted by holding each other’s hand, +to reach the tents. Suddenly we saw an electric light hanging over our +tent, on a telephone wire that was stretched above. Then another and +another sparkled in the darkness along the line and lighted up the +posts and wire fence on either side of the lane we were following. +As far as we could trace the telephone wire, little lights swung in +the wind as if some one had turned on a switch to light us to camp. +It was certainly a little uncanny to say the least, and if I had been +superstitious, I might have been frightened. Levi went off to bed in +another tent, I watched the strange phenomenon until I too, got tired, +and turned into my bed and went to sleep. All this is part of a Fossil +Hunter’s day’s work. Although this was the first time I had ever seen +an exhibition of this peculiar kind of electric display on the prairie +I was sure it represented what is called St. Elmo’s Fire at sea. + +On July 18, 1913, I note that I had worked all day on Charlie’s large +trachodont which Mr. Lambe called, as I said above, _Gryposaurus_. +Twenty feet of the skeleton, besides the head was present. On page 23, +Book A, field notes for 1913, I say: “The skull is 3 feet 3 inches +long. Distance between the orbits, 9 inches. It is 19 inches from the +margin of the mandibles to the top of the skull. Which has a high +narrow set of nasals, with curved beak shaped like Brown’s New Mexican +_Trachodont_.” Then again, on page 25, “I have worked all day on +Charlie’s huge trachodont. It is a wonder, poorly preserved in a huge +brown flint concretion that is shattered into irregular fragments, +that break through the bones as well. The under part of the skeleton, +however, is in grey sandstone and clay. The body lay on its left side, +then took a turn and rested on the ventral surface. The ossified +tendons are different from the ordinary duck-bills, both with or +without crests; they are often barbed in the center and bifurcated at +one end, with the other flattened. This specimen is evidently new. I am +very anxious to save it.” + +The fluted pyramids and Gothic towers stand out distinctly to the south +of the specimen in the early morning and after sundown: but in the heat +of the day the colors blend so, the sharp outlines of the different +strata are not easily distinguished. + +On July 19th Mr. Barnum Brown went down the river with his scow, motor +boat and rowboat, bearing his party of five men and all his outfit. +They intended to camp on Sand Creek, which they did, and never left +that richest of all the camps in the Belly River Series in Dead Lodge +Canyon for three seasons; the richest, doubtless, in history. I believe +there are more exposures of the strata there, than all the rest of +the exposures put together. I could not leave the great carnivore +Charlie had found. Or my wonderful _Chasmosaurus_ skeleton, showing the +dermal covering for the first time in the history of horned dinosaurs. +Neither could we leave the splendid skeleton of _Gryposaurus_, or +my new duck-billed dinosaur to follow Brown and share with him the +gleanings of that rich field. Consequently, with his five collectors, +all first class men, filled with energy and enthusiasm, with such a +leader and hunter, it is little wonder that he secured that year a +great collection, now being mounted in the American Museum. He also +spent the seasons of 1914 and 1915 there also, most successfully. The +Belly River beds below Steveville and near our camp, consist chiefly, +as already mentioned, of strata of silver grey sandstone, alternating +with yellowish or ash-colored clays. Notice the picture (Fig. 25), how +the dark clay bed feathers out. The exposed clay beds crack after a +rain, like the mud flats of the river, and curl up on the surface when +dry. The fluting of the sand-beds is due to the fact that they contain +so much clay, that during a rain, the whole surface is puddled and the +water cannot pass through the thin coating of mud, and runs off the +surface in countless rivulets sculpturing the soft mass into the most +beautiful flutings imaginable. This we have often noticed before. + +There are neither wells or springs in these beds, not enough water +penetrating them to produce either. There are, however, many +underground passages through which the water finds its way during a +rain to lower levels. Near the top of the badlands, or anywhere through +them, often, a sink hole is formed. The water first forming a cistern, +until a way is found for it downward, and the water escapes at last +through the mouth of a cave, it has formed. These passages are choked +with fallen rock from above, or from the sides, which in turn are +disintegrated and are carried out by water until we have a series of +natural bridges over the chasm, which break down at last, and produce a +ravine. We used water from these cisterns on several occasions to make +plaster. There was one containing many gallons near Charlie’s carnivore. + +We were often bitterly disappointed in our finds. Take for instance +Levi’s crested dinosaur. He found some exposed tail vertebrae a little +to one side of a horse trail that came over the rocks from the open +prairie above, down to a branch of One Tree Creek, not far from our +camp, there Levi found 20 tail vertebrae, the pelvic arch, and hind +limbs and many ribs. So as we progressed in uncovering these we felt +confident that the entire skeleton was buried there. We were mistaken; +no head, neck or front limbs were present. From the fact that some of +the long pelvic bones had been snapped off, we concluded the missing +parts had gone in death to gorge a living specimen of _Gorgosaurus_, +the Tyrant of the Everglades. Then Charlie removed tons of rock from +where he thought the tail of his _Gorgosaur_ lay, only to find it had +taken another direction, and the same amount of energy was necessary +there as he had wasted on a false scent. + +In my notes of the 11th of July, I speak of the windy day: “So strong +was the current as I clung to the steep and barren slopes; I would +often have lost my footing but for my faithful pick, whose point I +drove into the soft rock when I felt as if I was about to be blown into +a deep canyon. I would cling to my pick until there was a lull, or I +had secured a better footing. My pick, under the providence of God, +often saved my life. Once in the brakes of the Permian beds of Texas, +on a Saturday evening a great storm threatened. I though we could +reach Mr. Galyean’s house before it burst. His son was with me, a boy +of about 15 years of age. We had gone only a short distance, however, +when the rain fell in sheets, not only drenching us to the skin but +filling innumerable ditches with water running like a mill race. These +we must cross. I remember we passed through the same patch of weeds +repeatedly, so I knew in the darkness we were walking in a circle. +Every few feet was a deep and narrow ditch full to the brim with red +muddy water. I found these rushing streams by pushing my pick ahead of +me, as the only time we saw anything was when the lightning flashed. At +last we got sight of the light in McBride’s house a mile up the creek +from Galyean’s. We thus secured the direction and thought we were all +right, but without our knowledge, some one moved it from a south to an +east window and we got off again, and before we knew it were slipping +down into the roaring Coffee Creek full of driftwood. If we had slipped +into it, both of us would have been lost. The boy had hold of my coat +tails; I struck the point of my pick into the muddy slope and swung +around with John hanging on behind describing the arc of a circle. The +pick held while we dug holds with our heels to support us until I could +reach upward and take another hold with the faithful pick. Thus we got +out on the level flood plain of the creek. I then allowed John to take +the lead, and he took me as if by instinct, safely to his father’s +house where we were soon drying our clothes before the fireplace, +heaped high with blazing cottonwood chunks.” + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Outlying Buttes over 300 feet high. Page 66.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Levi found a good Crested Dinosaur. Page 66, +67.] + +Mr. Lawrence M. Lambe the Vertebrate Paleontologist of the Survey +visited my camp on the 12th of September, 1913. We visited all the +different localities where were the different specimens we were +collecting, much to his delight. He described many of them the +following winter. In a large exposure near Steveville, we were led by +my son George to a fine turtle, one of the largest forms. The shell is +over two feet long. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HUNTING HORNED DINOSAURS ON THE RED DEER RIVER. + + +Please, dear reader, return with me to the first camp we made below +Steveville (Fig. 15). I would like to tell you of our successful hunt +for horned dinosaurs, the reptiles that carry on their shoulders +the largest known skulls of any land animal living, or dead. I had +gone around the flood plain to the mouth of a ravine below camp and +following it up to its head searching the denuded exposures, on either +side. Suddenly, I stumbled on a couple of orbital horn-cores of a new +genus of these strange creatures. The nasals and much of the face had +been disintegrated by exposure to rain and frost; one complete lower +jaw and part of the other was in place, however. With eager hands I +used my little pick and digger, cutting into the face of the cliff. The +horn-cores were pointed heavenward. I soon got behind them and followed +up the great crest that projected backward into the rock, of which some +fifteen towered above; I needed help and returned to camp a mile over +the hills, for the boys. George and Levi responded to my call. The rock +was thrown out and scraped away with team and scraper, tons on tons of +it, my enthusiastic assistants threw down. We soon found that most of +the skeleton was present, and it required a large floor to lay all the +bones bare. At least enough of them so we could take them up without +injuring them. + +While working around the skeleton, we dug up what appeared to be +impressions of mud cracks, but Charlie who came to visit us, concluded +at once they were skin impressions. This seemed too good to be true, as +none were known before from horned dinosaurs. We were soon, however, +forced to believe it, when a large chunk of rock broke in two and +revealed the regular casts of polygonal scales, the upper and lower +sides. They were arranged in the most beautiful mosaic patterns, some +mere tubercles, as in the trachodonts, especially under the limbs. +Along the back there were larger scales, often rounded or six sided, +from two, to two and a half inches in diameter. This was new, and +unexpected, as the men of science who had made a special study of the +horned dinosaurs believed they had a thick skin with heavy dermal +scutes, or plates inserted into it, as a protection against the +rapacious carnivores. But here, as in the _Trachodonts_, we were so +fortunate as to prove what we had proved so oft before, “The wisdom of +man is foolishness to God.” How could it be otherwise. Yet I am free to +acknowledge there are no class of men so positive in their conclusions. +I once heard four different men at a Scientific Academy deliver four +papers on the Creation of the world, each one was different and each +man thought he was right. I have proved too often in my own experience +in the field that I was mistaken, to doubt that other scientific men +might be also. I could write a book about the mistakes of scientific +men but will not burden my pages with them except as I discover facts +absolutely different from those commonly accepted, as in the case of my +_Chasmosaurus_ under discussion. In the past men have been too anxious +to publish results before complete skeletons have been found and almost +invariably, when one is found, it does not bear out in its own person +the expectations of their authors. + +This field, so rich in material, in which we get the skin impressions, +as well as complete skeletons enables us to speak “as one having +authority” about them. Here then, although we have an animal with +limbs of equal length, the body was covered with thin scales arranged +like mosaic-work in a pavement. Without much doubt the skull had +been subjected to great pressure for many ages. The rock in which +it was embedded has been lifted some twenty-five hundred feet above +the position it occupied when it was mud at the bottom of the lake. +Mr. Lambe, the Vertebrate Paleontologist of the Geological Survey of +Canada, has called this remarkable dinosaur _Chasmosaurus_, on account +of the great chasms or gaps cut into the crest and skull. As far as I +know this is the most complete skull known of this species. While at +work on my specimen I learned some remarkable things. There is always +an opening between the horns of these saurians. In Triceratops, it is +midway between the end of the beak, and the crest. In this specimen, +however, it is two feet from the end of the beak, and three feet to the +further end of the crest. Then, though the skull proper in front of the +crest is quite heavy and strong, and with large mandibles, and rather +a large horn over the nose, as compared with the small ones over the +eyes. The crest seems to be built for strength, as the central bar, the +side and distal bars are strong, but beveled off to the large openings; +and masses of bone are scooped out of the skull--adapted evidently +to add to the strength, but to reduce the weight. This is not to be +wondered at, when we study the skeleton. For we find the neck-crest +not only covered the neck and shoulders, but extended back over seven +of the dorsal vertebrae, to within a few inches of the pelvic arch. I +do not think the animal was much bigger than a cow: about 9 feet from +beak to drop of the tail; and the latter was short, barely dragging on +the ground. When cutting a path through the dense sub-tropical foliage +of reeds, rushes and grass, with many a bog, he simply parted the rank +vegetation with his triangular-shaped head and crushed it under his +four large spreading feet. But when he was attacked, down went the +head, up went the crest, and a shield well armed with horns on the +face, and horny projections along the sides of the crest was instantly +presented to his foe. As the only vulnerable place of attack, to the +tiger of the everglades, he would try to strike with his powerful +claw-armed feet somewhere in the flank, for then he could lay bare the +vital organs and soon destroy his prey. + +But our _Chasmosaurus_ was on the watch to prevent this very thing. The +grass is beaten down, a ring is formed, and he often rushes forward +with open beak. If his pincer-like bill once closes on the quivering +flesh of the carnivore, he would surely get his “pound of flesh.” If a +moss covered bog is within reach he would try to get to it, for then +he would plunge in, and be safe, as no bipedal flesh eater will dare +to follow. Our herbivore, however, can swim through it, or through the +morass as easily as a living hippopotamus. + +You will notice the horny beak is shaped like that of a great turtle, +though the lower jaws supporting it below are two feet in length. +The crest behind, where it overhangs the back, is nearly four feet +along the curve. We approximately can guess the distance from the +lower margin of the jaw to the top of the nasal horn to be nearly two +feet. At each angle of the cross-bar behind on the crest, is a long +horn-covered spike, while the sides of the crest are also armed with +smaller and blunter ones. The orbital horns are round and conical, not +much over six inches in length, while the one on the bridge of the nose +is over a foot long. + +[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Excavation after taking out Charlie’s +_Stephanosaurus_. Page 67.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Charlie’s New Trachodont. Page 67.] + +Now, with the rapidity of thought we will return to our workshop. +When George prepared the head of this fine specimen, I found it was +the exact size of the one I found in 1913. I therefore took a cast of +the parts that were missing in mine. In order to accomplish this, I +covered the front of the head with lard oil and then with molding wax, +being careful to make it in sections so it would come off and be heavy +enough to prevent distortion. When all was ready and we had colored our +plaster to resemble the fossil bone--no small task, by the way, as we +had to learn to mix colors as well as do the work of a sculptor--with +wax. Then the mold is separated from the skull and stuck together, +plaster strengthened with dextrine is poured into it, and on hardening +I got an exact facsimile of the original specimen. This I fastened +to my skull in which these parts were missing, and this gave us two +specimens for public exhibition. Otherwise we could not have exhibited +this dinosaur, as it would not have done to guess at these missing +parts, as the early scientists were in the habit of doing. Now we can +point to the complete specimen should anyone doubt the truthfulness +of the restoration. All through the Belly River Series of rocks are +bone-beds. There are two below Steveville, one near the top, and the +other near the bottom of the exposures. They lie usually on a bed of +clay, as if they had been drifted in from a lake (into which, they +had been carried by a river) and lined the shore in the mud. In some +places I secured hundreds, yes thousands of bones and teeth of many +species, as well as shields of sturgeons and the enameled scales of +gar-pikes as perfect as if picked up along a recent lake shore. There +were also bones and shells of a great variety of soft-shelled turtles, +and others, with beautifully sculptured shells; they range in size from +less than six inches across, to over two feet. Crocodile bones, and the +dermal, or skin plates of plated dinosaurs, were common. We secured +hundreds of the pavement teeth of the ray Cope called _Myledaphus_, +also countless vertebrae of the reptile _Champsosaurus_. Probably all +the species of this rich fauna, are represented in these bone-beds. The +fragments we collected came in good play, when Charlie and I mounted +the _Trachodon_ skeleton. As we were able to restore the missing tail +from the caudal vertebrae we picked up in bone-beds in the Edmonton +Series, near Drumheller, Alberta. We found many horn-cores also in +the bone deposits. Although we found many of the long bones we were +unable to take up many on account of the expense. First, the bone has +to be located, i. e. discovered. Then likely a road has to be built +to it in order to haul in to it plaster and water. After one side is +uncovered and plastered, it has to remain twelve hours to harden. Then +we must return to turn it over and plaster the other side, allowing it +to harden before we go after it with a horse and sled. During all this +time we might have found a complete skeleton. + +When we reached our big scow in 1914, we found the seams had opened +along the bottom and we were forced to recaulk it. The first thing +was to clean out the old oakum and coal tar. Our eyes filled with the +poisonous tar irritating them almost beyond endurance. After that was +done, with arms above our heads, we drove in the oakum with caulking +tools and then retarred the seams. I will acknowledge I did not do my +full duty here, I spent most of my time in the hills exploring, which +was more to my liking. This trying work the boys accomplished at last. +Then came the supreme test. Will it keep out the water? We slid her +down on skids into the river, and she rode as buoyantly as a duck, +though not so gracefully. + +We had picked out a place to camp three miles above “Happy Jack Ferry.” +So George, Charlie, and Mr. Johnson, hauled the scow up to the camping +ground with our motor boat, accomplishing a feat, I had thought +impossible. Fortunately they had a strong wind in their favor, and +the tents pitched on board, acted as sails and helped them breast the +current. Levi and I moved the lumber up to camp in our wagon pulled by +our team of horses. We crossed many narrow gulches, and were obliged to +dig roads across them. In fact we got stuck in the mud of one, where +backwater from the river had deposited several feet of mud in it. We +got into camp, however, ahead of the scow. In my note book I often +speak of the terrible heat of those days. We had hot work on the rough +exposures without water. Who of us will ever forget, when at night, +we returned to our camp, how we lay with faces half submerged in the +cold water of the river, and drank from her refreshing flood until we +could drink no more. Drinking often a quart or more without injury. +The hardest work of all was to tramp over the burning beds without +success. How many days we spent in useless effort. Near this camp, +however, Charlie got a fine skull of a new trachodont or duck-billed +dinosaur, described later by Mr. Brown as _Prosaurolophus_. Near here, +also, George found his famous _Chasmosaurus belli_, Lambe. Mr. Brown, +however, retains Professor Marsh’s name of _Ceratops_. Here too, I +secured the complete club at the end of a plated dinosaur’s tail, of +which I will have more to say later. Showing as has been my experience +that untiring effort will accomplish results in the fossil fields as in +every walk in life. + +During Charlie’s and my absence in Montana, George found a large +skeleton of a _Corythosaurus_. The remarkable part about it was the +complete limbs in position. It was discovered in Mr. Jackson’s +pasture. Now Mr. Jackson is an old cowman. He was range boss for the +brother of Admiral Beresford of England, who built a ranch here. On +Beresford’s death, Mr. Jackson took possession of the ranch and the +ferry is named “Happy Jack” after him. In fact he is quite a noted +character and one of the few old cattle men living here. + +At this camp too, Mr. Patrick Disney, from Oxford University, England, +joined my party as a guest. He came to these wilds to learn something +about fossil hunting. He was indeed helpful, and welcome, but the war +breaking out he started for the front, he wanted to be, and was among +the first to join his colors from Canada. We learned later he became a +gallant officer in the aerial fleet. + +We continued to suffer all summer from the intense heat. The mosquitoes, +however, were not as bad as usual. All the grass on the prairies dried +up. The crops were a perfect failure. But for the liberality of the +government in supplying the homesteader with food through the winter +and spring and seed to plant, they would have been obliged to leave the +country. This timely aid, however, enabled them, owing to the great +rainfall in 1915, to reap the greatest harvest in the history of these +people, so far east of the mountains on the semi-arid plains. + +On August fifth, we succeeded in getting our scow some two miles below +“Happy Jack Ferry,” (See Fig. 32) to a camp we made near a specimen +George had found of a plated dinosaur. Charlie and Disney brought down +the motor boat, but owing to the very low stage of water, they were in +it, most of the time, hauling the boat through sand, by main force. +Our scow floating with the current beat them to the landing. We left +Levi to haul all the fossils from our upper camp to Denhart on the +new branch of the Central Pacific Railway, between Swift Current and +Bassano, Alberta. For two months George labored with never less than +one assistant on his plated dinosaur, the prize of the season. It seems +that some caudal vertebrae were seen by him sticking out of a hard +siliceous concretion in the face of a bluff, with thirty-five feet of +sandstone on top. This was tough and hard to dig up. He used blasting +powder as you see in two pictures where George is running away after +firing the fuse, the other shows the explosion. It took a month of +constant labor to get down to the concretion and another to cut away +enough of it, so it could be handled when cut in sections. The constant +hammering opened closed seams in the flinty rocks so it could be +removed in chunks, with the sections of the fossil within them. George +secured the pelvic arch, hind limb bones, many ribs, caudal and dorsal +vertebrae (likely the entire column in front of the pelvis), the skull, +with its necklace of dermal plates behind. Then there were many of +the huge plates though not all in position. + +The figures show the quarry, and the road we made with four horses +straining to haul the sections out. You will also see George running +from the quarry after lighting the fuse, and in the next picture the +explosion. We expended far more labor in this quarry than any we found, +or on any other individual specimen. Yet our labor was nothing compared +to what must be expended before the skeleton is mounted, owing to the +difficulties of preparation. The last picture in this series shows the +amount of labor required to throw out the loose material, as well as +the beautifully sculptured rock in the vicinity. + +[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Prepared skull of _Gryposaurus_, Lambe; +_Kritosaurus_, Brown. Page 67.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 25.--The strata of clay thins out to nothing often. +Page 69.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PLATED DINOSAURS THE MOST UNIQUE OF THEM ALL + + +When the frost was on the bull berry, we experienced the strange +sensation of making jelly in camp. We beat the berries out of the +bushes, in which they clung in clusters around sharp thorns, on to +tarpaulins spread below on the ground. The single berry is about the +size and color of a red currant. We filled our motor boat full of +boxes with the acid fruit, and drove it to our scow. There we took +pails full of the berries, and sank them into the clear water of Red +Deer river. Then stirred them with a stick, so that all the leaves, +decayed fruit, and bits of branches or other foreign matter could float +away down the river, the perfect fruit settled to the bottom. The fruit +was then cooked on our large camp stove until thoroughly done, when it +was pressed through muslin bags, and cooked as long as there was any +scum rising to the surface, which was carefully skimmed off the boiling +surface. Then equal parts of sugar by weight was put in, and the moment +it was dissolved the mixture was taken off the stove and put into +Mason jars. When cool it was a fine, reddish colored jelly. We made +twenty-four gallons, or six gallons for each married man in the party. +In camp we used it constantly, and it took the place of all other fruit +and pickles. As usual, we were unable to get our fossils out of the +ground before cold weather came. We secured fifty boxes weighing about +twenty-five tons. I am happy to report, also, that after Charlie found +his _Centrosaurus_ or _Monoclonius_ skull, and after I had spent four +weeks of the most strenuous labor of which I am capable, I succeeded in +getting a very good skeleton from the pelvis to the end of the tail, +of a crested duck-bill. It was especially interesting, because nearly +all the impression of the skin was present in a large section of the +tail; giving also, the contour of the tail immediately after death. +This was the best tail of a trachodont we found. While we were working +early and late to get out the material before the real cold weather +set in, our horse Bob, in going up a steep and narrow sled road corked +his mate, the bay mare. She bled badly, and was put out of commission +temporarily. Luckily, Mr. Bestrum, who was assisting us with an extra +team, had another horse who took the injured one’s place. + +On the twenty-fifth of September, 1914, we got our scow dismantled, +and the next day out on land. In the meantime we camped on the sandy +flood plain of the river, near our scow. One night my tent blew down +on top of me asleep in my cot; however, these are small matters, and +soon forgotten if I had not referred to them in my notes. On the +twenty-eighth, we hauled in our last load of fossils and loaded our +car at Denhart. This point was a switch on the open prairie; the store +building was deserted. A miserable day, with the wind blowing a gale, +from the north. I built an oven of some loose bricks, that were lying +about, and cooked a meal as best we could, on the wind swept plain. It +was four o’clock in the afternoon before we started on our thirty mile +drive to Brooks, where we were to take our train homeward bound. + +We lost our road, or rather it petered out, as they say in the west, +and with the brilliant moon riding buoyantly in the heavens as a guide, +we pressed on over the rough prairie sod. Suddenly as if to amuse our +tiresome journey, God’s Moving Pictures, The Northern Lights burst +upon us in all their glory. It seemed as if a heavy map was suddenly +unwrapped in the sky, the folds taking a fan-like perpendicular radiate +shape, then another and another, was unrolled, until the whole northern +arc of the heavens was vibrating with light in white bands, edges in +colors of many delicate and exquisite tints. At eleven o’clock that +night, stiff and hungry, our solitary wagon rolled into Brooks, and +an ambitious Chinaman soon had on our table a hot dish of beef and +onions we ate with the relish hunger gives. + +When we went west in June, 1914, we stopped at Toronto, and visited +the Royal Museum there. The geological and mineralogical halls are on +the top floors. The principal light comes through ground glass giving +a beautiful diffused light. The glass cases show no signs of reflected +light. Every specimen, stands out distinctly, as if laid on a table. +They had mounted the mosasaur skeleton I sold Professor Parks some +years before. The only large vertebrate on exhibition. + +We were anxious to make a trip by water and pressed on to Port +McNicoll, where we took the steamer Keewatin and slept that night in +state rooms instead of Pullman berths, as had been so common with us +of late. We woke next morning in the narrow stream between Lake Huron +and Superior. The scenery was grand and impressive, the shore lines +clothed with second growth timber. We passed freighters hauling ten +thousand tons of coal to the west, and the same amount of iron-ore to +the eastern smelters. The channel was marked by floating buoys, each +one carrying a light that was intermittent, as fast as it went out, it +was lighted again by two permanent lights below. Carbide is used to +produce the main light, and to keep the others going. There were also +lighthouses at intervals, built in the water on strong cement bases. +This passage way of the ships is as well lighted at night, as the +streets of a city. We thought the boat ride more enjoyable than the +monotonous train; and we enjoyed the sensation of being lifted into +the mighty Superior by the Soo Locks. Then our captain threaded his way +far from the shore line through the reaches of this great inland sea. +Towards night a dense fog rose. Our siren sounded the alarm every few +moments, and on either side, before and behind, other fog whistles, +too, kept up the refrain “Look out! Look out! Danger! Danger!” We soon +got used to the music and were lulled to sleep in our narrow state +rooms. We slept in peace, and the next morning the sun rose clear, +and scattered his brilliant rays of light over the headlands of the +mountains back of Port Arthur, lighting up, too, the grain elevators +and pretty town. + +On the seventh of June we drove our team to “Happy Jack Ferry,” all +ready for another campaign. + +Of all the strange dinosaurs we found in our hunts for big game in +the Red Deer canyon nothing, I think, exceeded the plated dinosaurs +in wonderful characters. The first I ever found, I mention in the +Proceedings of the Kansas Academy of Science for 1908 on page 257. +“Last February, Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History +staff, published a description for the first time of his armoured +dinosaur which he named _Anchylosaurus magniventris_. It was discovered +on Hell Creek, Montana, in 1905 by the American Museum Expedition. It +represents he says a group of _Stegosauria_ characteristic of the late +Cretaceous of this country.” + +[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Discovery of George’s _Chasmosaurus_. +(_Ceratops_). Page 86.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 27.--George’s _Chasmosaurus_ lying in quarry. Page +80.] + +In 1905 while conducting an expedition to the Kansas chalk I discovered +the broken up skeleton of what I considered a large new sea tortoise +with an ossified carapace, it attracted my attention and I knew it must +be new, but as it was badly weathered, and detached from its matrix, +concluded it could not be used and left it there. Later, my son George +brought into camp, a few miles from Hackberry Creek, where I found my +specimen, some peculiar plates, like the ones already mentioned. But as +I had no knowledge of Barnum Brown’s discovery I concluded they were +neurals of a new turtle. These I sent to Dr. Weiland for description. +Last month I was his guest at Yale University museum. He asked me why I +thought it a new turtle. After giving my reasons, he told me they were +new enough, but these plates were of an armored dinosaur. Later through +George’s efforts, I secured the skeleton I found the year before. I +went over the mass of fragments and separated the armor, and found the +entire skeleton was covered with a completely ossified dermal covering, +in most beautiful patterns, the larger scutes were diamond-shaped, +with round angles, with elevated keel down the center, the interspaces +filled with small plates of various forms. This is the second instance +of remains of a dinosaur being found in the Kansas chalk, showing that +the bones of swamp and land saurians in shore, drifted out to sea. The +other individual was a duck-billed dinosaur called by Professor Leidy, +_Hadrosaurus_; but later Prof. Marsh identified it as belonging to his +genus _Claosaurus_ of the Lance Beds of Wyoming. As far as I know no +other specimen of dinosaurs have been found in the chalk of Kansas. +Strange indeed then that we find enough of the skeleton of a dinosaur +for identification. Separated from the dinosaur beds of Wyoming by at +least 10,000 feet of strata and in time a couple of million years at +least, showing that we do not as yet know the time and space occupied +by dinosaurs on this continent. + +Later still in the Belly River Beds of the Dead Lodge Canyon, in 1914, +George found the skeleton of a similar species. Mr. Lambe gives it the +name of _Euoplocephalus_; no complete skeleton have been found of this +strange dinosaur except in the Belly River Series, though a fine skull +and other bones were found by Brown, in the Edmonton beds of the Red +Deer river, similar to his Lance Creek genus in Montana. Last year, +1915, both Charlie and I found some fine material near the mouth of +Dead Lodge Canyon and at Loveland Ferry twelve miles below. As already +mentioned, George found the best specimen we have obtained. From all +three (and the tail club I secured in 1914), we get a very good idea +of this peculiar reptile. One thing I learned from the specimen is, +that the plates are not co-ossified as I had supposed from my study +of the Chalk specimen, but that between the larger plates, are quite +small ones arranged like chain armor so as to allow the body to move +in any direction, unhindered by the heavy armor; these small ossified +scutes are so beveled as to move on themselves, that is, they are +imbricated, while the others are not, and are arranged like mosaic-work +in a pavement. Mr. Brown was the first to publish a figure of a skull +of his Edmonton species. The skull itself has the bony skin plates +anchylosed to it. Mr. Brown tells me that even the eyes are protected +by sliding shutters that drop down over them in time of danger. The +horned beak is rounded in front and the few teeth behind seem of little +functional value. The beak however, was a powerful organ for digging +up roots, or nipping off foliage. The head was very small compared to +the immense body. The great ribs over five feet long, and hoop-shaped, +giving the body a round, barrel-like form. The heavy bony armor of huge +plates, some of them weighed in their fossil form twenty-five pounds +or more; though light and spongy in life. Many of these plates were +harder and denser bone than the ones mentioned before, keeled down +the center. The small nodules of bone fitted in between the plates +and were so beveled as to move on each other like chain armor. The +entire body was thus covered and protected. Unfortunately no complete +skeleton has been found with every dermal plate in position. Of course +I am not familiar with the many skeletons of this form Mr. Brown has +discovered and have been looking a long time for a Memoir describing +these interesting forms. The great desideratum is to find one of these +wonderful reptiles with all the armor in place; just as the skin was +found in the “Dinosaur Mummy” and the Senckenberg specimens of the +crested duck-bills. However we already know there was an anchylosed +necklace back of the head and that the end of the tail was club-like. I +secured several of these clubs. + +Let us go back to the time when the Belly River rocks were forming in +the bottom of the lake. It is spring; every thing throbs with life. +The sap is surging through the trees arrayed in their brightest tints, +the ground below, is carpeted with flowers in endless variety and hue; +there is a clump of evergreens, and here one of poplars, while in the +distance are, figs, magnolias, and a wealth of other trees, all adding +beauty to the scene. Along the lake shore, dense masses of horse-tail +rushes, moss and long coarse grass cast waving shadows. On the quiet +bays vast masses of water lilies waft their incense on the air, and +delight our senses. Above us the swinging redwood branches shut out the +direct rays of the sun which falls as if filtered through the stained +windows of some great cathedral. Let us creep along to the second +bench that overlooks the jungle of vegetation, that spreads out in +great meadows to the lake itself. See that thicket! Let us approach it +quietly and peep through as it opens beyond in a park in the forest. +Such a sight is rarely offered to human eyes. See that reptile over +twenty feet in length, a great round body twenty feet in circumference, +a short stubby tail. A small horse-shoe shaped head with horn sheathed +jaws, small but strong. Back of the head, are necklaces of bony scutes, +keeled down the center separated along their edges, by small nodules +of bone, that move on each other giving a mobility to the skin even +though the animal is as heavily armored as a fighting automobile of the +great European war of today. The tail, too, is covered with enormous +bony plates, though light and porous, compared with the dense bony +plates covering the body; the end is heavy and blunt, club-like in +fact. His pillar-like limbs are short and robust, to support such a +body. The belly almost reaches the ground, the heavy tail drags behind. +He moves along sluggishly, compared with the lighter horned dinosaurs +and carnivores. See how readily he beats a passage way through the +underbrush that borders the woods, and emerges into the open park. We +notice his huge proportions and unique appearance. He is completely +armored and sluggish in his gait. It does not seem that even the fierce +_Gorgosaurus_ of the everglades, the tyrant of this peaceful woods +would find a single vulnerable place open to attack. More likely if +he made the attempt he would simply whet his teeth on the glistening +armor that protected him, in vain. He might perhaps break off a tooth +or two, before he learned his task was a thankless one. We can even +imagine that he would be in danger himself if he carelessly approached +too near the tail. For a blow from the powerful club at the end would +break in his ribs. + +As the strange saurian passes us we notice the large trail he makes +through the bushes as he moves on down into the meadow-like flat for +his breakfast. + +See! Out there on the lake is a plesiosaur fishing, he evidently came +up the river (that heads in the bottom of the lake), from the Pierre +ocean not many miles away. We know the lake is full of sturgeon and +gar-pike. He has a beautiful head poised on a long swan-like neck, a +broad heavy body, and a very short tail. We have seen them before along +the shores of the old Cretaceous ocean. As his bones were common in the +chalk of Kansas. Within human history white whales have come up the St. +Lawrence river from the Atlantic Ocean. They have one in the Victoria +Memorial Museum at Ottawa, that made the trip once, but never returned, +and they dug his bones out of the flood plain of the river. + +[Illustration: FIG. 28.--_Chasmosaurus_ (_Ceratops_), George’s being +wrapped in quarry. Page 82.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 29.--_Chasmosaurus_ Quarry. Page 82.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GREAT SPIKED DINOSAUR OF DEAD LODGE CANYON + + +On the 17th of September, 1913, George and I loaded our row boat and +motor boat with our tent, blankets, and cooking utensils and tools, +and start down the river in search of a new camp. In the photograph +of the scene, Levi is standing on deck of the flat boat and bids us +good-bye and good luck. George is driving the motor and I sit in the +center of the boat. Notice the row boat we trail behind, is heavily +loaded. This was the hardest trip we ever made with the motor boat, +as the water was low, we were constantly getting stuck on a sand bar. +They extended often across the river. George was one to suffer, as he +was the only one of the two that had the strength to pull it across +into deeper water. When we stuck fast, I got in the row boat and +paddled over to a deeper hole, and went a fishing, while he struggled +with his boat. It was a terrible experience, but well bought, as he +learned what the Red Deer river was in low water, and when he went on +it again, in 1915 he built himself a motor boat that would float in +five or six inches of water. While mine required eighteen inches to +float it. At last with George nearly exhausted, we pulled into shore +at “Happy Jack Ferry”, twelve miles below Steveville. We pitched our +tent on the southern side of the river. On the 19th of September, I +made the discovery of the strange spiked dinosaur, called by Mr. Lambe +_Styracosaurus_. The ground was wet with repeated showers. The fossil +beds are not safe then, as one slips as if walking on soft soap. There +is much clay in all the rocks; in fact more than half of them are made +up of clay, interlaid with silver gray sandstone, also containing much +clay. However, I could not be idle about camp and made the attempt +to get in the badlands walking up the bed of a long coulee that was +filled with boulders. I got to where it was extremely difficult, +as the bed was narrow and crooked. So I attempted to scale a steep +slope and got up a hundred feet; that brought me over a perpendicular +precipice, while above was a heavy bed of clay. I knew if I could get +over the clay, I would be all right, as I would then be on top of a +spur from the prairie, wide enough for me to walk on. However, the +minute I would drive my pick into the clay to hold me from slipping, +it would break loose and let me slip back to a narrow ledge above the +cliff. I attempted to cut a path with the same result, and as I saw I +could not go up, I resolved to go down the way I had gone up. This I +found was impossible; for if I sat down I would slide and be hurled +over the precipice. I then got frightened and attacked the steep clay +slope again, with the same results. I realized then if I could not +climb over when in my ordinary condition, certainly could not when +frightened. I therefore sat down on the narrow ledge until I recovered +my composure. And by careful searching the steep slope I had come up, +I found a little ditch with small bushes growing in it. It was washed +clean of mud, and I got a foothold in it, and gradually let myself +down into the bed of the coulee. I did not attempt to leave this again +and at last reached the head. Many other ravines headed near by, and +in going over to one of them I saw in the steep slope of a narrow +gorge, in gray sandstone, the skull that is rather poorly shown in the +picture. It was 200 feet below the prairie, and it required a great +deal of labor to collect and load it in the wagon. It was first packed +securely in a box, after it had been carefully wrapped in burlap dipped +in plaster, and secured with strong poles to hold it together. A road +was cut in the face of the cliff, and our faithful team hauled the box +weighing about nine hundred pounds, out of the ravine; they often fell +down and cut themselves, but they scrambled up the narrow road with +their burden fastened to a sled. When they got to the level prairie, +the boys let the hind wheels into the ground to the hubs and rolled the +box in. The skull was partially prepared by me the next winter as shown +in the photograph which gives a top view of it. This is one of the many +remarkable forms that were so abundant during the Mid-Cretaceous time. +The skull was over six feet in length, with a great horn-core over the +center of the nose, twenty-four inches high, and six inches in diameter +at the base. But stranger than all, six horn-cores radiating from +the crest behind where it is four and a half feet wide. The central +horn-cores are the largest, twenty-two inches long, the next pair +twenty, and the outermost fourteen inches wide. All these horn-cores +were covered in life with horn, lengthening them materially. The crest, +from between the center of the eye horns is four feet long, while the +portion of the skull in front is only two feet. The narrow bar that +carries the spikes behind, is narrow and heavy, thinned down with the +central and marginal bars to form large openings. The skull too, as +in _Chasmosaurus_ is dug out into caves. Only a thin septum of bone +separate the brain case from the central air chambers, there were no +attached orbital horns, but cup-like depressions, as if the horns had +dropped out, having been ossified from a separate center. All the +bones of the skull show vascular grooves, as if the entire skull was +sheathed in horn making an impenetrable shield. In the old restoration +of _Triceratops_ the neck is enlarged to fasten securely into the neck +frill or crest. To me such an idea is absolutely absurd. The round +occipital condyle enabled the animal to bend the head in any direction +at the atlas vertebra, as in the four limbed mammals of today, that +have to put down their heads to eat or drink. If the shield were +fastened to the neck the reptile would have to lie down to feed and +drink or go into the water, unless there was a similar arrangement +between the body and neck vertebrae. In the case of _Chasmosaurus_ or +_Ceratops_, where the crest reaches to the hips, the socket would be in +front of the hips, so when feeding on rushes he would have to kneel on +his front limbs and bend at the hips. A most remarkable arrangement. +Then, too, it would be of little use for a shield of defense against +his subtle carniverous enemy. No, I am sure the old idea in regard to +the neck frill is a mistake and I ask you to please go back with me and +I will show you the reptile alive. + +[Illustration: FIG. 30.--George preparing skull of _Chasmosaurus_ in +Laboratory. Page 83.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Skull of _Chasmosaurus_ restored by Weber. +Page 83.] + +We find ourselves sitting in the shade of a giant red wood, for the sun +is up. The ocean far to the south, out of sight reveals its presence in +the salty refreshing air that reaches us. The land before us has been +slowly rising at the rate of deposition, and is but little above tide +water. Great meadows on the swampy flood plain of a large lake lie a +few feet below the bench, that is covered with a dense forest. Nature +has a wonderful workshop for the Creator, one continual plant, for +turning out perfect living forms endowed with life and power. Let us go +down toward the jungle of horse-tails, other rushes, and high grass, +that waves in the passing breeze. On the very margin of the lake itself +from the white sandy beach, we pick up teeth, and scattered bones, and +mussel shells. There is plenty of drift wood too, lying in heaps, left +there by the last flood. We wander on towards the plain. Hark! don’t +you hear a noise in the thick vegetation as if a heavy reptile was +cropping his morning fare? For reptile it must be, as only diminutive +marsupial-like mammals live at this time. If you will follow me, we +will see. So, without further ado, we walk into the rank vegetation, +and parting it, look down a narrow path along which a spiked dinosaur +is feeding. He is unconscious of our presence and is feeding towards +us. His powerful limbs of equal length, are sunk deep in the moist +earth. His head is in plain sight, and the crest stands up when he bent +it, to crop off a mouthful of succulent herbage with his heavy beak, +sheathed in horn. This he shears with his beveled teeth behind, very +much like the mechanism of an old fashioned hay cutter. + +The teeth are double rooted, and in magazines like those of the +duck-billed dinosaurs, though not as numerous. The great horn is black +and polished, full three feet long, like the sharp spear point in the +shield of thick buffalo hide of a Philippian Warrior. The great spikes +stand out from the top of the crest when he lowers his head. Thus fully +armored he can force a passage way through the thickest vegetation, +beating it down beneath his feet. There are four hoofed toes on each +front foot, and three behind. The large restless eyes are buttressed +over with bone to protect them from his enemy, _Gorgosaurus_, the +tyrant of the everglades, and from the dense vegetation through which +he beats his way. As he passes us and stops to feed again, thus raising +his shield in the air, we get a splendid view of his scaled body, +with its colors harmoniously blended with the vegetation by which he +is surrounded. They are much like those already seen in _Ceratops_ or +Lambe’s _Chasmosaurus_. He seems satisfied with his breakfast, as he +lifts his head out of the rush covered soil. As a narrow neck of land +tongues out into the plain from the first bench, it seems that he is +headed to cross it into the jungle beyond. As he climbs out of the +plain, on to solid ground under the forest trees, we notice he is ten +feet in length to the drop of the tail, which is short, and he drags +the end on the ground. He stands at least six feet in height. As we +follow his moist spoor, we soon enter a small park covered with grass +and flowers. Suddenly, we hear the most blood curdling hiss, that +chills the marrow in our veins. What can it mean? The _Styracosaurus_ +knows for he is instantly alert, lifting his head in the direction of +the sound, he drops it again, and stands at bay. With another blood +curdling hiss, a gigantic carnivore leaps into view, from a trail we +were following. Our spiked dinosaur stands rigid as if cast in bronze, +with the great nasal horn pointed towards his dreaded foe, and the +spikes frowning above, and protecting the vital organs, the great +cat-like reptile crawls stealthily forward. Don’t fear friends to watch +the combat. It is very terrible to see a blood thirsty tyrant slack his +thirst in the blood of his victim. He attempts to find a vulnerable +spot to strike with his powerful claw-armed hind foot, the claws of +hardened horn, sharp and recurved, each a foot in length and spreading +over half a square yard of surface. Or he would like to seize the +thinly covered abdominal walls, with his horrid teeth, lance-like that +fill the dentary and maxillary bones of the lower and upper jaws, that +are nearly three feet in length. With a gape of the mouth of nearly two +feet, the red gums, roof and floor of the mouth, with the great forked +tongue, present a terrifying appearance. But the spiked lizard is on +guard, and when his enemy makes a sudden dash at him, he presents his +impregnable head. In spite of his bulk, being much heavier than the +carnivore, he seems to revolve on a pivot, and the shield is where the +_Gorgosaur_ attempts to strike. The instinct of self defense is ever +present, in time of danger. Sometimes the herbivore makes a sudden +dash, and tries to horn the agile foe, or with open mouth tries to +bring his vise-like beak together in his enemies flesh. We watch the +combat with bated breath. + +The seven horned brute is too much for the tiger of the glades; so, +thoroughly exhausted at last, he creeps off a side path to hunt an +easier prey. While our _Styracosaurus_ lumbers off into dense +foliage of the low lying plain. + +“The Dead Lodge Canyon” below “Happy Jack Ferry,” some thirty miles +north of Brooks, Alberta, and but six miles from the new line from +Swift Current to Bassano, a short cut of the Central Pacific Railway, +is one of the most remarkable gorges on the continent. Not only because +it is the old burial ground of many forms of the dinosaurs that have +passed out of existence, leaving no descendents, but on account of its +scenic beauty. The silvery grey sandstones with their darker bands of +clay, is interstratified with a chocolate colored bed near the top, +rich in lignitic shales of an almost black color. The black streak can +be traced for miles, and in some places develops into a bed of soft +coal, that is mined by the farmers. The canyon is but little over a +mile wide, and about five hundred feet deep, the upper reaches being +composed of dark marine shales, called the Pierre here, but the same +beds in the Judith River country of Montana are called Bear Paw shales. + +[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Sternberg’s Camp 3 miles below Steveville. +Page 104.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 33.--The picture of _Styracosaurus_ in bottom of +gorge. Page 102.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ON A TRIP TO THE JUDITH RIVER, MONTANA + + +Under orders from the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, +Charlie and I left Brooks, Alberta, on an expedition to Montana, +for the purpose of studying the sequence of the rocks there, and to +compare them with those of Canada. Mr. D. B. Dowling, a Geologist +of the Survey, joined us at Coutts to do the stratigraphical work. +I cannot help, in this connection remarking, he was in addition to +his geological knowledge, the most genial companion I have ever been +associated with in camp, excepting, of course, that prince of good +fellows, the late Professor E. D. Cope of Philadelphia, with whom I +made the same trip in 1876. A complete story of that expedition is +recorded in “The Life of a Fossil Hunter.” At Coutts Mr. Dowling and +I went out to some rocks exposed south of town which appear to be the +true Eagle sandstone of Weed. A compact greyish and reddish sandstone +with strong lines of cross bedding. These lines are also lines of +cleavage. Above are some seventy feet of the Belly River Series, clays, +and fluted sandstones. On July 2nd we stopped at New Park Hotel, at +Great Falls, Montana. Not far from the depot; while here we took a +trolley ride out to the great smelter near the Falls of the Missouri, +three miles east. The works cover acres of ground and the smokestack is +said to be the largest in the world. The falls here were low and below +was a series of rapids. Whenever we chanced to catch a view of the +Missouri, on our trip east by the Great Northern we could see the river +for many miles, full of falls and rapids. At Benton I saw no sign of +old Fort Benton I visited with Professor Cope in 1876. We noticed along +the track the typical Fort Benton shales, dark colored below, yellowish +shales above, while unconformable masses of the ancient river bed +lined the faces of bluff and ridge or helped to fill the old ravines, +composed of unstratified yellowish clays, sand and gravel. The narrow +flood plain of the river is fringed with cottonwoods and poplars, with +birch and willow thickets, underbrush of wild roses, bull berries, +etc., with the ubiquitous sage brush everywhere. The Northern Pacific +passes through a rolling prairie north of the Bear Paw Mountains. In +1876 the only wagon road here was south of the mountains and it started +at Fort Benton the head of navigation, and ended at Cow Island, 120 +miles east. + +I noticed the farmers irrigating their gardens and alfalfa fields with +water drawn from the Missouri with buckets attached to overshot wheels, +on their turning the water was spilled into a trough connected with +the reservoir. It was carried from there, over the fields. We got off +the train at Big Springs, went to the Spokan Hotel, and registered +in the bar room, where they had the office at one end of the bar. I +thought that was going it some, excuse the slang, and that Montana +needed “Total Prohibition” pretty badly. The dining room opened off the +bar. At the livery stable we hired a team and democrat wagon for two +weeks for $50. In the afternoon we drove out in a buggy to the coal +mine eight miles southeast. Here the light yellowish sandstones with +harder parts were filled with thin circular concretions as flat as a +pancake. The vein of coal is about five feet thick at an angle of about +16 degrees. On either side are narrow beds of yellow sandstone dipping +in various directions, the strike being parallel with the Bear Paw +Mountains not far off to the south. Between the sandstone layers is a +dike of volcanic trap, black, and fine grained, pushed up through the +strata so it forms a hog back elevation above them. There are also beds +of light colored shales, with seams of iron-stone between. + +On July 3rd, 1914, we drove to a flat near the site of a reservoir, +now dry, and stopped at a farmer’s. We had skirted the eastern limits +of the Bear Paw Mountains, passed through a rolling prairie, crossed +Eagle Creek, where a fine flow of water, full of little fishes, runs +over gravel and sand towards the Missouri river. As we journeyed south +we saw evidence of vulcanism in a narrow strip of naked rock that had +been shoved up in a wedge shaped mass through the grass of the prairie. + +[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Top view of _Styracosaurus_ as prepared by +Charles H. Sternberg. Page 104.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Charlie’s _Centrosaurus_ in the rock. Page +122.] + +On the Fourth of July we reached the ferry below the mouth of the +Judith River and took dinner at the ranch called Judith P. O. The +company own their own store, bunk-house, cook-house and stables, and +have in a great crop of alfalfa. They also own the ferry, and owing to +high water, the approach from the north was cut out, and we had to get +our horses on board the best way we could, and then pull on the wagon +by man power. We were kindly entertained at Judith. In the afternoon we +drove up to Dog Creek, where Professor Cope made his famous expedition +in 1876. The effects of vulcanism are seen on every side. The views I +show, fully illustrate this phase in the earth’s crust. The picture +with the white sandstone tipped up to the left, represents the Eagle +Sandstone with the Claggett Shales to the right. These shales should +be on top of the Eagle Sandstone. They closely resemble the Pierre +shales, below the Edmonton beds in Alberta, and contain the same +baculites, ammonites and plesiosaurs, evidently. The foreground of the +picture, shows part of the narrow Dog Creek valley covered with grass +and sagebrush, with a few cottonwoods in a bend of the creek. On the +opposite, or east side of the creek, we found a trail leading up to the +divide over the Claggett shales. These, Professor Cope called Fort +Pierre. + +On July 24, 1914, a paper of mine appeared in “Science,” in which I +undertook to show that the Dog Creek beds were equal to the Edmonton +Beds of Alberta. And those at Cow Island, should be correlated with +the Belly River Beds of Alberta, with the Pierre shales between. I +took Professor Cope’s view. He believed the Judith River Beds were +above the Pierre and Fox Hills Group of the Cretaceous and called them +“The Judith River Beds” or “Cretaceous No. 6.” After two seasons of +exploration of the Belly river series in Dead Lodge Canyon, of Red +Deer River Alberta, in connection with our study of the Dog Creek and +Cow Islands rocks I was obliged to accept the conclusions of Hatcher +and Stanton, in their fine work on “The Geology and Paleontology of +the Judith River Beds.” The whole series here, and on Red Deer are +without doubt Ft. Pierre. The Judith River and Belly River beds were +local elevations above the Pierre Ocean. We actually added to the mass +of evidence to this effect, by the discovery of sixty feet of Bear Paw +Shale on top of the Judith River beds at Taffy Creek, a branch of Dog +Creek to the east. We also learned how easy it was for Hayden and Cope +to make the mistakes they did in their hurried survey of the badlands. +I walked miles over both Bear Paw and Claggett shales, and found it +difficult to tell them apart. Vulcanism has often lifted the older +beds higher than the more recent ones. The what seemed to us true, the +ammonites, baculites and plesiosaurs, were the same in the two marine +beds, though separated by the fresh water Judith River series, which is +of the same age as the Belly river beds. + +We walked up the steep slope to the divide between the breaks of The +Missouri river and Dog Creek, this divide is nearly 600 feet above the +river. Somewhat different from what my memory had told me of these +great canyons. I speak of them as being over a thousand feet deep in +“The Life of a Fossil Hunter.” In 1876 we had no barometer to take our +altitude and my notes were lost in a fire in 1881, it is natural for +the mind to exaggerate depth and height as well as level surfaces. +However, as we made this trip by moonlight, and through the solemn +silence, I was again overcome with awe when I gazed into the stupendous +gorges and at the beetling crags that overlooked them. Hour after hour +we passed slowly along the trail, often only the narrow ridge between +two great canyons, and a balky team might have backed us off into the +abyss filled with inky darkness. Only a journey under such conditions +and in such a region of utter barrenness, can give the reader an idea +of the emotions that overpowered me. We made camp about midnight, and +the only sign of human habitations we saw, (except a deserted sheep +ranch), were the fireworks thrown into the sky at Kendall, where the +people were celebrating. We made a camp later, on an eastern branch +of Dog Creek, called Taffy Creek. We made a thorough study of this +region near camp. During our trip up Dog Creek we had made extensive +collections of invertebrate fossils from all the different horizons, +securing also _Myledaphus_, and other sharks teeth from the lower Eagle +Creek sandstones which, with the Claggett shales, form the lower beds +of the Belly River Series of Alberta. On the south side of Taffy below +a large timbered hog back upheaval, I found a locality in the Judith +river bed that is possibly the type locality from which Cope and I +secured our collections on that memorable expedition of 1876, when we +found the first of the horned dinosaurs (except loose teeth). A “blow +out,” as they call it in the west, had exposed along a narrow slope +of sandstone, many bones and teeth of horned, plated, duck-billed, +carniverous dinosaurs, with the teeth of _Myledaphus_, and many broken +turtle shells, as well as bones of _Champsosaurus_, scales of ganoid +fishes. Exactly like the numberless bone-beds along Dead Dodge Canyon. +What delighted me most of all was discovering the nearly complete +pelvic girdle, including the footed ischia, proving that these bones +belonged to a crested dinosaur like the one we found on Red Deer river +and was called _Stephanosaurus_ by Lambe and _Corythosaurus_ by Brown. +You will notice that we have two names usually for these Belly River +species. I try to credit each student as best I may, leaving it with +future scientists to decide which name should be retained in American +Paleontology. The Edmonton bone-beds, are very different, resembling +flotsam along the line of high tide, and are all deposited in brackish +water. These beds like those in Dead Lodge Canyon, were laid down +in fresh water. There were very few turtle shells in the Edmonton, +here they strew every exposure. Everywhere in this region were two +persistent layers of coal on top of the Judith river followed by the +Bear Paw Shales. Above the upper vein of coal, is a layer of oyster +shells from a few inches to four feet thick. In the Bear Paw shales +south of camp a mile, Mr. Dowling with the aid of a sheep herder, found +a new mosasaur, belonging evidently to the genus _Clidastes_, as the +chevrons were anchylosed to the centra of the vertebrae, and the tail +was expanded into a fin. The mandibles with teeth, some fifteen feet +of the tail and many dorsal vertebrae were found. We also secured some +very beautiful ammonites and baculites and bones of the plesiosaur +_Cimoliasaurus_. But for the uplift, the stratigraphical record is +quite simple, the puzzling strata tipped in all directions were easily +identified under direction of the skilled observer Mr. Dowling. It +would be impossible for any one on the ground to doubt the sequence of +the rocks here, as laid down by Hatcher and Stanton. + +We followed the trail Professor Cope first made, when we drove down +to Cow Island in 1876, camping at the same spring at Lone Tree for +noon. The tree itself is now dead. We camped near our old one on the +Missouri, forty miles below Dog Creek, though now we had a wagon road +down through the badlands. On the road down along the badlands we never +lost sight of the rocks and always found the Bear Paw shales on top of +the Judith River beds, proving that I had been mistaken again, and the +Cow Island beds were the same, as those on Dog creek, with no rocks +between. The only difference I could see between them was the sculptury +approached more closely at Cow Island, those of the beds in the Dead +Lodge Canyon. + +Two things impressed me strongly, one was the fact of finding an +ischium with a footed extremity, closely associated with teeth similar +to those Dr. Hayden picked up in this region, and Leidy called +_Trachodon mirabilis_. We found four trachodonts in the Dead Lodge +Canyon the most common was the crested one with footed ischia. And +not a one of them belonged to the genus _Trachodon_. Neither have +any been described. There can be little doubt therefore that Leidy’s +_Trachodon mirabilis_ belongs to a dinosaur with either a crested +head or the high nosed _Gryposaurus_ of Lambe, or _Kritosaurus_ of +Brown. Is _Trachodon_ a crested dinosaur? The evidence seems to point +that way. Then what is _Trachodon annectens_ of Marsh and the family +name? As Leidy used a tooth that may have belonged to three or four +different genera, it seems the early names from such poor material, +rests on shaky foundations. If the paleontologists begin to name only +complete skeletons, or nearly complete ones there will be a shaking up +of old names and many will go into the discard like so much of human +knowledge. Marsh had but little better foundation for his _Ceratops_. +A couple of horn-cores, that might have belonged to any one of half a +dozen genera of horned dinosaurs. + +We spent two weeks of most delightful exploration in the Judith river +country, and my mind was set at rest, in regard to the position the +beds occupy in the building up of our continent. + +On our return, we thought at one time, we would not be able to recross +the Missouri river, a flood had washed away the approaches to the ferry +boat. However, as “necessity is the mother of invention,” we hauled +our luggage on board by means of a row boat and dragged our wagon +through the mud by man power, the ranchers helping us for the fun and +excitement there was in it. Later, another man swam across with our +team, and we were ready to go north to our old field in Dead Lodge +Canyon, Alberta. This field we reached in safety. + +[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Putting irons on the _Centrosaurus_ Crest. +Page 83.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 37.--George at work on C. H. Sternberg’s +_Centrosaurus_. Page 83.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANOTHER STRANGE HORNED DINOSAUR + + +In September, 1913 at the camp from which I discovered the spiked +Dinosaur, Mr. Lambe’s _Styracosaurus_, I found above our tent back in +the badlands in a perpendicular escarpment, a fine skull of another +strange horned dinosaur. Mr. Lamb called it _Centrosaurus_, while Brown +still holds the name Cope gave a similar genus he collected in the +Judith River Formation in 1876, namely, _Monoclonius_, of which genus +I discovered two species that were new at that time. This specimen I +discovered, was about two hundred feet above the river. The first work +was to build a platform around it on which I could stand, so I could +work around the specimen. Mr. Lambe, himself, found the type of this +genus, which consisted of a neck frill about 1898. In this specimen +of mine I found a large part of the skull. It was however, due to +Charles M. Sternberg’s patient labor, that science is in debt for a +perfect skull of this strange reptile. It was found the next year after +I found mine, in the Dead Lodge Canyon near its lower extremity. You +may think from my description of so many fine specimens that we had +an easy job of it. When George found his plated dinosaur, he had +thirty-five feet of solid sandstone to remove. He needed Charlie’s +assistance very badly. But I was determined, if possible that he, and +I too, each should find a specimen worth collecting. Our journey down +to Dog Creek, Montana, had given George some three weeks the start of +us in hunting, and he had been very successful. As every hunter likes +to tell of his companions luck in the field, so also he likes to have +trophies of his own. So we searched over miles and miles of badlands, +week after week I was completely exhausted at night, after a day’s +unsuccessful hunt. There is no work so trying, as that of clinging +hour after hour to steep ascents, and searching every inch of exposed +surface, in and out among the winding slopes. Often we would climb two +hundred feet or more to the head of a coulee, to find after going a +few rods, a land slide had taken down acres of shaken up strata. Then +we would either climb to the summit, and go around, or go down to the +bottom and climb up on the other side of the slide. In many places we +were obliged to use our picks, as our chief dependence, in walking +around some almost perpendicular escarpment, or to cut niches in which +to secure a treacherous foothold in the steep slopes. I know that when +I got to camp at night, and had set down to our camp table, to eat the +fine supper, Mr. Johnson had prepared for us, appetising indeed, as +he made bread and cakes and many other dishes not usually expected in +camp where pancakes and baking powder biscuits are the rule generally; +my feet would swell so badly I would often be obliged to crawl on my +hands and knees to my tent and cot. There, stretched at full length, +with lamp above me, I read until bed time, never thinking of getting on +my feet until the next day, when I went through the same experience. +Charlie, as I said was the lucky one, he found the most complete skull +of this strange creature we have ever obtained. The Figure 26, shows it +in its rocky sepulcher after it was uncovered ready for wrapping. In +order to get to it we were obliged to leave our wagon on the prairie, +and go down into a coulee some five hundred feet below; cross over, and +on a road we made, haul our sled to it a hundred feet above the river. +Although the skull is badly injured by pressure, it is so perfect that +all the sutures between the bones can be detected, as in the case of +the _Chasmosaurus_ skull, George discovered. + +I was able to completely restore my specimen from Charlie’s. So we have +now mounted in the Hall of Vertebrates, two skulls. The picture No. +27 shows some of the characters quite well. The nasal horn is curved +forward, and there are two short horns over the eyes; while in my +specimen, Figure 27, there are none. + +I would like to take you to my shop again; where George is at work. +He is putting on the steel half ovals, that are to hold up the crest; +he is using an electric drill as you notice, Figure 28, and boring +holes through steel and skull so the bolts can be inserted to hold +the crest securely to the skull. In the back ground is the inch tube +that holds the ends of the half ovals, and is the standard that will +support the skull, on the permanent base. It all looks very simple, +but it represents a great deal of skilled labor. The strip of half +oval steel that supports the crest, was heated hundreds of times +and beaten to fit inequalities in the surface of the crest. It must +fit exactly, so there is no spring in the steel, otherwise when the +plaster jacket that covers the top of the skull is removed, the spring +will break the bones. The jacket is made of separate sections fitted +closely to the top of the skull. It serves two purposes, that of giving +a firm, uniform base behind the bones, so they may be cleaned, and +also to enable us to turn the skull over by looping a rope over it, +fastening this to the triplex block that rides on a trolley moving on +the eye-beams fastened to the ceiling. The skull (Fig. 28), is then +gently lifted, turned over, and the upright set in the permanent base +of polished mahogany. Then the jacket should lift off, as in the case +in hand. After cleaning the upper surface, the skull is ready, as +you see it, for permanent exhibition (Fig. 27), with the exception +that the glass case so necessary to protect it from dust, and vandal +fingers has not yet been put in place. It took all four of us, many +months to complete this skull for exhibition. I worked on it nearly +all one winter cleaning off the bog iron that covered it completely. If +you will notice closely the rough skull, especially with a glass, you +will see the bones were fractured in all directions. The first thing +I had to do, was to fasten these fragments securely in their places, +so I could remove the iron rust that clung firmly to them. After many +experiments with shellac, I found a thin solution of ambroid was the +most satisfactory. It would penetrate better than shellac, and when +dry, was hard as the flinty rock itself. If any of the fragments broke +loose under the tools I used, I must fill them again and again and wait +twenty-four hours or more for the cement to set firmly. You will notice +the lower jaw and crest seem rather smooth compared with the rest of +the skull, and they are, because they are restored in plaster, from the +complete skull Charlie found. The crest was chiefly prepared by Levi. +This was done while it was still in the plaster jacket. It was first +restored in moulding wax, copying exactly the perfect crest. I mean by +that, the wax on the jacket was manipulated by my son until it was a +facsimile of the original parts so as to be beyond criticism. Then a +cast was made in plaster of the wax model, the wax taken away, and the +place it occupied replaced with plaster colored as near the original +color of the bone as possible, to prevent a discord, or lack of harmony +in the completed skeleton. You see, then, we must be more than fossil +hunters; and I must say though I have collected fossils nearly every +year since 1867, and as my readers who have read my story know, have +often suffered in the field, it all sinks into insignificance compared +with the work of preparing the material for public exhibition. Take +the skull I am describing from 9 in the morning, with an hour’s +intermission at noon, until 5 p.m. I must have perfect control of +myself, I must not make a mistake, or I may ruin the entire skull. +That not only represents a great deal of expense, but is largely the +result of a lifetime spent in a business to which I was born; without +that experience and that of my sons, through most of their lives, +in all likelihood, we could never have discovered or collected it. +Then we do not work for today alone. As long as the Victoria Memorial +Museum stands, this and the other Red Deer Dinosaurs we collected, and +prepared, will be admired. It is because men will forget the worker in +their admiration for these strange relics of a day some three million +years ago, that I am going so exhaustively into detail, the life of +a fossil hunter in field and shop, so that the observing public, +when they go through one of our great museums may feel they are on +holy ground. The creatures of the misty past are before them; God’s +creatures, for if he cares for the raven, for the fall of a sparrow, +he must have cared for the creatures of his hand, that existed so many +ages before man appeared--these lords of creation, that domineer over +God’s green earth. + +Look at the picture again, and you will notice two long spike-like +projections over the openings in the crest. They are evidently not +horn-cores, but bundles of ossified tendons, over which the muscles +intertwined, that controlled the powerful lower jaw. The entire skull +is over five feet long. Two horn-cores bend inward in the center of +the crest behind, and the rounded sides are sculpted into bony knobs +that in life were doubtless covered with horn. This creature must have +been as large as the spiked dinosaur nearly--at least nine feet long to +the drop of the tail, although I did not discover any skin impression +similar to that in _Chasmosaurus_, the environment was the same boggy +swamps and mossy meadows, his skin scales were colored to harmonize +with his surroundings. He would not be noticed when asleep in some +rushy embrassure, and when feeding, he was ever alert, ready to flee +from his enemy _Gorgosaurus_, or if need be face him and fight it out, +as we saw the spiked dinosaur along the margins of the cretaceous lake. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE MILK RIVER COUNTRY + + +Charles M. Sternberg went ahead of my expedition to Milk River Station +in southern Alberta, exploring on horseback a great stretch of country +along the Milk River divide, and east seventy miles, or more, where +the great gorge of Milk River cuts a gash five hundred feet into the +Belly River Series. Levi and his assistant Gustav Lindblad, also went +ahead, and secured our team and outfit from near Drumheller, Alberta, +and made the long journey by wagon, so when I reached Milk River +Station, I found both boys waiting for me. From Charlie’s report I +became convinced that we had come into barren ground. I also found +that the so-called Belly River Series of Dawson, who likened it to “an +island in sea of drift” was not on Canadian soil, but in the Black Foot +Agency Reserve in Montana, where Mr. Gilmore, of the National Museum +had discovered new trachodonts, and horned dinosaurs. As I had no +authority to visit and collect in this rich field I was obliged to give +it up. I was so near, and yet owing to red tape, so far, from a field +I had come to explore; expecting to find it on as Mr. Dawson believed, +Canadian soil. I have since learned from Mr. Brown, the Associate +Curator of Reptiles in the American Museum, and the man I consider the +greatest collector of extinct reptiles, that these exposures belong +to the Edmonton Series of which we have such splendid exposures on +the Red Deer River, in Alberta. This fact has greatly lessened the +disappointment. However, as misfortune never comes alone, a thorough +exploration of the exposures of Milk River, Alberta, revealed the fact +that they too, were quite barren of vertebrae fossils. On the afternoon +of the eighth of June, 1915, with all my party together, we drove down +to Verdegris coulee, twelve miles east of Milk River Station. It is +a comparatively wide valley, rather barren of vegetation. There is a +large lake named in honor of the Deputy Minister of the Department of +Mines, Mr. R. G. McConnell, a short distance above camp, on the coulee. +There are rather extensive exposures, along the slopes that lead up +from the valley to the prairie a hundred feet above. The lower reaches +are purple, yellowish, and reddish clays, and sand into which one sinks +while walking. Above is yellowish sandstone that stands out in bold +escarpments in places, it is washed into steep slopes. In this coulee +I found some fine leaf impressions--Platanus, Poplar, and a splendid +palm, shaped like a date palm. The fine palmetto palms, I found above +the Lance Beds in Wyoming, were fan-shaped. These, however, have long, +lance-shaped leaflets from a common central stem. I described it to +Dr. F. H. Knowlton, of the U. S. Geological Survey last winter, and he +has never seen anything like it. It is evidently new to science. From +a letter received lately I have learned our suppositions were correct. +This is the first Palm of this kind seen by men of science from the +Cretaceous Age. + +At the mouth of Verdegris Coulee, Charlie photographed some remarkable +fine rock forms carved out by nature. The photograph showing the +urn-shaped mass, was formed by a sand blast operated by the winds, that +whirled around the mass that had been separated from the main rock in +the recession of cliffs. The top layer being harder than the rest, it +was corroded more slowly than the lower and softer layers, producing +the wonderful urn. The sand and wind polishing and planing away the +rock, as effectually as if had been a broom stick under the action of a +lath. I think this one of the most beautiful designs of nature I have +ever seen. The second picture Charlie thinks resembles an “Egyptian +Sphinx.” + +On the 12th of June we reached our camp in the valley of Milk River. +In the very center of the exposures, some three miles above where it +crosses the International Line, and flows towards the Upper Missouri, +in Montana. On the 15th my notes record that I had gone over the +entire series of rocks from top to bottom, finding only a few isolated +crumbling bones of dinosaurs, of the Belly River Age. The first two +hundred feet (speaking approximately, as I had no instruments of +precision), of the exposures are chiefly clay, with oyster shells +scattered through them; also on top, quite a layer of oyster shells in +a yellowish sandstone, filled with iron. Just above are two persistent +layers of coal, or very black bituminous shales. One vein, I concluded, +must have been between two and three feet thick. There are places where +this vein has been worked by farmers, evidently, from the prairie +above. As the coal is seventy miles from the railway at Medicine Hat, +it is not likely anyone will be found to work it extensively. Above +the coal are heavy strata of yellowish or grey clays, with intervening +beds of greyish and yellowish sands. On the summit of the badlands are +huge concretions, weighing many tons, each lying in yellow sand. In +this sand, too, I found the best prospect for fossil bones I have seen +in the region. I found a perfect femur of a trachodont running under +one of these heavy concretions. Owing to the fact that where there +were no concretions, the sand disintegrates so easily, grass and other +plants always take possession and cover the sand. So if there are any +skeletons here on Milk River they are covered up. + +[Illustration: FIG. 38.--_Centrosaurus_ discovered by Charles H. +Sternberg. Page 123.] + +Above the coal veins for about three hundred feet there are beds +composed largely of mussels and univalves, showing that great piles of +them were heaped in drifts along the ancient shore. + +We could have secured tons of these shells, that to all appearances +might have died yesterday. Many had the original shell with its +pearly lustrous layer attached to the inner cast of mud that filled +the shells. Usually, however, when a shell was disturbed it fell +off and left the cast in my hands. I learned many things about this +great exposure. All the various rocks show they have been laid down +under water. I can imagine a great flood plain along the cretaceous +ocean at first, just below the surface of the water, that must have +been brackish at first for so many oyster shells to accumulate. +There were no great reed and rush covered plains where the horned +dinosaurs could feed; no bayous or lakes bordered with dense jungles of +vegetation, where countless swimming duck-bills enjoyed the luxurious +feeding places, but a shallow waste of waters, where oysters secured +a precarious foothold. Then the scene changed. The land was raised +sufficiently so a rank vegetation of sponge-moss and other forms +covered all the rising land until a vast bed of vegetable matter had +accumulated, when it went below the sea and was covered with ocean mud +and eventually compressed into coal. Then again the land was lifted +above high tide, fresh water for many years spread out in shallow +sheets over the region in which there was sufficient moss and other +vegetation to provide food for the univalves or gastropods, and a +multitude of mussels plowed through the muddy sand. + +We had so much rain that we were not only delayed, but feared we would +never be able to pull our load of baggage out on the prairie. The +road we used to get into the valley, made by farmers, was impassible +when wet. I became very much discouraged, as there is no harder work +for a fossil hunter than to walk day after day over barren ground. +Professor Cope once sent me in on a hypothetical fossil hunt. He had +decided in his own mind in Philadelphia, that above the Permian beds of +Texas there was a new horizon that would yield new extinct animals, he +wanted to be the fortunate discoverer of the new fauna. I had, however, +explored this region years before, for the Museum of Comparative +Zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I knew it was barren. Owing, +however, to his insistence, I yielded my judgment to his, to my cost, +and spent a month of useless effort, heart breaking indeed. That +was the last time he ever attempted to give me instructions from +Philadelphia when I was in the field. + +On the 25th of June, after exploring the Milk river country, and +finding it barren, we camped on our way back to the rich Red Deer +River beds at a point fifteen miles south of Medicine Hat. We had +just pitched out tent when a violent wind storm as bad as the winds +of Kansas, struck us, accompanied with rain. We escaped serious +trouble, but a little town west of Medicine Hat was badly wrecked, +where the wind developed into a genuine cyclone that tore down houses +and scattered chimneys and loose boards over the prairie. Thanking God +for our escape we passed north next day. At Medicine Hat I went ahead +by train and left the boys to follow with the wagon. From Brooks I +went over to Steveville. On reaching the river, however, I found it +was at full flood and covered with driftwood, logs and hewn timber. +The ferryman, Mr. Shaw, came over for me in a row boat, and I had so +much confidence in him as a river man that I trusted myself to his +keeping. His skill with the oar brought me safely over the raging Red +Deer River. He avoided all the logs and other driftwood, and landed +me in safely on the northern shore. Even then I found the river had +backed water up the creek between the ferry and Steveville, and I had +to walk a long ways to get above the backwater. After quite a journey +I reached the hospitable hotel of Steve Hall. It was a full week before +the boys reached me and we got once more into camp. They were delayed +by the high water. + +[Illustration: FIG. 39.--Limb of _Gorgosaurus_ Mounted by Charles M. +Sternberg, Page 58.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS + + +For days I had been exploring the brakes of the Red Deer river in +Alberta, Canada, for the wonderful extinct dinosaurs of the Cretaceous +Period. They had only been known since 1876, when the late Professor +E. D. Cope made his famous expedition to the Bad-Lands of the Upper +Missouri, in the beds of the Judith River of Montana. + +I was exploring the valley of the Red Deer River at Drumheller. A great +chasm in fact, cut by the river and its tributaries four hundred feet +deep into the Edmonton Series of the Upper Cretaceous, out of the very +heart of the prairie. Across from plain to plain the distance averages +about two miles. Tributary creeks and coulees have carved trenches +further back into the plain; while in the main valley, especially +near the brink of the prairie, are long ridges, table lands, buttes +and knolls, pinnacles and towers, whose bases often impinged on the +ox-bows of the river itself; down whose rugged sides a stone rolling +would bring up in a sudden halt, in the waters four hundred feet below. +All this region, except of course the river channel and flood plain, +was transformed by nature’s sculptury into fantastic badland scenery, +the rocks carved into the most intricate patterns, entirely devoid of +vegetation, except, perhaps, along the northern slope of some rounded +bluff, where sponge-moss had secured a precarious foothold; while +running through it were trailing junipers, and spruces, with flowers of +many a hue (to delight the eye) after searching the steep and barren +slopes for hours. These slopes were covered with cherty fragments +that rolled under the feet, threatening to hurl the adventurous +Fossil Hunter into the gorge below. I had found great quantities of +the bones of the huge dinosaurs, or “terrible lizards.” Among them +the trachodonts or duck-billed dinosaurs, were the most common. Great +swimming lizards they were, spanning thirty feet or more in length. My +party had already two skeletons. One of them thirty-two feet long, we +mounted afterwards in the Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa, Ontario. +We found quarry after quarry where the bones had been piled up as +flotsam by some ancient tide, that for ages had ceased to beat on this +land. Today the nearest ocean is 700 miles away, and the strata have +attained an altitude of twenty-five hundred feet above sea-level. The +day had been hot and sultry; as I came upon a coal miners tunnel (there +are unlimited beds of coal in these breaks), I found relief by going +in some distance. The floor was deeply covered with fine dust, making +a restful place; and it is little wonder I fell asleep; I never knew +how long I slept, but when I awoke, I was overpowered with surprise, I +could not tell whether I had awakened in eternity, or Time had turned +back his dial, and carried me back to the old Cretaceous Ocean. At +all events however, I found myself lying under a great redwood tree. +Stretching before me to the south as far as the eyes could reach, a +mighty ocean lay as level as a thrashers floor to the distant horizon, +while to the north an interminable forest on the lowlands, interspersed +with countless lagoons and bayous, the oozy margins thickly planted +with rush and horse-tail, and tall swamp grass, while vast quantities +of moss clogged the shore. East and west, the shore line was undulated +by indentations, cut by river or bayou mouth, promontory cape and +bay. The heat was excessive, and it was a relief to find shelter +under one of these gigantic evergreens whose branches waved above the +everglades; deep rooted in the soil, it had already endured the blasts +of a thousand years. Perhaps this mighty giant had witnessed many a +tidal wave leap the borders of old ocean, and plunge with resistless +fury over the lowlands, uprooting trees of weaker fiber, sweeping a +waste of peat and wood out to sea, to be returned in mingled masses +of vegetation to clog the shore. Its last year’s cones and leaflets +lay on the ground around me, and put me in mind of the locality I had +discovered but yesterday, where hundreds of cones and leaflets of the +giant sequoia or redwood lay deeply buried in the flinty rocks of the +badlands of the Red Deer river. + +Like all noble scenes of nature the mind cannot at once grasp them +fully, if it ever does. + +The south wind had sprung up, the tide was rising, the waves were +curling as they rolled on the beach: higher and higher they came capped +with white foam. As far as the eyes could reach, long lines of breakers +heaped tons of water on the shore, lashed by the frowning tempest. +The sublimity of the scene was heightened by the colors in the west, +that flecked the horizon with bars of gold and crimson; while the +sun, a globe of fire, sank to rest in old ocean. I was lying beneath +the tree breathing the salted air, partly in a trance. Is this real? +I asked myself. Is the wind really sighing among the branches of the +trees, that sheltered me? sounding like music of an aeolian harp, +the tracery of interwoven leaflets acting as if they were stretched +invisible wires? Is this a dream or reality? How often in other days +while searching the semi-arid fossil beds of the west, in my day dreams +have I put life in the old dry bones; how often some stately dinosaur +has passed before my mental vision. The forests, the rivers, the lakes +and oceans of other days, have appeared as if they actually existed. Is +it incredible then, that I should be transported across three million +years, the distance between the living and the dead? “How fleet is a +glance of the mind; compared to the speed of its flight, the lightning +itself lags behind, and the swift winged arrows of light.” Yes! modern +science claims that three million years have sped away since the end +of the Age of Reptiles, since the Dinosaurs perished from the earth. +Yet I was here. I could not doubt my own senses. I saw in the east +the Queen of Night rise slowly from the bosom of old ocean, while to +the west the last streak of departing day, glimmered once more and +disappeared. Overhead the constellations of the temperate zone shone +in undimmed splendor, as they did last night above the Albertian +plains. Yes! there to the north was the Great Dipper; its pointers +as of yore, still led my eyes to the North Star. Venus too, shone as +the “Star of the evening, beautiful star.” Who knows but some tiger +of the everglades, some huge Carniverous Dinosaur, may be prowling +about for prey. A Fossil Hunter might prove a rare tidbit to him. It +were better in my unprotected condition to seek a place of safety. I +noticed that some of the bushes that lined the thick jungles around me +had long powerful thorns, while running vines, had fibers as tough as +hemp. I had my collection bag still with me, with its chisels, knives +and small hand pick. So quickly cutting some long thorns and binding +them to my shoes with the vines, I sought a small tree, the crown of +which was hidden among the lower branches of the redwood. I climbed +by forcing the thorns into the bark of the tree, around which my +arms were clasped, and I ascended with the same ease that a linesman +climbs a telegraph pole, driving the sharp steel spikes fastened to +his boots into the wood. When I got among the lower branches of the +huge tree one hundred feet above ground, I crawled down to its juncture +with the trunk where I found an airy chamber, its floor covered with +dried leaves. Stretching myself at full length upon this fragrant +bed, I offered up my evening prayers to my Father in heaven, knowing +that I was being guided by His hand. Ah! had he not led me through +the wilderness for forty years in His cemeteries of Creation, among +the countless creatures of His hand. My mind took me back to the many +forms, I had recovered, and saved from the destroying agencies of time +and the vandal hand of man. I remembered I had eighty-five distinct +species of extinct life in Munich Bavaria where the late distinguished +Paleontologist Dr. von Zittel had once written me that I “had erected +in Munich an immemorial monument to my name.” I thought of the hundreds +of species I had discovered that now helped form the great Cope +Collection in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, that +great storehouse of American fossil vertebrates. I thought too of my +collection in the British Museum, and in the Museums of Berlin and +Paris. Surely they prove that God has cared for me while I was “about +my Father’s business.” I need not worry I thought, because forsooth +He had carried me back to the close of the Cretaceous, that wonderful +Age of Reptiles when land and air and sea were filled with, to us, +strange forms of life; when great lizards shook the earth with their +majestic tread, sea serpents and great bony fishes ruled the sea, while +huge flying reptiles flapped their leathery wings over the deep. When +I thought of all the creatures I had hunted for forty years, and dug +their mouldering skeletons from an old ocean bed a thousand miles from +the existing seas, from some great lake bottom, or the flood plain of +an ancient river. I asked myself: Will He who brought me here leave me +to suffer and to die? How often he had rescued me from sudden death. +Shall I fear to lay me down to sleep alone with Him in this land never +seen before by mortal eyes. Oh no! So peacefully I laid me down to rest +humming Scott’s famous lines: + + “The heath this night shall be my bed, + A bracken curtain for my head. + My lullaby the warders tread, + Far, far from love and thee, Mary.” + +And so I fell asleep. No rude sounds disturbed; when the morning sun +streamed in my eyes I awoke refreshed for the thrilling adventures of +the day. It was spring, every living thing throbbed with life, the sap +was surging through the trees arrayed in their brightest tints, the +ground below was carpeted with flowers in endless variety and hue: +there a clump of evergreens, and here one of poplars, while in the +distance figs, magnolias and a wealth of other trees added beauty and +variety to the redwood forest. + +[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Quarry of George’s Plated Dinosaur. Page 88, +96 to 99.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Packing up at Loveland Ferry, 1915. Page 140.] + +Inshore the fertile zone between low and high tide swarmed with +oysters, clams and mussels. They covered every available inch of space +in the caves and crannies carved out of the ledge of sandstone along +the beach by the ceaseless ebb and flow of the sea, or when the waves +were driven by the tempest’s lash. As I had gone without supper the +night before, I felt very hungry. Rapidly descending my tree I ran +to the beach and gathered handfuls of the luscious shells, dripping +with salt water. With steel digger used in collecting fossils I opened +enough to appease a ravenous appetite. + +The jungles behind seemed impenetrable, so I walked to the edge of the +bayou, which emptied into the sea nearby. It was thickly planted with +moss and rushes: but for the fact that there were logs everywhere, +lying at all angles in the morass I could not have gotten to the +water. By teetering across the yielding moss, and resting on the half +submerged logs, I reached the sullen stream. I soon concluded that I +must construct a boat, in order to explore the wonderful everglades. +From the log I had a fine view of the bayou that wound its way through +moss and swamp grass several feet high. The bayou expanded into lakes +of considerable size, bordered everywhere with the redwood forest, and +other trees on the rising land. With thick underbrush and high grass +beneath, I noticed the water was full of gar-pike and turtles, the +latter having beautifully sculptured shells, some of them a couple of +feet in diameter. Among them I noticed the beautiful Trionyx, the shell +marked with lovely designs. I remembered how, when on Professor Cope’s +Expedition to Montana in 1876, I was carried away with delight when I +gathered from a sandstone bluff fragments of these shells belonging to +the Judith River Beds of the Upper Missouri. But here were the living, +breathing animals themselves; so oblivious of my presence that they +crowded on the very log on which I was standing. Man’s cruelty to +animals had not caused them to fear the human eye; an abundant food +supply prevented viciousness. When I attempted to catch one, however, +they all glided gracefully off into the water. Whole schools of gars +and other fishes darted here and there in full view. + +Turning back to the oyster bed, and searching along shore for a +suitable piece of drift wood with which to make a boat, in the flotsam +that lined the shore, I also found mingled with the driftwood and +shells, moss and sea-weed, countless bones of dinosaurs, not brittle +and filled with rocky material, as were those I found on Red Deer river +yesterday, but bones with flesh and sinew still adhering to them, +carried out as toll to the sea, from bayou or river. But the ocean +soon tired of them and after playing with them until the time of high +tide, returned them to the land with her own shells, seaweeds, and dead +fishes, to fester in the sun. + +These bones showed me they had lived but a few days before, and +were perhaps the remains of the feast of some titanic carnivore. I +determined to go on a hunt for them. Here were limbs of duck-bills +ten feet in length, together with the strong ligaments that bound the +bones together in life. Here, too, the mighty Triceratops has left a +monstrous head, seven feet in length, to mingle with the drift. + +The Carnivores were represented by powerful feet with three great +claws, and a spur like a rooster. The feet along measured over three +feet long, the horny claws measured ten inches. Crocodilian bones and +those of small reptiles and fishes lay around. + +But as I was determined to find a log of the right size to hew into a +boat, I wandered on, searching the drift pile with eager eyes. I could +not be idle, and was determined to take advantage of the opportunity +offered me, to study these wonderful creatures of a far-away day. I +wondered whether they would in life prove what the students of their +remains in the Twentieth Century supposed. I longed to know. + +At last, after much effort, I found a redwood trunk over twenty feet +long with a large enough diameter to make a comfortable dug-out. +Luckily it was just above high tide, near the mouth of a bayou. With my +hand pick I cut off the bark and fashioned bow and stern. Fortunately +I had some matches in my vest pocket, I built a fire against the +huge hollow trunk of a redwood, and was careful not to let it go out +entirely. + +Along the shore, washed up by the tide from the sandstone ledge, were +numerous iron concretions, usually round and flattened on two sides. +These proved invaluable. They would get red-hot in my fire, and I +used them for burning out the boat. A flake of flinty rock served as +a shovel when fastened into a split stick, and two tied together at +the ends made a serviceable pair of tongs. With these simple tools, my +work proceeded famously. Paddles and scull, too, I made from strips +of strong and pliable young poplars. With my fire kept burning, I had +no trouble about food. I had always been a meat lover, and in camp a +breakfast without bacon was a failure. So instead, I made turtle soup, +or broiled fishes on the coals, or on sharp sticks before the fire. I +found nuts, too, and fruit, especially figs, the old ripe fruit hanging +among the flowers and green figs. From tough bark I made sails and put +sheets over all, to keep out the damp. With ropes of the aralia vine, +I fastened my dug-out to a tree. One stormy night a very high tide +floated her, and the next morning I was ready for my expedition. So, +all aboard, I committed myself to Him who hears “the ravens’ clamorous +cry,” and drifted with the tide up the center of the bayou. With scull +in hand, I guided my boat and with my eyes drank in the beauty of the +scene. It was a lovely morning cool and refreshing, the air laden +with the spicy fragrance of evergreens that lined the elevated bench +inshore. The delicious aroma of spring flowers delighted the senses, +while acres of water lilies with kidney shaped leaves and white and +yellow flowers rested in graceful attitudes upon the water. Along the +shore line were dense masses of moss; while serried ranks of rushes and +long grass cast waving shadows athwart the sluggish stream. Behind on +the solid earth the stately redwood, poplars, magnolia, figs and many +other trees, cast their shadows across the bayou. These splendid forms + + Of God’s first temple reared, + Whose lofty trunks, like soldiers file + As if their God they feared. + +There they stand in solemn grandeur. Near the shore was a thick growth +of underwood, while inland clear spaces were visible owing to the fact +that the close crowned heads of the forest prevented the rays of the +sun from passing through them to the ground below, and nothing but +the humble moss and other lowly vegetation could secure a foothold. +I noticed suddenly a disturbance up stream, and suspecting that a +dweller of this solitude was approaching a specially seductive patch +of rushes and horse-tails across the stream, I backwatered my boat +into the fringe of vegetation near the eastern shore, until it was +completely hidden in an ambuscade of verdure. I anchored by means of +a large concretion attached to a rope, of the running vine already +mentioned. Carefully crawling to the front of the boat where I had made +a small deck, I stretched at full length, and parting the rushes had +an uninterrupted view of the bayou. Soon, I saw the white foam ripple +off the huge back and tail of a swimming reptile. A duck-bill if you +please, that was rapidly approaching. The huge elongated head and +short front webbed feet, the great body, and enormous swimming tail, +the last as long as the entire body, made up a total length of about +thirty-five feet. The tail was nearly three feet high, where it left +the body, terminating in a small point over sixteen feet away. It was +the main propeller that hurried him on his way to his pasture ground, +in graceful and powerful undulations, aided by his paddle-like front +limbs, feet and great hind limbs ten feet long. The water gurgled, and +foamed, little patches of foam, were caught up by the passing breeze +and carried to leeward. Soon he passed at full speed within ten feet +of my shelter, and brought up a hundred feet away under the western +shore. There he planted his hind feet firmly in the muddy bottom, ten +feet below. The water continued its sullen flow, murmuring against the +pillar-like limbs. The webbed front limbs, he used as arms to bring the +rich foliage within reach of his duck-bill to be nipped off, and passed +between the scissor-like teeth that sheared the food into shreds, to +pass into a cavernous stomach below, and so appease a ravenous appetite. + +I had a fine view of the beautiful creature. Back of the head a +frill several inches high reached to the shoulders. The whole body +was covered with the most beautiful patterns of scales, or rounded +tubercles, arranged in mosaic-work of very pretty rosettes, of scales +perhaps an eighth of an inch in diameter with small tubercles between. +The morning sun reflected in the water every scale and contour of the +body, limbs and out stretched tail. And so this creature of other days +was before me in flesh and blood and power. Over some parts of the body +there were areas of large pavement scales. They were entirely distinct, +and did not overlap. + + And his body broad expended + With thin skin is covered o’er, + Scaled in beauteous patterns blended + With the foliage near the shore. + +The bright rosettes were more highly colored than the smaller dots. As +the thin skin hung loosely on the frame below, it moved in graceful +curves rounded muscles, massive hind limb, and great tail. The hind +limbs terminated in three large hoofs on each foot; that spread well +over half a square yard of the muddy bottom. The tail was adorned with +large colored scales. He is now in his natural habitat, the Everglades +along the old Cretaceous Ocean. The land was beginning slowly to rise +from the domain of Neptune, who had held sway for ages, but even now, +it was but slightly above sea-level, while meandering bayou, river +or lake were interspersed between the lowlands. There were great +accumulations of peat, and other rank vegetation covering great areas +of swamp-land, to the depth of thirty feet or more. Often no doubt, a +great tidal wave will flood the rising land, covering the vegetation +with ocean mud, which in due time, in the ages to come, will form under +pressure the coal fields of Alberta Province. We have already noted her +wealth of coal. + +Our trachodon has finished breakfast, and though at the time of writing +these lines no one had suggested a name for him, the great question +with me was how continue the study of this beautiful lizard, learn more +of his life history and of the other creatures of his day. I concluded +the rich everglades would abound in many of his kind, and a rich fauna +too, including many other forms. As he continued to feed I continued +to think. I was not surprised to see him alone, because reptiles as +a rule care little for their fellows. They do not mass together in +herds like mammals. Each one seems to live for himself, the stronger +ones winning in the battle of life. They seem to have none of the +almost human sensibilities of mammals, show little love if any for the +offspring. As soon as the young are large enough for food, in the case +of flesh eaters, their hungry parents may gobble them up, and they are +no safer from them, than any others of the hungry tribe. The only way +to escape is to keep out of the way. Of course our trachodont is, as +we have already seen, herbivorous in habit; and is not likely to do +battle, except in self defense, from jealousy, or over the food supply. +Neither would he lead others to the feast, each one must look out for +himself. + +I was not surprised that this fellow was a swimmer. In 1908 my oldest +son George, found a skeleton of a trachodon in the famous Beds of +Converse County, Wyoming, complete except that the tail and hind feet +were missing. He lay on an old drift on his back, wrapped in his skin, +as in a mantle, or rather the impression of his skin, for the original +substance had long ago disappeared. His head lay twisted under his +left shoulder. The skin in the abdominal region had collapsed, and +lay across the inside of the vertebral column, all going to prove he +had died in the water, that he was filled by the expanding gases +after death, that his body was lifted to the surface and floated with +the current, thus forcing the head back under the shoulders. When +the gas escaped, the abdominal walls fell in; the water rushed in to +fill the cavity, the body became heavier than water, and sank to the +bottom. There the fine sand drifted over it, and forced the yielding +skin deeper into the body cavity. The decay of the contents of the +viscera and the flesh occurring more rapidly than the skin, the latter +was forced closer and closer to the bones until the specimen, as now +mounted in the American Museum New York, shows a resemblance to a +mummy. So Dr. Osborn in describing it suggested the name “Dinosaur +Mummy.” Before this discovery, it was supposed that the reptile was a +land animal, that he used his powerful hind limbs in connection with +the tail, to form a tripod on which his powerful weight rested, while +he fed off the tender foliage of tree. It was also believed that he was +plated with dermal, or skin scutes, to protect him from his carniverous +enemies. However as the “mummy” proves, and as the living creature +proved, his skin was thin, with no dermal plates. His front feet were +webbed, and his habitat the bayous and swamps along the sea-plain. +I was glad, as my saurian was through breakfast to see him lift his +body, head and front limbs up, and look towards shore, and beyond a +few rods away, to a sheet of water that appealed to him. So wading +through the morass and putting his small front feet down on the muddy +slope left by the retreating tide, the narrow strip between its ebb +and flow, he drew himself out of the water, and lifting his body but a +few feet above the mud, he dragged his huge tail through it, leaving a +well marked trail behind. His pose to me was very interesting, as I had +come to the conclusion from my study of the “mummy,” that this was his +natural gait, though most American Paleontologists believe, that their +usual pose was standing erect on the hind limbs, the front legs used +chiefly for balancing. As he reached the fringe of bushes he pushed his +duck-bill through them, nosing around as if to scent some enemy. Then +as the coast seemed clear, he hurries across the narrow strip, beneath +the silent evergreens. + + +[Illustration: FIG. 42.--Badlands of Red Deer River, 2 miles below +Steveville. Page 67.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Badlands near Steveville. Photograph by Levi +Sternberg. Page 61.] + + The cooling touch of morning breeze, + Waft incense from a censor hidden, + The gentle sighing of the trees + Add music to the scene unbidden. + As he hies him away “to fresh scenes and pastures green.” + But hark a noise that thrills me, what can it mean? + I hear the crush of mighty frame. + The Tiger of the Everglades: + As onward through the brush he came, + And through the swamp and moss he wades, + He leaves a great trail in his wake + As rushing forward toward his prey: + His mighty limbs with ease can break: + And open wide a passage way. + His limbs are armed with claws so great, + His jaws are filled with horrid teeth: + Alas! I fear our saurian’s fate, + He’s simply dallying with death. + Our herbivore is armed for flight: + With paddles strong and swimming tail, + He is not built indeed for fight, + To ’scape by flood he should not fail. + For, though the reptiles weigh the same, + And each span forty feet in length. + I fear the swimmer’ll lose the game, + The carnivore excels in strength. + Let him escape beyond his foe, + Who dare not venture in the flood. + Toward the deep waters he should go, + Nor drench his pasture with his blood. + +Too bad! rush as he may, he cannot escape this fierce Tiger of the +Everglades. So occupied are the great dinosaurs, they do not heed my +approach. Lifting anchor I pulled across the stream into the channel +made by the trachodon on his way towards shore. The noble lizard seeing +that he could not escape his foe, bravely faces him. As if to hurry +the end, he exposes the most vulnerable part of his body, by rising +on his hind limbs. The enemy hurls himself at full length upon his +defenseless victim; with great claws of hardened horn, full ten inches +long, he rips his body down and red blood floods the mossy way. As +he falls to earth and death, this tyrant, of those early days, tears +open his body, and feeds on the quivering flesh and running blood in +the very shelter of the redwood forest. The awful terror of the scene +kept me well out of reach in the water. I was overcome with the shock, +coming so swiftly in the peaceful woods. The sun was not darkened, the +perfume of flowers filled the air, the gentle breeze sighed in the +branches overhead, showing that nature knows no pity, no mercy. That +death is inevitable, and still nature’s beauty, her changing seasons +go on for time. Even though the victim was a cold blooded reptile I +had become deeply interested in it. I remembered however, that the +carnivore must prey on the herbivore; that the latter increase so +rapidly, the death of one of their number would leave scarcely a ripple +on the reptilian life of the everglades. I had time of course to study +the conqueror carefully, I saw he did not differ greatly from the +one Professor Osborn described as Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the +tyrants; from a partial skeleton and magnificent head, discovered by +Barnum Brown in the Hell Creek Beds of northern Montana. His huge head +is four feet long, three feet wide and two feet high. The jaws armed +with teeth six inches long, with serrated edges on the double cutting +surfaces. A great sinewy body, very short front limbs, powerful hind +ones, and long tail, with sled-like chevron bones, and extending +processes interlocking the caudal vertebrae, not allowing them to move +freely on themselves, as in the snakes and lizards of today. The tail +was stiffened and was dragged along on the ground. The body was 40 feet +long and the head reached nineteen feet above the ground. As I saw, a +blow from his terrible claw-armed hind limb, tore open the trachodon, +nearly his equal in bulk. After gormandising to his heart’s content, +he drifted off into the forest, and I saw him no more. I then paddled +in short and tying my boat to a sapling, went up to the carcass and +secured great strips of the tough skin so beautifully adorned with +shining and beautifully colored scales, polygonal or rounded, some +so small that they appeared as mere dots, as already observed. I was +delighted to see near by a pool of alkali water, in this I doused the +skin and it then only took a short time to break up the glue. I found +a poplar log about eight inches in diameter and after sharpening one +end, I drove it into the ground over a dead log that was lying on the +ground. After peeling off the bark from the ends I had a handy device, +so stretching the skin over it, scaly side down, and using the edge of +a chisel for a scraper, I rapidly prepared the skin for use, cleaning +off the flesh and broken down glue. By the time it was dry I had +tanned it, and it was as pliable as newly tanned leather. I continued +my labor until I had prepared a great roll. Not of buck-skin, but +trachodon skin. I saw in prospect sails, ropes paulins for my boat and +myself, as a protection against the rains and for many other things. +Where the skin had been torn from the dorsal spines, I saw bundles of +ossified tendons, like those of a turkey’s leg. They lay across each +other diagonally to the spines, while other rows were parallel. What +were they for? I supposed to stiffen, and strengthen the dorsal column. +Perhaps too, if our trachodon had not been so foolish as to face his +enemy, and had continued the retreat, and the tiger had leaped on his +back, his claws finding no foothold on account of these same bony +tendons, he might have lost his footing. They extended some distance +into the tail, making the forward part like an oar. The undulations we +saw, were performed by the posterior part of the tail while in the act +of swimming. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT THE CRETACEOUS SEAS BROUGHT FORTH + + +One has some strange day dreams often, at least I have. My only +daughter died some years ago; though in imagination she is often with +me, I thought once I had gone to sleep. When I woke next morning I +realized that time had turned backward. I found myself beside the +boundless sea, and it was not the sea I had looked on but yesterday, +I was sitting under a limestone escarpment, with a beach before me of +fine sand. The waves rolling outside of a bar that had been deposited +by a river, whose mouth I could see on the eastern side of the steep +bluff under which I sat. “Thank God,” I cried, “You have taken me back +to the old Cretaceous Ocean.” I had explored her elevated and denuded +bed for twenty seasons in the Short Grass country of Western Kansas; +collecting her rich fauna of reptiles and fishes. To know that I was to +be permitted to actually see the animals themselves, in their natural +environments. To explore her shore lines. Her sheltered bays. To see +her fleets of plesiosaurs come sailing in after an ocean cruise; her +great mosasaurs, and bony fishes. How glorious, but where is Maud. +The thought came to me like a flash. Life had seemed so much more +enjoyable with her beside me. With her appreciative ear, to listen for +what my mind conceived, and my lips uttered, she never contradicted +me when I uttered an opinion. No! she realized that I, with my vast +store of experience might well be her teacher, and she enjoyed the +story of my life so much that her eager face, and flashing eyes, +were a stimulus to my mind, awakening old experiences and memories +long forgotten. Although she had been with me for a short time, she +had become necessary to me. I knew how much I would miss her in the +adventures that lay before me. While these thoughts were passing, I +was delighted to hear her gentle voice call out “Papa, here I am.” +And looking up I saw her leaning out of the mouth of a cave a short +distance above me. I cried out with pleasure and rushing to the beach +picked up the dry trunk of a small pine, with stumps of branches on +either side. I carried it to the bluff and leaning against it, made a +convenient ladder for Maud to descend on which she rapidly did, and +stood beside me. Of course our chief talk was about this miraculous +event in our lives and we wondered what was in store for us. We +thrilled with delight when we realized how lovely the country was. +The climate temperature. We smelled the delicious odor of magnolia +blooms, for a beautiful forest skirted the hills and plains before us +to the east, and north and south, while to the west, as far as the eye +could reach a great ocean, whose western shore line must have been +thousands of miles toward the setting sun. Taking her arm we walked +down to the beach. In the zone between high and low tide, unlimited +oysters, no larger than silver half dollars lay strewn around. While +plowing through the sand, were _Inoceramus_ shells that measured four +feet high, and five feet long, leaving a great trail behind. The shore +line was strewn with many of these huge shells. We mentioned the many +uses they could be put to, for our convenience. Thin and transparent +they would do for windows in the house, I planned to build. They would +take the place of shingles, and even doors. We enjoyed a feast of raw +oysters with the sea water for seasoning. We then went to work hauling +up from the piles of driftwood, trunks of small trees near the cave. +Which Maud told me would make her a nice room as it was high and dry +with a floor of white sand. By building four walls with the logs, +leaving spaces for windows and doors, we succeeded after many days of +labor in having a room twelve by fourteen feet. Then we put on a roof, +of the large shells, hung our doors and windows, filled the spaces +between the logs with clay, and moss, built a fire place and chimney. +The effect of the light passing through the shells was very beautiful +indeed. Our original ladder led to Maud’s Cave, through a trap door. +I gathered the fragrant boughs of pine trees for the beds. We cared +little for furniture, pictures and ornaments. How insignificant man’s +costliest works compared to the works of the great Creator, His air, +and water, His glorious sea forest and plain, the starry firmament on +high, given us so freely. How rich we were, though possessing only the +clothes on our backs, and the few tools I had in my collecting bag. +A few matches and some strings of sinew I had cut in another age, I +also found a file in the lowest corner of my collecting bag, and from +fragments of bone made some fish-hooks, we had built a chimney and in +the open fireplace Maud heated water in a deep sea shell while I caught +a string of nice fishes, which she broiled for supper or fried for +breakfast. I also found the tracks of a turtle, whose bones and skull I +discovered in the chalk of Kansas. Professor Cope named it _Torycheles +latiremus_. Suspecting that she had hidden some eggs in the dry sand, +I dug around in it with my hands and found a hat full of her soft +shelled eggs. With the fish we had many most delightful repasts, and we +talked of the time when we hoped to explore this new region, the Early +Cretaceous. Study its rich fauna and flora. After building our cabin, +as we were very tired after a strenuous day, Maud kissed me good night +and retired to her room in the cave, while I lay down in the corner of +the house. At the first streak of day a fire was builded, and breakfast +started. I had made a pail of a deep shell shaped like a woman’s hood, +and called later by Conrad _Haploscapha grandes_, the first great +hood. I had bored a hole through either edge, and with an aralia vine +for a handle, I carried it to a nearby hill; where a lovely spring of +pure water gushed out, and returned with it brimful of the life saving +liquid. We used thin shells, we had found on the beach, for plates and +made our knives and forks and spoons of wood. At breakfast Maud asked +me if I knew where we were. “Yes, dear,” I replied, “we are in Western +Kansas. These limestone bluffs are composed of jointed limestone. Some +day a gorge will be cut through them by the Smoky Hill River ninety +feet deep, and a mile long, and it will be in Trego County just below +the mouth of Hackberry Creek. Get your hat and we will see!” “I am +ready, papa,” she cried, so with collecting bag over my shoulder, and +pick in hand, we walked rapidly along the hard sandy shore line. We +soon rounded the point, and as I suspected the shore swung off into a +vast amphitheatre-like cove. We could just see the distant headland, +far to the north. While the land and sea curved in toward the east and +back to the north, forming a great land locked bay. + +[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Badlands near Steveville. Notice Cross +Bedding. Page 61, 69.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Quarry with skeleton of _Corythosaurus_ lost +at sea, 1916. Page 160.] + +“O see papa!” Maud cried, “what is that lying on the water just off +shore? It looks like a huge log half submerged.” “No dear. I believe it +is a _Tylosaur_ or great ram-nosed lizard, the monarch of this ocean. +See! he raises a conical head above the water, that terminates in a +long bony ram. His head is five feet long. See his four powerful +paddles begin to move! his eel-like tail is longer than head and trunk +combined. Watch its graceful and rapid undulations.” “My,” cried Maud, +“it is larger than the storied sea serpents of sailors and seaside +resorts. It must be fifty feet long.” “Fully that,” I answered. “I +wonder what has started him off in such a hurry?” “What does that +streak of foam mean yonder?” asked my companion. “It is another saurian +coming to battle, dear,” I answered. The scene was indeed exciting. +We clapped our hands and shouted encouragement to our saurian as he +lashed the water, and beat it into a foam, that floated behind in a +long curling wake. Or patches were caught up by the passing breeze +and wafted away as lightly as the bubbles children love to blow. We +had ascended the point as we rounded it, and so are high enough to +watch the battle royal. As they come together like colliding express +trains, our reptile plunges his bony ram into the quivering flesh +of his opponent, piercing heart and lungs. Withdrawing his ram, he +lingers near while the dying mosasaur reddens the salty brine with his +life-blood. A few convulsive struggles, and he lies a helpless mass on +the surface, while his victor hies away to other conquests. “I never +knew these _Tylosaurs_ grew to such huge dimensions,” said Maud, “You +know the one in the American Museum is only about thirty feet long, and +that was considered large for the species.” “Yes, I know,” I replied. +“But I also know of one huge skeleton belonging to the University of +Kansas at Lawrence, that measures fifty feet in length. His enormous +head is five feet long, the same size evidently as this one. Who knows +but that 5,000,000 years from now his skeleton may be exhumed from the +chalk of Kansas and exhibited at the Museum of the University!” “I +remember the mosasaurs, papa, you described in ‘The Life of a Fossil +Hunter.’ After the _Tylosaurus_ came the flat paddles _Platecarpus_, +with its blunt ram or rostrum at the end of the nose; then _Clidastes_, +a lithe creature and more elegantly built than the other two.” “Yes, +dear, I have been fortunate in the discovery of complete skeletons of +these fine swimmers. I sent a very beautiful skeleton of a _Tylosaur_ +to the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt-on-the-Main. (Fig. 5). Skeletons +of _Platecarpus_ to Tübingen University, as well as a _Tylosaurus_. And +one to The Museum of Toronto University, Canada, and another to the +Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa, Canada. A beautiful _Clidastes_ to +Vassar College, New York, a fine head and trunk to Carnegie Museum, +at Pittsburgh, Pa. The Mosasaurs, you know, all have short necks and +long tails. The jaws are armed with recurved teeth and a set on either +side in the roof of the mouth near the gullet enable them to hold their +prey, so they could not escape if they opened their mouths. They had +an aid to swallowing their food, by means of a ball and socket hinge +in the center of the lower jaws, just behind the tooth-bearing bones. +This enabled them to expand the lower jaws and shortening them so as to +force the food down the throat.” + +“See Papa,” said Maud, “The rising tide has floated the dead saurian +towards the shore.” We walked to the beach and our united efforts +enabled us to pull him in. He was a magnificent example of the sea +life of his day. I doubt if ever a swimmer excelled this one in +speed. The four powerful paddles and lithe form, and the long tail +in constant vibration, enabled him to cut the water like the prow of +a racing yacht. His entire body was covered with small scales like +those of a diamond rattler, arranged in beautiful colored designs, and +highly polished. The scales sparkling in iridescent splendor. “How +well poised the head,” said Maud. “How large the eyes, protected by +sclerotic plates of bone now glazed in death.” “Wonderfully beautiful,” +I answered, “So God creates His creatures, His plants, His crystals. +Man’s feeble efforts to imitate nature how crude and clumsy.” + +“I think Maud it would be a good plan to cut off strips of the skin +for ropes and sails, and many other useful things. I will make you a +hammock of a wide strip.” “Very well,” she answered, “Let us go to +work.” While busily engaged, we were covered with moving shadows and +looking up saw enormous _Pteranodonts_ those glorious flying reptiles, +hovering over head. With broad expanded wing, some twenty feet from tip +to tip, they swooped downward, or rested in graceful attitudes in mid +air. Their great eyes scanned the ocean before us for fishes, and when +one was discovered dropped like a shot into the bay rapidly reappearing +with a fish between their toothless beaks. One after another broke the +mirror like surface of the deep, and always came to the surface with +a fish. Their unerring sight had discovered. No eagle ever dropped +quicker on his frightened quarry than these lizards. The scene before +us was exciting indeed. + +After finishing our labor and stretching the skin of our _Mosasaur_ on +the sand to dry we continued our stroll along the sand. In a deep hole, +we admired a whole colony of the most beautiful swimming crinoids, or +sea lilies we had ever seen. They were stemless and floated with the +currents of Mosaurian Bay, as I had named the sheet of water on the new +map I had made. Their bodies, about the shape of half an egg, with an +opening in the center, and ten arms radiating from the margin. These +arms were three feet long, with feathered edges. Over the mouth too, +were smaller arms used to comb off into the mouth the tiny animal life +of the sea, that was strained through, and caught in the meshes of the +feathered arms. My boys found hundreds of these crinoids in the chalk +on Beaver Creek, Kansas, called _Uintacrinus socialis_. We enriched +many Museums with them. + +“Papa,” said Maud, “let us go into the woods to escape the heat.” It +was beginning to be felt, as the sun has climbed over the trees, and +the heat beats upon the dry sands. We first entered a hard and soft +wood forest, composed largely of Sassafras, Magnolia, Linden, Birch +in endless variety, Cinnamon, Sweet Gum, and many other of the first +trees with heart and bark like our existing forests of the twentieth +century. There was a thick underbrush of wild roses and aralia vines, +with their beautiful three and five lobed dentate leaves. The brooks +were lined with rushes, and ferns and other familiar vegetation. We +could see deeper in the forest the stately Redwood in serried ranks, +as far as the eye could reach; colonnades of God’s first temple. Here +indeed we found the coveted shads. The trunks like Gothic columns +lifted their stately forms two hundred feet on high, with densely +packed crowns of living green, that cut off the direct rays of the sun. +They filtered through like those through stained glass filling the +woods with tinted and mysterious light. “How grand,” I cried, “to live +so close to God and His great heart, Nature’s heart. God is the very +embodiment, everywhere of nature, even ‘the spacious firmament on high, +and all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens a shining frame, +there great original proclaim.’ There, Maud, do you see the damp sand +along the river shore. See how the leaves have fallen in it, some lie +flat, others with stem down, are half buried; all will be covered with +the ocean mud at high tide, there they will remain until pressed by +the masses of rock that will be laid down upon the deposit, it will be +hardened into sandstone, and the leaf impressions will be preserved +for millions of years. Until in the twentieth century, I will dig them +from the solid rock in the central plains of Kansas, and Lesquereux and +Ward, and Knowlton and Wilson, will identify them.” + +So we wandered on through mighty aisles in this great temple, where +God loved to walk, though all unseen by our mortal eyes, we felt His +presence near. “O Papa,” cried Maud. “See the ground is strewn with +edible acorns. There were no squirrels last winter to store them away. +And there are some ripe figs among the green ones in yonder tree. If +you will gather the figs, I will fill my apron with acorns and we will +have a new dish for dinner.” “All right,” I replied and soon gathered +a large supply. We carried our treasures home; and while Maud cracked +the acorns between two cobblestones, I secured a strong shell for a +mortar and a rounded stone for a pestle and ground the fruit and nuts +together, which we made into little cakes, they with hard boiled turtle +eggs made a dinner we enjoyed. + +I had scraped a shell full of salt from the face of a precipice where +the water of the sea had beaten high against it and on evaporating +left a thick layer of salt behind. And so the day passed, every moment +showing us a new phase of the Creator’s handiwork. We soon decided that +as the sea life here was so luxuriant, we would build a ship to sail +the quiet waters of the Mosasaurian Bay. I succeeded in planning one, +with Maud’s assistance, that promised safety and comfort. I selected +half a dozen straight redwood logs, thirty feet long; burned off the +ends and branches. With the aid of fire dug them out, and stretched +over them the dried skin of mosasaurs. (Many had been killed in their +battles and we had secured their skins). Each compartment was air tight +and very buoyant, I rived out boards from the redwood logs, and lashed +them across the boats for a platform, on which we built cabins fore +and aft, and erected a main mast from which our sails were stretched +from yard arms, manipulated with ropes from the same tough hide that +we geared as sails. Huge rocks we heaved on deck and attached ropes +to them and used them as anchors. We made state rooms, kitchen, and +sitting room, amid ship. After many days of labor, we finished our +craft, and were ready for life on the ocean wave. + +We resolved not to venture far from shore and to cast anchor in some +quiet land locked bay at night, Maud was to handle the steering +apparatus, while I cared for the sails, Maud cooked dainty morsels +from land and sea and bayou. We not only got turtle eggs but the +turtles themselves, and a great variety of fishes, mackerel, herring, +etc. While building our ship we had unlimited adventures, because each +morning and evening we walked off into the forest or explored the +sea-shore, or walked along the winding river, or mossy bayou. But as my +attention was occupied in the boat building I could not keep notes of +these adventures. We named our little ship The Swan, not because of the +beauty of the boat, but because it floated as lightly as a swan on the +waters of Mosasaurian Bay. + +One lovely morning in early June when life was the richest, and the +forest had attained perfection; we hoisted our great square sail, +and loosened our rudder bands, and put to sea. With a gentle breeze +stirring, and with only a gentle ripple on the bosom of the deep; with +no rocky breakers in shore, the motion on board was delightful. “Look +Papa,” cried Maud, as a great fish, fifteen feet long, dashed by in +pursuit of a school of mackerel, that were struggling to get into water +to escape his murderous jaws. He was armed with long conical teeth, +those in front where the face with its short muzzle looked like a bull +dog, the horrid fangs were four inches long; in the center of the head +was a triangular crest, that cut the waves like the dorsal spine of a +shark. He beat the water into spray, in his eager pursuit of his prey; +and many a fish fell a victim to his appetite. His skull was two feet +long, with powerful lower jaw, his great pectoral fins were over three +feet long. The rays had sharp outer edges. He could set and use them as +a sword to gash his enemies, the great white sharks. His forked tail, +with span of over four feet, would cause an awful blow when used as a +weapon; large glistening scales, covered the entire body. Maud called +my attention to the fact that our huge fish had finished breakfast, +and was swimming back into the deep water of the bay, quite leisurely, +so graceful in motion a living five horse power motor boat. “You +remember,” she said, “the skeleton you sent of this fish to the British +Museum.” “O yes,” I replied, “Mr. Pycraft wrote a description of it for +the Illustrated London News, March 1, 1913.” (Fig. 4). + +“My son George found and collected this fine specimen, I prepared it.” +“You must be as pleased to see the boys make such noted discoveries,” +she said. “O yes, because it encourages them to keep at work, in this +life work of mine. As a boy I loved nature, I was a hunter too and +used to kill buffalo and antelope. But after close association with +the most famous Naturalist America has produced, Prof. E. D. Cope of +Philadelphia, who often told me that though we must destroy our enemies +and protect our friends, as a matter of self protection, yet wanton +destruction of life was a crime. The more I thought of this suggestion +the more I came to fully believe it. God loves the creatures He has +created and will surely punish man for needless destruction of the +beautiful birds and fur bearing animals, so they can decorate their own +persons, wearing the borrowed plumage, and silky furs of his creatures. +I long ago gave up killing wild animals, and for years could say with +Goldsmith, ‘No herds that roam the valley wide to slaughter I condemn, +Moved by the power that pities me, I learn to pity them.’ However as I +like meat I am obliged to qualify the stanza by saying, as is reported +Goldsmith’s wife had said, ‘No herd that roves the valley wide to +slaughter I condemn. The butcher kills the meat for me, I buy the meat +of him.’ In other words I let my sons do the hunting. My great pleasure +as you know dear girl, is to dig with pick and shovel from the rock, +the animals of the past, to clean and prepare the crumbling bones, and +by the power of the imagination breathe into them new life. And has not +God shown us His appreciation of this love we both possess by bringing +us back here among His creatures of another day.” + +[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Charlie letting down his Plated Dinosaur by +gravity. Page 96.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 47.--Hauling out fossil log. Page 170.] + +“O! Papa!” cried Maud. “See the water is cut by the spines of great +sharks twenty-five feet long. See some are so near the ship in this +transparent water that we can see them perfectly.” “There,” I answered, +“is a _Portheus_ they seem to be in pursuit of. That big shark passes +immediately under the _Portheus_. He turns on his back, and his huge +mouth opens, look at the many rows of wicked looking teeth. How +they gleam in the light, they are sharp as razors.” “See how many +different forms of teeth in different parts of the mouth.” “Yes dear I +remember that in the mouth of one I sent to Munich in 1882, from the +Kansas Chalk Dr. Eastman found twenty-five synonyms, or species that +had been described from loose teeth. Watch, there are several other big +sharks coming to the assistance of the one who is after the _Portheus_. +We will hoist the sail and try and keep pace with the battle, that +surges westward, watch the rudder Maud while I loosen the main sail! It +bellied to the strengthening breeze, urging on our ship with increasing +speed until we were again among them. The _Portheus_ now swimming +for life was the foci of the sharks, that were coming to the attack +from all directions. One would dive under the fish, and receive for +his pains a stroke from his powerful tail that would put him out of +commission, another would receive a thrust from the sword-like ray of +the front fin. Undaunted, others hurried up like a pack of wolves on +a wounded deer. Though many were wounded in the fray our hero fish at +last succumbed to numbers, who gashed his body with their lance-like +teeth, and the water was tinged with his life-blood; weaken and +overpowered, he gradually ceased struggling. The sharks gathered to the +feast. One however was so badly wounded by the _Portheus_, that he went +to the oozy bottom with him. I have preserved in the Museum of the +University of Kansas a shark twenty-five feet long, and mingled with +his remains were the bones of a _Portheus_. The evident result of such +a combat as we witnessed on Mosasaurian Bay.” + +We lowered our sail, and drifted idly on the swelling tide, that led +towards shore. Maud steered for the mouth of a large river’s mouth, and +succeeded in getting the boat into deep water under a protecting bank, +and we snubbed our ship to some saplings and also cast our anchors over +board, as an additional aid to holding the boat in place. I crossed the +gang plank, I had connected with the shore, and went off into the woods +after berries, for dinner, while Maude cast her fish lines over board, +and lighted a fire, I brought home a couple of quarts of raspberries, +and found Maud had caught and prepared a nice mess of fishes, that were +sizzling over the fire. She soon had a nice meal ready. So the day +passed and we early sought our state rooms, I first however, recited a +poem I wrote on board a C. P. R. Steamboat, enroute from Port McNicoll +to Port Arthur in June, 1914: + + +A LAKE TRIP + + I am riding on the bosom of an inland chain of lakes, + At their glories and their wonders my sluggish soul awakens! + They become the mighty highway of two nations strong and brave, + And the commerce of two peoples are wafted o’er the wave. + + On either shore, once planted, (God’s ancient temple grand), + The great primaeval forest densely covered all the land, + Man’s vandal hand has cut it from the face of mother earth, + To a second growth of timber the land has given birth. + + And in this Age of Iron, great freighters haul the ore, + Across Superior’s bosom to the smelters calling “more” + Ten thousand tons of coal the freighters carry west, + Where the iron-ore is loaded for its journey to the east. + + I am riding on a Steamer of the C. P.’s mighty fleet. + The keel is riding even as the earth beneath one’s feet, + In fact a Floating Palace with all its comforts there. + Its pathways blazed before it for weather rough or fair. + + What a glorious prospect now, is opened up to view + The scenes for ever changing each opening vista new, + See! indentures cut in shoreline by rivers’ mouth or bay, + But for the lighted lamps we’d hardly find our way. + + At last our boat has entered and rapidly passed through, + The lock of Sault St. Marie, the Frenchmen call the Soo. + Upon the broad Superior our westward course we take + The course the captain chooses, near the center of the lake. + + But now a mist is falling that soon becomes a fog. + Our Siren sends her warning o’er many a lengthening rod. + We hear the Fog Horns sounding from near or distant craft, + And just abeam our steamship we hear an answering blast. + + We think of Ireland’s Empress as she sank beneath the wave, + Which, until God’s trump, will be some dear one’s grave. + But, God rules on the water, as well as on the land + We’re very full of confidence we’re guided by His hand. + + So in our narrow state room, we lay us down to rest + And through the long night watches, we journey towards the west, + And when the morn awakes us, the sun is shining bright. + And head land peaks are glowing with streams of early light. + +We woke next morning much refreshed as the night had been cool. After +breakfast we were ready for the adventures of another day. Drifting +out gently on the broad waters of the bay, we were delighted to see a +school of _Plesiosaurs_ come sailing in from some distant cruise. These +strange sea lizards, with long powerful neck and four paddles, and a +mere stump of a tail. They were on a fishing excursion, as the herring +and mackerel were now coming in to spawn near shore. These monster +saurians swam like a snake bird below the surface, their long necks and +heads darted hither and thither above and below exploring a space of +forty feet in search of fishes. We could see the flash of shining teeth +as a luckless fish was captured. Some of them floated on the surface, +and with swan-like neck and body they moved in graceful circles, or +sped along at a terrific pace picking up their morning meal, from the +countless panic stricken fishes, that vainly sought to escape their +tooth-armed jaws. I told Maud of a complete skeleton that had once been +found by a farmer in the Kansas chalk of Butte Creek, Logan County. “He +started to excavate a place for a stable when he uncovered some huge +vertebrae, and ribs over five feet long. He supposed they were elephant +bones, and as they were broken, he thought they could not be saved, and +so dug up the bones with the chalk. They were dumped into a cow yard +and beaten to powder under their feet, and could never be restored. I +grieved much over the loss to science of that splendid specimen that +has never been duplicated. Dr. S. W. Williston, the oldest living +American Vertebrate Paleontologist, described the few bones I was able +to save from the general wreck. He did me the honor of naming it after +me.” “What a pity,” cried Maud. “It must be terrible for you to learn +of such vandalism.” “Yes, dear,” I replied. “I doubt whether any mortal +suffers more from this kind of vandalism due entirely to ignorance than +I. I remember finding some very large turtles in the Upper Miocene +of Phillips County, Kansas, that had been killed evidently by a sand +storm, as they were all resting on their carapaces, as if traveling in +one direction. I secured over twenty of these land turtles, and among +them was the most perfect and beautiful one I have ever collected, +although Dr. Weiland of Yale University told me that if five of the +most perfect fossil turtles known, were placed together a couple I +sent his museum, would rank 2 and 3. I had occasion to photograph this +splendid specimen, and had laid it on edge on a deal table. I then went +into a carpenter shop for assistance in moving another, too heavy for +me to handle. When we got to the table the man helping me sprang on +it (as he thought he could lift the one we were carrying easier), his +weight was so great, it bent the boards on whose further ends the fine +specimen was resting, and it came to the floor with a crash. It was +broken to pieces so small it could not be saved and restored. So one +of these animals so perfect in all human probability it will never be +duplicated, was destroyed. The loss was terrible for me.” “You have had +some bitter experiences,” said Maud, tears standing in her sympathetic +eyes. “Many indeed, Maud,” I answered. “But while we have been talking +our plesiosaurs have put to sea. Their distant wakes are just visible.” +“See, papa, what a strange looking fish. What is it do you suppose?” +“Maud, that to me is the best armored and most ferocious fish I have +ever known. I used to think the man-eating sharks, off the Florida +coast were the most blood thirsty of the order, but this one is still +worse. Notice the head is prolonged in front into a long round bony +snout, or ram. On account of this I called it a snout fish when I first +discovered their bones in the Kansas chalk. The ram ends, you notice, +in a sharp point eight or ten inches long. Then at the end of the mouth +are four lance-like teeth projecting forward, and outward. The object +was for these to cut the breach his ram had made in the quivering flesh +of a mosasaur wider, so he could force his head into the bleeding +flesh to the eye rims. But his most terrible weapons are his pectoral +fins. See, they are four feet long. Serrated on the cutting or outer +edge, enameled and sharp as a knife. They can be locked, and stand +out straight from the body. A sudden swing would, if he was close to +a mosasaur cut a gash several feet long in its vitals. See these fins +span over eight feet. I pity the fish or reptile that comes his way.” +“Watch, papa!” cried Maud. “There comes a huge shark. He certainly +doesn’t mean to attack such a well-armed fighter, does he?” “I should +not be surprised,” I answered. “I believe a shark of this size, at +least twenty-five feet long, will attack anything that has life.” The +shark made a sudden dive under the snout fish, but before he could turn +the fish set his right sword-like fin and swinging suddenly to the left +made an awful gash into the side of the shark laying open and slashing +his vital organs. Relaxing his efforts he sank into the ooze of the +ocean bed, followed by the snout fish to feast off his carcass. And +so we idly drifted with the currents and study the wondrous fauna of +this strange sea and land. We see Marsh’s loon diving for fishes, and +many other birds not known to science. One day while resting from the +excessive heat in the shade of a redwood Maud was very tired and soon +fell asleep. I, too, leaning against a mossy log, dozed off. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WONDERS OF THE PERMIAN + + +How wonderfully God works in one’s life! I must have fallen from the +log, for I dreamed, Maud and I had both disappeared into a sluggish +lagoon. When I came to my senses, I discovered that I was in a great +jungle of vegetation; that belonged to a very early age I recognized +the dense forest of many species of Carboniferous Tree Ferns and Tree +Rushes; and many species of Cycads. Nearly all the trees were inward +growers, with plumes of vegetation on top of the scar-marked trunks, +from which the leaves had already fallen during their growth upward. +I knew that only a thin, hard, outer covering protected the pith +beneath of most of the trees around me. Although there were pines, the +_Angiosperms_ had not yet appeared. Everywhere were dense masses of +sponge-moss, and moss-like trees. + + _Lepidodendrons_ bushy crest + Wave back and forth, together prest; + While sponge-moss hangs in festoons gay + Across the thickly planted way. + +[Illustration: FIG. 48.--Urn-shaped mass of rock. Page 129.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Egyptian Sphinx-like rock. Page 129.] + +The climate was tropical; the heat intense. The water was fresh; no sea +in sight. + +I climbed to the top of a tree fern, from which point of vantage, I had +an uninterrupted view of the surrounding country; which was one great +level stretch of fern plumes, densely intermingled with ancient pines, +lepidodendrons, and cycads. The latter resembling gigantic pine apples, +with a plume of leaves on top; or with tree-like trunk, and plume of +crowded pinnate leaves. These first clung closer to the ground. While +the others sought the direct sunlight perhaps fifty feet above. From +my field of vision, these vast masses of the most delicate foliage +imaginable, moved by the gentle breeze in gentle undulations, with only +here and there a break in their carpet-like compactness. While swinging +below, as I have already noted, were hanging mosses in various hues. +The ground densely covered with sponge-moss. In the lower places pools +of water into which the moss extended often completely covering them, a +land of treacherous bogs. One must watch his footing as I soon proved, +by cutting a rush whose length was over twenty-five feet, and pushed it +easily down into one of these small moss-ponds, through the peat and +failed to reach the bottom, I realized how easily one might lose his +footing, and slip into one of these mossy swamps and disappear. + +And another thought came to me of the wonderful bone-bed Miller found +along the Big Wichita in Texas, in 1909 where many complete skeletons +covering a space six or seven feet wide, ten or twelve feet long and +two feet thick. In this limited interval, according to Dr. S. W. +Williston, who has been so fortunate as to study the material secured +by Miller were dozens of complete skeletons packed like sardines in a +box of the wonderful fauna of the Permian of Texas. + +From a slight observation of the flora of the region into which we had +been miraculously transplanted, it had convinced me that I had gone +back from the twentieth century some twelve million years to the close +of the Carboniferous, that great age of Coal Plants, when vast regions +packed with the moss and other vegetation had been engulfed in the sea, +and after ages converted into coal. + +So, how easily it was for me to realize that one of these lovely moss +covered pools, might prove a death-trap to any animal whose spoor lay +through this region. It was lucky for me that I still possessed a +Marsh pick with its broad duck-billed end, with which I could easily +hew my way through the dense but easily felled trees and rushes, that +obstructed in jungles of vegetation my progress. I judged that the open +spaces I saw in the distance from my lookout in the crown of a tree +fern, must represent ponds or lakes and there, would be by far a better +place to study the fauna of this strange region, because I knew from my +own discoveries in the Permian of Texas that many of the vertebrates +were Amphibians who lived in the water or the land as pleased their +fancy. + +As I knew I would like to return to the place where I first awoke to +the realities of life, and from past experiences Maud was likely to +appear near here too. My first act after sliding down from the tree +was to divest myself of all my clothing except a pair of shoes, a pair +of pants, and a woolen shirt and light hat, with a broad rim I had +worn so long. On account of the moist climate and thick vegetation, +the air was heavy with carbonic acid gas. The only place where fresh +winds were blowing and the air was rich in oxygen, was on top of the +forests, or as I hoped along some lake shore where the winds of heaven +would be able to ripple the waters at least. So ready armed with my +pick to cut a pathway or defend myself from some hungry amphibian or +reptile because I expected to find amphibians with huge heads, and +bodies larger than my own, armed with terrible teeth. It seemed strange +too, that though in the twentieth century the order to which these +giants belonged, frogs and salamander were ready to disappear. Here +they were the dominant type so abundant that the Permian Age has been +called the Age of Amphibian or Batracians, I found the work fatiguing +on account of the great heat and close and oppressive atmosphere, that +constantly seemed to be on me to take a nap, yet with the power man has +over material and sensual things, I cut a pathway broad enough for two +to walk in it side by side, I knew if Maud was discovered, she would +want not to follow me like an Indian in single file, but beside me. I +often stopped to listen, as I rapidly progressed toward one of the open +spaces I had noted from the tree, because born on the slight breeze +that rustled the leaves above me, I could hear the croaking of frogs +that grew louder and louder, the sound put me in mind of a lot of frogs +singing through a megaphone. Suddenly without warning, I cut through +the jungle and found myself facing an inland lake of fresh water +bordered in places with reeds and rushes and moss that reached into the +water. + +At another place near where I caught my first view of the waters, +was a sandy beach. Peopled with life, both reptiles and batracians +were everywhere. The great Salamander _Eryops_ of Cope of which I had +secured so much material in the Red Beds of the Big Wichita River in +Texas both for Cope, Zittel and Von Hume, swam in the waters before +me or measured their six feet of length upon the sand. The frog-like +noise I concluded came from these huge monarchs of the Amphibians. I +could see them resting on logs that were half submerged in the water, +or swimming below the water; lying on the bottom or crawling along the +shore. Emerging from the jungle that fringed the lake on the further +margin from me were strange reptiles. One I noticed in particular was +the largest of his tribe we were likely to see here. I say we because +I could not believe that He who had brought Maud and me through so many +adventures would take her bright presence away forever. These thoughts +were in my mind as I watched a reptile come into full view out of the +jungle. + +The most wonderful thing about him, was that he carried on his back an +enormous hump. The spines in the center of the column were at least +three feet high, and packed around the base were masses of muscle and +ligaments, tapering to a sharp point at the top of the spine. A cross +section would be wedge shaped. I learned afterwards from a study of +the skeleton, that as the centra of the vertebrae were very weak they +were held firmly in place by the crossing ligaments that were wound +around the centra and spines in intermingled masses. This creature had +come out of the jungle for water interested me greatly. He was about +ten feet long from head to the long end of the delicate tail. I was +surprised to see him suddenly dive back into the jungle with all the +speed at his command. The _Eryops_ too suddenly stopped croaking and +a nerve wrecking silence, covered me as with a pall. The reptiles and +amphibians sought refuge in the jungle of the bottom of the lake. And +that body of water but a second before so full of life and activity +lay a mirror, silent as the grave, looking in the direction from which +neither reptile or amphibian had run for shelter, I heard too, an +unaccustomed sound in these swamps and everglades, it sounded very +much like the cutting of trees. I could hear the crush of mingled +vegetation as if a tree fern had been felled at one strong blow and +it came sliding down against the thickly planted vegetation, I could +hear the swish as it was dragged away, to make room for another that +quickly fell. Yes! I could hear human voices I was sure, and soon I +heard wafted across the lake the loved name Maud. I could see the +trees swaying, and then one by one come down in a straight line for +the lake, and I knew that in these solitudes I was not alone. That God +had brought others to this young earth. Whose surface still felt the +subterraneous heat, whose crust was so thin it often sank into the sea +or was raised just above high tide. I sprang forward on the beach to +the water’s edge just as the last obstruction in the shape of a trunked +cycad with its tangled mass of leaflets crushed to the earth and behind +the ambuscade of vegetation stood my whole family from Mamma to Levi, +and close beside him was Maud. George and Charlie were the ones who +wielded their picks, Mabel and Myrtle and the children and the others +dragged the trees away and they had their hands on the cycad when they +suddenly beheld me standing petrified on the beach. Such a shout went +up was never heard before. I waved my pick speechless with surprise, +for once at least in my life, as you have all found out my dear +readers, as my father used to say “I talk too much.” + +All at once I recovered the use of my organs of speech and shouted: +“Why don’t you come over?” They all waved branches of the palm like +cycad they had torn from its head, as they shouted back: “_Why don’t +you come over?_” Well it did appear to me that it would be easier for +me to cross the smooth waters than such a crowd. So trimming off the +plumes from a mass of cycad and tree ferns, I soon had enough trunks +to build me a raft, I lashed them together with the mid ribs of the +cycad leaflets, which proved as strong and pliable as buck-skin thongs. +In a very few minutes I had a raft that floated like a cork, as the +centers of the trunks were full of pith. We afterwards found this pith +was quite starchy and made very acceptable sago flour. In the mean +time, the party on the other shore had erected huts covered with leaves +above, and open below so the wind might circulate through them and the +roofs would not only deflect the ardent heat of the sun but protect us +from torrential rains. With a reed for a paddle I sprang on my raft and +soon ferried across to my beloved ones, I had never expected to meet in +the Permian at least. Of course I was delighted to find Maud. + +After our greetings they gathered in affectionate groups under the +trees and told me of their experiences since we last met. Mamma said +after I disappeared so suddenly and mysteriously from my home in +Lawrence, she had induced George and Charlie to move their families +into the home nest, from which they had taken flight. She had imagined +all kinds of things, and even the Government had missed their fossil +hunter and had exhausted the resources of the Detective Division as +well as that of the United States in the endeavor to locate me, but I +had disappeared as effectually as if the earth had opened her mouth and +swallowed me up. Only day before yesterday Levi suddenly disappeared, +and left her in a terrible state of suspense as to what it all meant. +Last night she had a family council with George and Charlie and their +wives. They went over the same old ground again and again and were no +nearer solving the perplexing problems than at first. The children had +been sent to bed and there were rocking chairs enough to go round in +which the grown ups were seated comfortably. Mamma she told me, was +the first to doze off and Charlie soon followed suit. The girls and +George smiled over the others, but before they realized it they too, +had dropped off. George was the first one to wake with a start. He +could hardly believe his senses. They were in a dense forest of tree +ferns, in fact only a few miles from where I was at the time. They were +all there but Levi, and as George’s surprised exclamation woke them +all they heard a rustling noise in the edge of a little clearing and +before they could say a word Levi broke through the jungle with Maud +clinging to his arm. “Well,” Mamma said, “ask Maud to tell the rest of +the story.” Which I gladly did. It seems, that as Maud had been through +a lengthy experience in the Ancient World, she had become a leader. +“Well Papa,” she remarked, “you remember when we disappeared in the +water of the Lagoon, I lost all consciousness, but came to my senses +in this jungle. My first thought was of course another providential +occurrence. I could hear what seemed the bellowing of great frogs and +strange sounds my ears had never listened to before. I wondered where +you could be, and was so anxious to find you, that I could not stand +it, remaining there all alone in this strange country, so I plunged +madly on, forcing the thick stems and trunks apart and squeezing +through them, I called to you too, ‘papa, papa, where are you!’ I +could not see an inch ahead for the vegetation. The moss tangled in my +hair that fell down and I must have looked a perfect fright. I came +suddenly on a clear space only a couple of yards across, covered with +the loveliest moss you could imagine. I sprang into the very middle of +it in my haste, and broke through and began to sink. I screamed, ‘Papa, +Papa,’ and threw out my arms toward the other side when suddenly I saw +two human hands spring out of the jungle and grasp mine, and strong +arms drew me bodily out of the treacherous pit, I stood beside smiling +brother Levi. He told me that he had gone to sleep in his room at +home in Lawrence and had awakened here the day before and that he had +wandered around in an almost dazed condition. Every thing so strange. +He could not tell what to make of it. I then told him our experiences +together in the other ages and regions we had explored, of our boat +on Mosasaurian Bay, and the many adventures we had enjoyed together +and expressed the belief that we would soon find you and we started +on the quest. Levi had his pick and cut a way while I dragged out the +trees he felled and piled them in the thick jungle. We had not gone a +great ways, when we suddenly heard a shout in front of us. ‘That is +George I know,’ cried Levi, ‘I recognize his voice,’ and he raised an +answering shout that made the very leaves tremble. We soon reached him +and there was Mamma and all the rest of our family. It was a joyful +meeting but Mamma would not allow us to remain there talking of our +wonderful experience because she was sure you could not be far off. As +the boys had their picks they cut a broad path while the rest of us +pulled the light trees out of the way and we were progressing famously +when we saw your astonished face across the narrow lake.” I could only +thank God that I had been reunited with my people and that Maud also +was there. It would have seemed terrible to remember her sinking into +the treacherous lagoon, then suddenly find myself separated from it +by millions of years. Ethel and little Raymond had gone off to the +sandy beach to play in the sand and Charlie too. They romped until +they were tired and Ethel returned to Mabel and asked her if dinner +was ready. We had not thought of it. But had been so excited at our +reunion, after so many weeks, so much occupied with our talk, that we +forgot to be hungry. Just before the family council had gone to sleep +George had been at work inventing some cooking utensils, and had not +only made diagrams of them but had secured some sheets of aluminum. +He had put them in his collecting bag along with the usual tools he +carried in the field, and when he woke with the rest of the family he +still had them. So I told him if he would make a cooking kettle I would +get something to put in it for dinner. Maud knowing the resources of +a forest better than the others gathered some dry sticks and Levi by +her advice cut some crotched sticks he drove in the earth, and a cross +stick to swing the kettle on. George soon found a round water-worn +cobblestone on the beach to use as a mold and hammered a sheet of +aluminum around it, and soon had a pot ready. He cut off a narrow strip +for a handle and punched holes in the upper rim to fasten it to. In +the meantime I wove together a lot of leaves and made a tray, which I +took to one of the cycad stumps (we had cut off the trunk). Then with +my pick scraped out a quantity of the pith that fell as white powder +into the tray. On my return Maud had the water boiling and we stirred +in sago flour and as soon as it thickened into porridge it was ready +for a lot of hungry mouths. Charlie had made some spoons, so with the +pot in the midst we thanked our heavenly Father for the food from his +hand and the glad reunion in the Old Permian of Texas. After a hearty +meal we planned for the future. Resolving to thoroughly explore the +jungle and try and reach tidewater; as we felt sure the old Permian +ocean was not far away. After our excited voices had reached quiet and +ordinary tones, we were pleased to see the Amphibians and reptiles +come out on the beach. One of the most abundant was _Labidosaurus_ +an Amphibian like reptile about three feet long. It had short legs +and an enormous head compared with its length. I remember a quarry of +these reptiles I discovered on the west fork of Coffee Creek in Baylor +County, Texas. I found several fine skulls for the late Professor Cope, +and later by digging into the greenish sandstone, I secured a number +more for Dr. Von Zittel of Munich. Another reptile appeared from the +edge of the jungle that so closely resembles a South American lizard +of the twentieth century, it was called Varanus, by Dr. Broili. It was +about four feet in length, had a long head, delicate lizard-like tail. +Still another form soon attracted our attention coming from across +the narrow pond out of the woods. It was about four feet long, had +strong limbs and short head with many small teeth. The giant amphibian +_Eryops_ too, soon found the courage to come out of the water and +start his unmelodious croak to be soon answered by a friendly fellow +in the distance. So the life and noises of the quiet jungle took up +the accustomed tenor of their ways. The children clapped their hands +and shouted when a new form appeared, as delighted as if a menagerie +were on the tapis, and all the family were deeply interested. I had +the boys drive rush stakes into the ground around our clearings, so as +to protect us from the inroads of the big reptiles and amphibians, and +admit the air freely. We needed all of that we could possibly get. So +we passed the day and night fall found us all gathered in our enclosure +listening to the strange noises around us. We had already arranged +huts for the entire party and after reading a chapter (for Mamma had +her Bible with her) we offered our evening prayers and went to restful +sleep. In the morning we were early astir. It was no need to warn the +younger men and women to beware of the treacherous bogs as they already +had learned of Maud’s adventure. We made another appetising dish from +the sago flour and I caught some little reptiles not over eight inches +long and gar-pike. We fried these in their rich grease, and with the +sago mush, had an excellent breakfast. The presence of my beloved +family added much to my own pleasure. + +[Illustration: FIG. 50.--Dog Creek, Montana. Notice effects of +vulcanism. Page 113.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 51.--Badlands near Cow Island, Montana. Page 118.] + +My feeble pen would fail to describe the beauty of the Tree Fern and +Cycad forest. The enormous fronds of fern leaflets that crowned the +marked trunks around us, put me in mind of the Australian Tree Ferns +in the Carnegie Conservatories at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Only they +were much larger and the massive fern branches formed larger crowns. +There was such a wealth of variety here too that delighted me. All +were lost in wonder at the strange scenery and life, both in its flora +and fauna. We determined to cut our way in a southerly direction as +I felt sure I scented the distant sea. Charlie and myself using our +picks, cut a wide swath of ferns and cycads and other carboniferous +trees. Our women folks hauling them out of the way. We were constantly +coming across the strange reptilian and amphibian life of that far-away +day, and our exclamations of surprise at the beauty of this ancient +forest came involuntarily from our lips. The moss too, in many gorgeous +colors, and hues carpeted the damp ground beneath our feet, or hung in +tapestry-like folds from the branches overhead. Many hands made rapid +progress and though the heat was excessive we all perspired freely. We +often came across the bogs of great extent, ponds and lakes bordered +with peat moss, and saw countless reptiles on shore or amphibians in +the water. With the earnest hope that we might reach salt water, we +labored on under the glaring sun above, that penetrated the thick +vegetation and as we opened the way, the heat was very trying on our +unprotected heads. At last a strong breeze began to sweep the crowns of +verdure above us into great billows, making music among the delicate +branches, and I was sure we were reaching the open sea. So Charlie +climbed the trunk of a tall fern and when he got to the strong bases +of the ferns he stood erect on them and shouted, “There it is to the +south;” for as he told us, a great ocean lay before him as far as his +eyes could reach. So with renewed courage we hurried on and before +dark broke through the dense jungles we had been traveling through, on +the beach, and into a strong wind that was blowing from the south and +curling the waves into swaying masses. It was indeed a glorious sight +and we all rushed down and ran into the curling breakers near shore +and let them roll over us. Thoroughly refreshed, we returned to the +edge of the jungle and went to work building shelters for the whole +family. We were delighted when George and Charlie brought us a mess of +fishes, sturgeon-like in appearance, which, with the cycad flour, the +women got up a fine meal. Levi and Maud came in later and we enjoyed an +appetising meal. While we were resting after supper and watching the +boundless sea, I recited some of the poems I had written. The first one +in honor of Jennie McKee’s wedding day. She had been a very dear friend +indeed: + + I. + + O! Jennie McKee, + I am thinking of thee, + My heart beating time + With that heart of thine. + How I hope, and I pray, + That your wedding day, + May be a day of the greatest joy, + A day of pleasure without alloy. + + II. + + O! Jennie McKee, + I am longing with thee, + That the future for you + May never be blue, + And like birds on the wing + You ever may sing. + That your dear life may be blest, + Full of joy and of rest. + + III. + + O! Jennie McKee, + Your heart once so free, + Bound in fetters of love. + May God bless from above: + Two hearts beat as one, + While your course you will run, + In currents both peaceful and sweet, + Until golden shores you will meet. + + IV. + + O! Jennie McKee, + My thoughts turn to thee. + And days that have flown + Since you, I have known + To the man of your choice + And I well may rejoice, + For you give all a woman can give, + Your love, and yourself while you live. + + V. + + O! Jennie McKee, + Contentment for thee, + In the home you will make, + In the love you awake, + In the strong heart and true, + Who has pledged all to you, + Fill that home full of love + A forecast of mansions above. + + VI. + + O! Jennie McKee, + God’s blessings on thee! + Like Mary of yore, + May He sit at your door. + O! sit at His feet, + Learn wisdom so sweet, + That will bless you as long as you live, + While to Him your best service you give. + +The children had gone to bed and our camp fire of dry fern stumps +burned brightly, or faded away as Levi and Maud replenished it. At +last worn out with the excessive heat and labor we all retired to +our respective huts. We were soon lost in sleep. When the Amphibians +greeted the rising sun with their chorus of what to us seemed like +discordant notes (doubtless they were melodious to the natives of these +early wilds where foot of man had never trod before). The human element +stirred themselves, and after breakfast we all wandered down to the +beach for an early plunge. We dried our salty clothes by running or +walking along the level sandy shore. + +Maud had called our attention, in a land locked bay to a fleet of +Ammonites. Those lovely nautilus-like chambered shells, who had spread +their transparent sails to the morning breeze. Some were enormous, over +two feet in diameter, and resembled huge cornucopias. They floated as +lightly and as elegantly as a flock of swans. They were arrayed in +all the colors of the rainbow. We could also see fishes, all clad in +armor of enameled scales, in many a lovely hue, gar-pike and sturgeon +were among the most common. The bony fishes did not appear until the +Cretaceous Age, you remember. + +What the children loved to do most was to dig in the sand or hunt for +the nests of small reptiles, six or eight inches long, that often lay +coiled a few inches below the surface, their heads could enter mamma’s +silver thimble. My parties found many of them in the Red Permian Beds +of Baylor County, Texas. As the sun rose higher the children became +drowsy and we returned to our huts and laid them down in some soft +fern leaflets that made a bed as light as eider down. We talked of our +wonderful adventures in quiet tones, so as not to disturb them, and +before we knew it, we too, had fallen asleep. + +[Illustration: FIG. 52.--Badlands of the Missouri River. Page 118.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Last May I resigned my position as collector and preparator for the +Geological Survey of Canada. And soon afterwards went into the field +for the British Museum of Natural History, London. Though the British +government was spending no money in this kind of research, Dr. A. Smith +Woodward, Keeper of Geology there, secured the means for the first +two months’ work from The Sladin Memorial Fund of Piccadilly, London. +My son, Levi, was the only expert collector I had with me though I +employed men and transportation in the field. We settled down in a +camp a couple of miles below Steveville and remained there all summer, +exploring the badlands near the mouth of Berry Creek. + +Our success was as usual, great. We were able to collect three +skeletons of duck-billed dinosaurs of the genus _Corythosaurus_, of +Brown or _Stephanosaurus_, of Lambe. They were all three discovered by +my son, Levi, who worked with remarkable persistence and enthusiasm. +I too, after I had recovered from an injury I received due to being +thrown from my wagon onto the ground, put in every moment I could see, +in the heavy work of excavating three skeletons, and taking them up +before frost, when no man can work in those beds. It will not do to let +plaster freeze, and without plaster we could not take up any vertebrate +fossil there. + +Owing to the fact that the clay in the strata prevent water entering +it, very little true petrification has taken place. If you will refer +to the Life of a Fossil Hunter, page 258, you will see there what I +had learned up to the time of writing, the process by which fossils +are made. I found here in the Belly River Series entirely different +conditions. The bones had not been replaced by silica and become +petrified. There was very little change in the bones except that they +were usually sheathed in a hard layer of bog iron. The spongy bone was +as friable as that in a dry, recent bone; the cells were not filled +with rocky material. The thin outer layer of compact bone was filled +with the iron simply. I once said that if I could get my teeth on a +fossil bone I could tell its age almost, by the amount of silica it +contained. Here, however, I find that nature has more than one way of +preserving her records, and that it depends largely on the matrix in +which the bones are entombed. If clay prevents water passing through +the bones, there can be no true replacement, as water is the vehicle +used in transporting silica or lime or whatever the petrifying material +may be, and it cannot pass through certain clays. This discovery of +mine after having observed the fossilized animals and plants of many +horizons prove that the most careful observer is liable to misinterpret +the workings of nature, showing us that God’s laws are past finding out +by finite minds. Nature is a well that man can never fathom, an ocean +with no shore. As long as men observe and think, they will be drawing +water from well and ocean with no visible effect. The well will still +be full and the shores remain unexplored. + +Levi found the most complete skeleton of a crested duck-billed dinosaur +that had been discovered in the Belly River Series by my party. Mr. +Brown discovered, close to the Steveville Ferry, the most complete +one known, and which he has fully described in his _Corythosaurus +casuarius_, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, New +York, November 2nd, 1916. This is the first specimen ever found in a +swimming pose. As if in the very act of swimming it had died and was +instantly covered up in the soft mud and never disturbed until Brown’s +pick revealed it to the world. I firmly believe as I have said before, +this specimen proves conclusively that the conventional pose taken of +these duck-bills as usually standing on land erect is a mistake; as I +have always believed. The one I prepared for the Victoria Museum proves +the same thing, and every one I have seen in the beds, or have found +myself, point the same way, but as it will be a costly thing to take +down all the mounts in American Museums of Cretaceous trachodonts I do +not expect to live to see my views universally put in practice. + +This specimen, No. 9, I wrote of to Dr. Woodward, August 21st, 1913: +“I have uncovered enough of the floor to be able to give you some +valuable information. I have now traced the entire column, except four +feet of the caudal region. I have found one femur in position with its +tibia and fibula, one humerus and front foot, and many ribs. The most +disappointing thing: we have only found the mandibles and predentary, +the maxilla of one side, the occiput and part of the crest and the back +of the skull.” + +Later we found the entire skeleton except four feet of the tail +just back of the pelvic arch, where it had been weathered out and +destroyed, and part of the skull. This skeleton was about thirty feet +long, and I considered it next in perfection to that of Mr. Brown’s +_Corythosaurus_. There were in addition large patches of the skin +impression. I show you the place where the body lay, after we had +wrapped it. It also shows the vast amount of labor required to save it. + +It lay up a narrow gorge, too narrow to get a horse up it. We were +obliged to cut steps up and down the rough way from the nearest point +we could reach it from camp and Levi had to carry nearly all the water, +plaster, and burlap, and paper, etc., necessary to wrap a skeleton +nearly thirty feet long. The distance from the wagon was nearly an +eighth of a mile. + +But that labor sank into insignificance compared to the labor he had +to strap beneath the specimen his burlap strips in such a way that the +rock did not fall out. It would often take him many minutes before +he could get the strip to stick. He lay on his back and patted the +plaster soaked burlap with the ends of his fingers until the blood +came. Then often the plaster would harden before he could get it to +stick. Then he had to take a new strip and go through the same hard and +patience-trying labor, filling his eyes with the burning lime. In all +the labor we do in taking up a complete skeleton, there is no part of +it that requires so much patience and so much skill as strapping the +under side. + +After this specimen was ready for hauling out of the brakes we had to +build a sled road to it from the prairie and haul it to camp around the +badlands, about six miles, while it only lay about a mile from camp in +a bee-line. + +Now it seems almost incredible that after over two months of such +exhausting mental, physical and soul-trying labor, it should be sent +to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by a German Raider on English +Commerce. If anything on earth can prove the wantonness of such +destruction, this is a good example. I have given fifty years freely +to science without money, often, and without price. The best that is +in me. So I could show to generations to come the wonderful works +of God in creation. Ten minutes of vandalism destroys all my labor, +my hopes, my life almost, because I never can recover from such a +blow as this. I have not told the full story yet, because the second +specimen Levi found was in many respects better than this one I have +described. It was in splendid matrix. A strong sandstone, and the bones +beautifully preserved, a specimen that could have been easily prepared. +One hind foot was all that was exposed. I could not believe that this +meant anything, but a few loose bones. It pointed heavenward, from the +side of a cliff. We followed the foot down to the body and found the +entire skeleton except a few inches of the tail and _THE HEAD_. With a +restored head, (and we found one that could have been used) as far as +the public was concerned, the British Museum could have mounted these +two lords of the ancient bayous in that great store house of treasures, +more rare than gold or silver, to be the heritage of the ages still to +come. + +This too, was with the first one and went to the bottom, with the +Mount Temple and as far as I could learn, all on board. Perhaps some +time when the sea will give up her dead, these noble examples of +God’s handiwork may also be exposed to the light of day once more. I +considered from every standpoint, money or science, these two specimens +were worth double what the first two months of labor yielded up. I +never entered the Victoria Memorial Museum where we had mounted one +of the noble duck-bills without a feeling of awe, as if I stood in the +presence of God himself. It dominates everything in the Museum, and +attracts the attention of the dullest of men. How happy I was in the +thought that for countless thousands of years to come, others could +feel that same feeling of reverence for the Creator. In the twinkling +of an eye the blue Atlantic covered them. I once prepared the skeleton +of a _Megatherium_ from Brazil; it too had gone to the bottom of the +ocean, but divers had rescued it from its watery grave. I have little +hope that this will ever be done to the noble duck-bills who were sent +to Davies Locker by a German torpedo. + +We discovered other fine material that was saved and the preparators +are at work on it, so I hope our last year’s labor, the most strenuous +for many years may not be entirely lost. + +My dear readers my book is coming to a close. The other volume “The +Life of a Fossil Hunter” is out of print. It depends on you whether +we have another edition published. This I will gladly do, if each +reader of this one, will send me a subscription for the other. You +will certainly realize that this work, like the other has been a labor +of love. Take this volume, I am at my own personal expense issuing +five hundred copies. If I sell each copy I will not realize any more +than the cost of publication. I worked all last winter from 7 p.m. to +10 p.m. on the manuscript, and all day Saturday of each week, except +Sunday. It has taken me all winter to look after the printing of this. +My whole object has been to give the information I have acquired +through years of toil and hardship in the desolate fossil fields to the +public, so they may realize something of the wonders of Nature, and the +hope it may lead some of my readers to Nature’s God, the Triune God we +worship. + + +THE GRAND CANYON OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS + + I have often heard the story + Of that Mighty Canyon Grand; + Powell pointed out the glory + Of that deeply sculptured land. + + Where the Colorado river + Has cut a passage deep, + In the very heart of nature, + With many gorges deep. + + To any doubting Thomas, + It would almost make him smile, + If I told him of a canyon + Cut through earth’s crust a mile. + + But my own two eyes have seen it, + And I’ll take the witness stand, + Its the greatest ditch in story + In our own historic land. + + It seems, during the Jura + The land began to rise; + Yes! the bottom of the ocean + Perhaps to its surprise. + + Was lifted from the water, + Became a level plain; + Received the glorious sunshine, + The first and latter rain. + + A river takes the drainage + Back to the restless sea, + Carves as it goes a passage + Widening gracefully and free. + + “Tell me” asks my companion + “How the river cuts its way, + Where the stars faint light is shining + In the middle of the day, + + So deep below the surface, + That the sun’s most dazzling ray + N’er gleams upon the water + That is beaten into spray?” + + Well: then listen to the story + How in ages long ago, + The earth rose from the water + And the land began to grow. + + As the earth was slowly rising, + Rivers bed cut through the land, + The rocks that tumbled in it + The gravel, rock and sand + + Scoured out and carved the basin + As the vast land masses rose, + And the mighty Colorado + Flows where it used to flow. + + For the land continued rising + And the waters cut their way + Through Earth’s upheaving bosom, + Through granite, lime and clay. + + The rising cliffs receeding + From the margins of the stream; + Effects of frost and rainfall + On every side are seen; + + For chips are falling ever, + From exposed strata flanks, + Roll down into the river, + Leaping the waters banks, + + Fall in the whirling waters, + That churn the rocky mass + Against the boulders lodging + Within the narrow pass. + + Then the great burden bearer + Within its canyon grand, + Bears out upon its bosom + The wreckage of the land. + + And in the western ocean; + ’Long California’s shore, + The debris from Grand Canyon + Are settling more and more. + + For near the gulf, the river + Flows by a level floor, + Spreads out upon the flood plain + The ground up mountains core. + + +’LONG SUPERIOR’S DENTED SHORE + + Have you ever made a journey ’long Superior’s dented shore? + Where the glory of the landscape enchant one more and more; + Where the green tints of the water, and its gravel covered floor, + The surface, smooth and polished like a burnished oaken door. + + The mountains on the main land grown o’er with spruces green, + While pine and whitened birches are sprinkled in between. + Out there, a mighty freighter loads ten thousand tons of ore. + Rounded islands with green woods are shrouded o’er. + + Red buttressed headlands, encroaching on the shore + Form lines of wondrous beauty around the lake’s broad floor. + Our railway bed is blasted from the earth’s foundation stone: + Granite, Gneiss, and Green-Rock in many a sober tone. + + O! the beauty of the hillsides, ensheathed in living green, + While the work of the old glaciers on every side are seen; + The Age of Ice has eaten basins in the ancient rock; + While the stone upon the hillside lie in many polished block. + + A glorious scene of beauty, scarce marred by human hand, + Few boats upon the water, no farmers till the land. + Five hundred miles we’ve traveled, by lake and hill, and brake, + Upon earth’s rocky bosom our westward way we take. + + While the gleaming surface of Superior’s mighty lake + Indent the land around us, a glowing picture make, + Arrayed in living colors, a fairy isle is seen. + Red boulders strew the hillside, a background for the green. + + The famous waters of Columbia’s inland sea + Separate two nations of brave men true and free. + No forts on either border; no soldiers pace the shore, + No Dreadnaught plows the water, no mighty cannon roar. + + But now the sun is setting beneath the western sea. + His level rays are glowing on sheets of water free, + And in the lovely gloaming upon the watery way, + The mountains change to purple, the waters turn to grey. + + +THE LAURENTIAN HILLS + + I am riding on a railway that spans from sea to sea; + Rocking on earth’s throbbing bosom, for my iron horse is free; + How the scenes stretch out before me, as the coaches eastward roll, + I am riding on the C.P. and to it I’m paying toll. + + I have reached a waste of waters, Superior’s mighty flood + Indent the land before me, encroach the silent wood; + For the vale, and gulch and valley, ever packed with spruces green, + Mixed with the yellow poplar; with white barked birch between. + + The earth itself is covered with its own foundation rock, + Granite, Gneiss and Green Stone, in many a mighty block, + Carved and rounded by the Ice Cap, that once covered all the land: + They rise in hill and buttress like some ancient castle grand. + + Birches standing, with trunks as white as snow, + And slender spires of spruce trees, in serried ranks they grow. + A gorgeous carpet underneath upon the rocks are spread, + The different patterns blended might form a Titan’s bed. + + White granite peeps above it with streaks of reddish hue + With God’s own arch above us! stars twinkling in the blue. + Yes! I’m riding on the bosom of the oldest land that’s known, + And Old Time, through countless ages, over it has ever flown, + + When England’s land was lifted above the ocean blue, + The Old World is not the oldest, it should be called the new. + O! could rocks but tell the story their rugged cliffs have know, + They could tell us of this continent, and how it’s slowly grown. + + How the beds laid down by water, in ocean, river, lake + Through all the changing aeons, from these rocks their tribute take. + For the streams, (those burden bearers), on ocean floor have spread + The loads they carry ever, to deposit on her bed. + + Granite Boulders from the hill side, choke up the rapid stream, + They are ground by rushing water, till as pebbles they are seen, + As the river current lessens, then are pebbles ground to sand, + To be carried to the ocean, forming bars and banks so grand. + + Then the life that fills the ocean, the crustacean and the shell, + When dying, left their skeletons the seas broad floor to swell. + I can see Ontario’s mountains rise, where early life is seen, + The mollusk of the ocean, and the sea weeds living green. + + The Laurentian Hills are rising at the margin of the sea. + While the bordering waters throbbing with molluskan life so free, + The globe’s thin crust is resting on the molten mass below, + Transformed, as hard as granite, on her flanks the Trenton rest + The land mass is slowing growing to the east, and south and west. + + Now the water of the ocean, bring forth a countless tribe, + Of many forms of shell fish that are scattered far and wide. + Crustaceans crowd the shore line, and that wondrous trilobite, + Lives on through many ages till Time of chalk so white, + So Silurian rocks are added to Laurentian narrow shore, + And the Continents broad empire marches westward ever more. + + II + + Devonian seas are lapping round Silurian cape and bay, + New fish life fills the waters, and over them hold sway. + Strange forms in shield and buckler, in armor polished bright, + Ganoids and other fishes show their colors in the light. + + I have seen a dozen fishes, impaled on block of slate + Stand out, as carved by nature, they’re lying there in state: + Seaweeds have left their impress in these enduring sands of Time, + Stretched out in all their measures in many a lengthening line, + For the ebb had stretched them seaward, while the fish swam + ’gainst the tide, + They were swimming toward the sea-shore, while swimming they + have died. + + Both plants and fishes, in the old Devonian floor, + After ages, tell the story, that the One we all adore, + Keeps record of Creation in old oceans muddy floor. + Footsteps of the Creator in ages that have fled, + When a host of shells and fishes left their forms in oceans bed. + + And now the bed is lifted along the eastern shore: + Increasing now the land mass, round Laurentian more and more, + O! Time thou hast no limit to grasp of human mind, + Unmeasured by the intellect of any of our kind. + + But Time to our Creator, is like forgotten fears, + “A thousand years a single day, a single day a thousand years.” + And let our study of the past cause reverence for His name + Both now, and yesterday, through time, He ever is the same. + So with these simple verses we’ll praise His Holy Name. + + + + + A JOURNEY IN THE MONTH OF JUNE IN EASTERN CANADA + + + I + + O! the glories of a journey taken in the month of June, + When the gentle winds are sighing, and all nature is in tune: + While the fragrance of red clover, and the green tints of the trees, + Make me glad I am a rover, bathed in the evening breeze. + + II + + So all day I sit and wonder, on green plush I lay and ponder + On the glorious panorama, ever new, + And I raise my window curtain, for I’m very, very certain, + I have never, never witnessed such a view. + + III + + O! Columbia, how I love you, where my first new breath I drew, + What lines of grace and beauty on every side you strew. + I am rocking on your bosom for my iron horse is free, + And the flowers by the hillside waft their fragrance over me. + + IV + + Gazing from my open window, how my heart strings thrill, and thrill, + At the glory of the landscape I never get my fill. + Canadian hills embowered with crowning woods of green, + While fields and lakes and river on either side are seen. + + V + + Now white daisies blend their colors with the darker green below, + Or the shining yellow buttercups, their golden beauties show, + Wild mustard grows in masses o’er many a lengthening row, + Add color to the wheat fields stretching out, as west we go. + + VI + + Now and then, a clump of roses, add their sweetness to the breeze, + And June air is gently sighing ’midst the verdure of the trees, + Oh! the plain and flood and hillside, how they swiftly come and go, + While the power of the engine rocks me gently to and fro. + + VII + + Yes! the scenes move out before me like the pictures in a show. + While in the gentle gloaming, on wings I seem to go. + With wondrous lines of beauty with splendid brush so free, + For the colors of the rainbow cast their glamor over me. + + VIII + + Yes! the beauties of Dame Nature are most wonderfully fair, + And gazing on those beauties my soul seems free from care, + So my train swings ever westward, her coaches keeping rhyme + To the music of dear Nature that’s never out of time. + + IX + + The birds fly up above me, and the flowers bloom below; + For God cares for the Raven, on flowers love bestow. + We have an earthly Eden from a Father’s loving hand, + Angels guard us on the ocean and on the solid land, + + X + + And should we mount, as eagles, on wings in the mid air: + In blue expanse of heaven, His love would guard us there. + So as the night grows darker I seek my narrow berth. + I sleep the sleep of childhood, free from the cares of earth. + + + + + INDEX + + + Acme, Alberta, 34, 51, 112, 114, 128, 134 + + Advance Science, articulated skeletons, 57 + + Adventure in Kansas Chalk, 70-71 + + Age of Iron, 173 + Reptiles, 139, 14 + + Alberta, 13, 25, 68, 69, 113-119 + + Allegheny Mountains, 18 + + American Museum of Natural History, 24, 27, 29, 30, 47, 52, 58, + 61, 62, 73, 94, 117, 128, 139, 150 + Paleontologist, the oldest, 26 + Paleontology, 151, 117 + + Ammonites, 51 + + Amphibians, 68, 182-184 + + Ancient World, 184-190 + + Anchylosaurus magniventris, 94 + + Animals, 13 + + Angiosperms, 150 + + Another Strange Dinosaur, 120 + + Archelon ischyros, 26 + + Arizona, 66 + + Arlington Cemetery, 22 + + Armoured Dinosaurs from Kansas Chalk, 95 + + Armored Plant Eaters, 68 + + Army Building, 23 + + Arthur, Port, 94 + + Atlantic, 79, 100 + + Auk Great, 13 + + Australia, 22 + + + Baculites, 115 + + Badlands, 134 + + Bassano, 88, 108, 109 + + Batracians, 96, 182 + + Battle Between Dinosaurs, 108 + + Bay Land Locked, 160 + + Bear Paw Shales, 109, 114-118 + Mountains, 112 + + Belly River Series 2, 5, 25, 66, 68, 73, 96, 111, 114-116, 130 + Description of, 73, 74 + Belongs to Pierre, 112 + + Benton, Fort, 111 + + Beresford, Admiral, of England, 87 + + Berlin Museum, 139 + + Bestrum, Mr., 91 + + Big Spring, 112 + + Black Feet Indian Reserve, 127 + + Boat, Flat, 101 + + Bog Iron Bones Enclosed in, 63 + + Bone-beds, Near Top and Bottom of Badlands, 84 + + Bones of Crested Dinosaur, 63 + + Boulders, Lying Around, 66 + + Boule, Dr., 9, 33 + + Bridge at Great Falls, Montana, 33 + + British Empire, 3 + + British Museum of Natural History, 2, 9, 11, 64, 139, 169, 58, 61, 66, + 73, 94-98, 120, 127, 130, 131, 117, 118 + Camp, 62 + Great Collection, 73 + + Brock, Dr., 7, 69 + + Brontosaur, 21, 56 + + Brooks, 92, 110, 133 + + Brown, Dr. Barnum, 3, 25 + + Bull Berry Jelly, 90 + + + Calgary, Alberta, 34, 36 + + Cambridge, Mass., 73, 132 + + Camp Above Happy Jack Ferry, 85 + + Camp, This is the Richest, 54 + + Champsosaurus, Found by George F. Sternberg, 84, 86, 116 + + Canada, 110, 134 + + Canadian Pacific Rwy., 73 + + Canadian Rockies, 34 + Northern Rwy., 36 + + Canyon, Our Work In a, 61 + + Capital, 20 + + Carbide Used for Lights on Lake, 93 + + Carboniferous, 22, 180 + + Carnegie, Mr., 19, 29, 56 + Museum, 4, 19, 21 + Hall of Music, 19 + + Carnivore, Discovery of, 53 + Excavating, 55 + Loading, 55 + Charlie Standing in Quarry, 55 + Will Mount In Bold Relief, 58 + + Carniverous Dinosaurs, 139, 143 + + Carving Out an Urn, 129 + + Casey, 17 + + Cassowary, 61 + + Casuarius, 61, 65, 116 + + Central Pacific Rwy. Co., 88 + + Centrosaurus, Discovered by Charles M. Sternberg, 91, 120 + + Centrosaurus Prepared by Geo. F. Sternberg, 122, 124 + + Ceratops, 48, 86, 91, 105, 107, 119 + + Chasmosaurus, 73, 80, 82, 86, 104, 107 + Description of, 80-81 + Prepared, 82 + Ideal Picture, 83 + + Chinaman Has a Hot Dish for Us, 92 + + Church of England Minister, 69 + + Cimoliasaurus, 177 + + Claggett Shales, 113, 114, 116 + + Claosaurus, 96 + + Clark, Mr., Head Photographic Division, 69 + + Clidastes, 21, 162 + + Coal Mining In Indiana, 18 + At Drumheller, 36 + In Milk River Country, 117, 130 + Miners Tunnel, 135 + Plants, 182 + + Coffee, 76 + McCheche, 44 + Beaver, 64, 70 + Seven Mile, 4 + Butte, 176 + Eagle, 112 + + Collecting Dinosaurs, 46-48 + + Concretions, 52, 53, 66 + + Conrad, 159 + + Cope, Prof., 7, 11, 27, 61, 82, 111, 113-118, 120, 132, 134, + 159, 169, 184 + Collection, 25, 139 + + Corythosaurus, George Finds Skeleton, 86, 87 + + Coulee, Verdegris, 129 + + County, Albany, Wyo., 20 + + Courage Needed, 64 + + Coutts, 34, 110 + + Cow Boys, 67 + Island, 111, 114 + + Creator, For Millions of Years the, 65 + + Creatures Having Seed in Themselves, 65 + + Creek, Lance, 11, 26 + Plum, 14 + Old Woman, 27 + Willow, 50 + Bull Pond, 51 + Sand, 61, 73 + Rosebud, 35 + Knee Hill, 35 + Tributary, 35 + Berry, 52, 68 + One Tree, 75 + Hackberry, 75, 95, 160 + Hell, 94 + Dog, 113-115, 121 + + Crested Dinosaurs, Description of, 62, 67 + + Cretaceous, 11, 51, 53, 60, 66, 114, 140 + + Crinoids, 164 + + Crocodile Bones, 68, 84, 143 + + Crow Indians Reserve, 33 + + + Dakota Group, 13 + + Dead Lodge Canyon, 114-119 + + Denhart Restoration, 61 + + Dike Volcanic, 112 + + Dinosaurs, 3, 98, 101, 35 + Of Red Deer River, 2, 21, 139 + + Diplodocus Carnegie, 20, 57 + + Director Geological Survey, 55, 58, 110 + + Discovery of Fossil Fish, 12 + + Discovery of Two Skeletons, 60, 62 + Specimens of Corythosaurus, 65, 66 + + Disney, Mr. Patrick, 87, 88 + + Douglass, 20, 56 + + Dowling, D. B., 110, 117 + + Dreverman, Dr. F., 7 + + Drumheller, Alberta, 35, 44, 48, 53 + + Duck-Billed Dinosaurs, 7, 8, 68 + + + Eagle Sandstone, 113, 116 + + Easton, A. E., 3, 33, 36, 41, 48 + + Edgemont, South Dakota, 5, 33 + + Edmonton Series, 25, 51, 62, 66, 84, 96, 113, 114, 117 + Of Brackish Water, 33, 38 + Description of, 35 + + Egyptians Ancient, 7 + + Elkader, 70 + + England, 87 + + Eryops, 185 + + Euoplocephalus, 66, 97 + + Excavation In Face of Cliff, 67 + + Exhibition Room, 30, 65 + + + Faces of Bluff Covered With Cherty Fragments, 43 + + Falls, Great, 111 + + Fern Trees, 22 + + Ferry Loveland, 62 + Man Stretched Wire Across River, 51, 52 + + Field Notes For 1913, 72 + + Figs, 9 + + Flesh Eaters, 68 + + Florida, 9, 177 + + Fluting Beautiful, 66 + + Fog Horn, 174 + + Fossil Leaves Locality, 53 + + Fox Hills, 114 + + Frankfort on the Main, 7 + + Frenchman, 175 + + + Galyean, Hope to Reach House, 75, 76 + John, 76 + + Geological Survey of Canada, 2, 14, 15, 21, 33, 48, 53, 68, 69, 80 + Gallery, 12 + And Paleontology, 114 + + Germany, Made in, 68 + + Gibbs, Mr. Hugh, 26 + + Gidley, Mr., 22, 56 + + Gila Monster, 60 + + Gilmore, C. W., 22, 56 + + God, Creative Power of, 65 + + Goldsmith’s Poem, 170 + + Gorges Deep, 115 + + Gorgosaurus libratus, Lambe, 58, 59-60, 75, 107-110 + + Gothic Towers, 72 + + Gove County, Kansas, 70 + + Granger, Mr., 58 + + Great Northern Rwy., 111 + + Gryposaurus, of Lambe, 68, 73, 75, 118 + + + Hadrosaurus, 96 + + Hall of Fossil Vertebrates, 67 + + Hall, Steve, Hotel, 52 + + Haploscapha, 159 + + Happy Jack Ferry, 94, 102, 109 + + Hatcher, Dr. J. B., 17 + + Hawkins, Waterhouse, 57 + + Head Collector and Preparator, 33 + + Holland, Dr., 55 + + Holy Ground, Our Laboratory, 65 + + Horizon, We Got in a New, 52 + + Hunting Dinosaurs, 78 + Big Game, 94 + + + Ideal Pictures of Edmonton Times, 38-41, 135-155 + Duck-Bills, 144, 147 + Cretaceous Life, 160-179 + Tylosaur, 160, 161 + Pteranodont, 164 + Portheus, 169 + Snout Fishes, 177-178 + + Iguanodonts, 57 + + Illinois, 16, 17 + + Indiana, 17 + + Indianapolis, 18 + + Indian Traveled on Trail of, 67 + + Inoceramus Shell, 25, 177 + + International Line, 27, 34, 129 + + Ireland’s Empress, 174 + + + Jackson, Mr., 87 + + Jasperson, 18 + + Jehu Rode Like, 70 + + Jessup, Morris, 25 + + Johnson, Mr., 87 + + Judith River Post Office, 113, 114, 134, 142 + Country, 119 + + + Kansas, 159, 162, 165 + + Kansas Chalk, 1, 12, 25, 27, 54, 95, 97, 100 + Western, 11, 132 + + Keewatin Steamer, 93 + + Kendall, Montana, 116 + + Knowlton, Dr. F. H., 129, 166 + + Kindness of Directors, Dr. Brock and Mr. R. G. McConnell, 69 + + Kritosaurus, 118 + + + Labyrinth of Intricate Gorges, 47 + + Lady of the North, 3 + + Laelaps, 57 + + Lambe, Mr., 30, 58, 61, 62, 65, 68, 72, 76, 88, 96, 118, 120 + + Lance Beds, 11, 96, 128 + + Land Slides, 50 + + Laramie, 11 + + Lawrence, Kansas, 2, 13, 16, 162 + + Leidy, Prof., 96, 118 + + Lepidodendron, 180 + + Lethbridge, Alberta, 34 + + Life of a Fossil Hunter, 17, 118 + + Light Houses, 97 + + Livingston’s Ranch, 70 + + London Illustrated News, 11, 169 + + Loveland Ferry, 96 + + Lull, Prof., 26, 34 + + Lusk, Wyoming, 14 + + + Mammalian Remains, 69 + + Marsh, Prof., O. C., 21, 26, 40, 65, 86, 96, 182 + + Matthew, Dr., 58 + + Maud, 156-178, 183, 184, 187 + + McBride’s House, 76 + + McConnell, Mr. R. G., 127 + + McGee, Jack, 49, 52, 55 + Dan, 44, 47 + + McKeon Ranch in Wyoming, 4 + + McNicoll, Port, 93, 172 + + Medicine Hat, 132, 133 + + Miller, Mr., 181 + + Moa, the Great, 13 + + Monarch, Under a, 2 + + Monster Fish, 12 + + Montana, 121, 129, 135, 142 + + Monument Rocks, 70 + + Morophus, 21 + + Mosasaurian Bay, 164, 167 + + Mosasaurus, 162, 164 + + Motor Boat, 85 + + Mounting Trachodon Skeleton, 44, 64, 65, 84 + Titanotherium Skeleton, 14, 28, 29 + Two Skulls of Centrosaurus, 122 + Charlie’s Gorgosaurus, 48 + + Moving Pictures, 92 + + Munich, Bavaria, 139 + + Museum of Comparative Zoology, 161 + + Museum of Kansas University, 162 + + Music Hall, 18 + + Myledaphus, 84 + + + Narrow Escape When Men Loaded Trachodon, 48 + + Natural History Museum Paris, 33 + + Nature’s Heart, 65, 165 + + Nevada, 56 + + New Mexican Trachodont, 72 + + New York, 26 + + New Zealand, 60 + + Niobrara County, Wyoming, 14 + + Nolan, Dr., 57 + + Northern Lights, 93 + + + Ohio, 18 + + Oligocene, Sculptury of the, 14, 15 + + Open Mounts the Process, 37, 58 + + Oregon, 25 + + Osborn, Prof. H. F., 25, 150, 153 + + Ostrea congesta, 15 + + Outlying Butte, 66 + + Oxford University, 87 + + + Paleontological Museum, 19 + + Paleontology, 8 + + Palmetto Palm, 9 + + Paradise of Dry Bones, 26 + + Parks, Prof., 92 + + Paris, 9, 13, 48 + Museum, 134 + + Patience Necessary in Preparation of Dinosaurs, 64 + + Pennsylvania, 18 + Route, 16 + Avenue, 23 + + Permian Beds of Texas, 75, 132, 182, 187 + + Peterson, Mr., 58 + + Petrified Bones of Duck-Bills Poorly Preserved, 63 + + Photographs Taken by George, Charles and Levi Sternberg, 69 + + Picture of Carniverous Dinosaur Life, 60 + Early Lance Creek Beds, 9 + + Picture of Centrosaurus, 126 + + Pierre, Fort, 34, 50, 51, 113, 114 + + Pillars, Mush-Room-Like, 66 + + Pittsburgh, 18, 22, 55, 162 + + Plaster Process of Protecting Fossils, 45 + + Platanus, 128 + + Platecarpus, 16 + + Plated Dinosaurs, 88, 90, 95 + + Plesiosaur, 175, 177 + + Pleistocene, 50 + + Poems, 200-223 + + Poets Tribute to Soldier Dead, 24 + + Port Arthur, 94, 172 + + Portheus, 11, 19, 25, 171 + + Pose of Saurians, 60 + + Prairie Margin Slides Down, 42 + + Preparing, George at Work, 123 + + Proceedings, Kansas Academy, 94 + + Proceedings Society, 3 + + Problem I, The Environment of Dinosaurs, 34, 40, 41 + II, How Did the River Cut Its Gorge? 37, 38, 42, 43 + + Professor Sternberg, 13 + + Prosaurolophus, 66, 86 + + Protostega gigas, 21 + + Pycraft, 11, 12 + + Pyramids Fluted, 72 + + + Quinter, Kansas, 33, 70 + + + River, Kaskaskia, 17 + Ohio, 18 + Cheyenne, 5, 10 + Red Deer, 25, 42, 43, 54, 68, 69, 96, 114, 116, 132, 133 + Milk, 122, 127-129 + Judith, 109-118 + Missouri, 112, 115-119, 129, 142 + Mississippi, 16 + John Day, 25 + Belly, 94, 98, 114 + St. Lawrence, 100 + Red Deer, Dinosaurs, 64, 125 + Trip Down, 49-53 + Big Wichita, 181 + Swift Current, 109 + + Recession of Cliffs, 41 + + Red Letter Day, 43 + + Royal Museum, Toronto, 93 + + Redwood Leaves, 43 + + + Sailors, Funeral of the Maine, 23 + + Scenery on Red Deer River, 64 + + Schuchert, Professor, 26 + + Scientific Men, Mistakes of, 80 + + Scott, Prof. W. B., 57 + + Scott’s Famous Poem, 141 + + Scow Building of, etc., 49, 85, 88, 91 + + Seamen’s Hills, 14 + + Secretary Academy of Science, 57 + + Senckenberg Museum, 7, 9, 98 + + Shaw, The Ferry Man, 133 + + Siliceous Concretions, 67 + + Siren Sounds Alarm, 94 + + Site, Moved Camp Down to new, 54 + + Skeleton Platecarpus, 162 + + Skull of Crested Dinosaur, 63 + + Soft Soap, After a Rain Like, 43 + + Soldiers of the Union, 28 + + Soo Locks, 94 + + South Dakota, 26 + + Sphenodon, 60 + + Stanton, Mr., 114 + + Station, Milk River, 128 + + Stegosaur, 22, 56, 68, 94, 95 + + St. Elmo’s Fire First Seen on Land, 71, 72 + + Stephanosaurus of Lambe, 65, 67 + The Nearly Complete Skeleton, 65 + Described, 62-65 + + Sternberg, General George M., 22 + Charles H., 16, 65, 68, 72-3-4, 31, 52, 54, 84, 85, 95, 122, 127 + George F., 16, 25, 27, 33, 34, 47, 48, 69, 73, 74, 3, 9, 11-14, + 52, 54, 64, 69, 77, 83, 86 + Charles M., 16, 27, 3, 5, 9, 14, 25, 49, 51-58, 62, 84, 85, 86, 88, + 120-129 + Levi, 2, 33, 71-75, 45, 45, 49, 54, 14, 124 + Charles H., A Collector for Fifty Years, 27 + Charles M., Discovers Trachodont Skeleton, 43 + + Steveville, 73, 77, 52, 78, 102, 133 + + St. Louis, 16 + + Storm, Great Thunder, 70, 71 + + Styracosaurus, 101-102 + + Story of An Old River Bed, 14 + Of the Discovery of Charlie’s Trachodon, 5 + + Styracosaurus, 102-107 + + Summary of the Geological Survey, 68 + + Superior, 94, 93 + + Sweet Grass, Montana, 34 + + Swift Current, 88 + + + Teeming East, 16 + + Terre Haute, 17 + + Texas, 75, 181 + + Theropoda, 68 + + Timber, Destruction of, 18 + + Titanotherium, 14, 27, 28 + + Trachodon, 57, 62, 79, 84, 118 + Found by Charles M. Sternberg, 67 + A Swimming, 34 + A Feeding, 39 + Description of, 39, 40 + Death From Carnivore annectens, Marsh, 41 + + Trail Cowboys Traveled on it, 67 + Princeton, 67 + + Trees Palms, Redwoods, Sycamores, Figs, Magnolias, 33 + + Trego County, Kansas, 16 + + Triceratops, 33, 81, 104 + + Trip to the East, 16-19 + Pittsburgh, 66 + Washington, 58 + Philadelphia, 57 + + Toronto, Canada, 93 + + Tübingen, University, 25 + + Turtles, 68 + Found by George F., 77 + + Tylosaurus, 13, 160-162 + + Tyrant of the Everglades, 75 + + + Under Ground Channels, 63 + + Union Jack, 3 + + Uintacrinus socialis, 165 + + United States, 3 + National Museum of the, 55 + + Upper Cretaceous, 13 + + Urn, Carving An, 129 + + Utterback Specimen, 4 + + + Vandalism, 176 + + Valley of Red Deer River, 35 + Milk River, 129 + + Vassar College, 162 + + Victoria Memorial Museum, 2, 7, 9, 10, 14, 45, 53, 125 + + Venus, 38 + + Verdegris Coulee, 129 + + Vertebrate Paleontologist, 61, 80, 176 + Paleontology, 24 + Fossils, 33 + + Views of Old Paleontologists, 8 + + Vulcanism, 112, 113, 115, 129 + + + Ward, Dr., 166 + + Washington, 22, 56 + + Weed, 110 + + We Explore Dead Lodge Canyon, 49 + + Weiland, Dr., 26, 176, 177 + + We Spy Out the Land, 53 + + Western Kansas, 150 + + Williston, Dr. S. W., 26, 176, 177 + + Wilson, 166 + + Wonders of the Permian, 180-199 + + Work on Charlie’s Gryposaurus, 72 + + Wyoming, 35, 96, 122, 149 + + + Yale, 26, 95, 176 + + + + +=“THE LIFE OF A FOSSIL HUNTER”= + +IS OUT OF PRINT. + +I own the electrotypes, halftones and copyright and will publish a new +edition on receipt of a hundred subscriptions at $1.75 each postpaid. + + CHARLES H. STERNBERG, + _Author_. + +A few extracts from Reviews of “The Life of a Fossil Hunter.” + +=Chicago Herald, March 20th, 1909.= + +“Any body will instantly feel the spell of interest in Mr. Sternberg’s +autobiography ‘The Life of a Fossil Hunter.’ Mr. Sternberg writes +simply, unpretentiously, entertainingly, and there runs all through his +book a curious union of scientific devotion and religious reverence +that is as unusual as it is charming.” + +=San Francisco Argonaut, June 5th, 1909.= + +“There are few hunters of live game who can tell so good a story, who +has seen so much adventure, or experienced so many escapes. Such a +record would in any case be interesting, but it becomes fascinating +from the exuberance of its style and hearty enthusiasm that animates +every page.” + +=Boston Living Age, March 20th, 1909.= + +“His name, as affixed to his specimens, is the only witness to his +labors which will remain after him, except the work of three sons whom +he has trained to follow in his footsteps; but he has been happy and +his single-hearted story is a book to renew our faith in man’s capacity +to work for pure delight in work.” + +=Interior, Chicago, June 17th, 1909.= + +“But he not only stuck to his self-imposed task but raised a whole +family of boys, every one of whom took to fossil hunting as a duckling +does to water. Best of all, to the Christian reader, it will seem the +author kept his faith in God and the Bible unimpaired, and his pages +are full of ascriptions of praise to the Maker of heaven and earth.” + +=Lawrence Gazette, March 8th, 1909.= + +“A remarkable book. The author has a way of telling things that is +charming because of its simplicity. He uses scientific terms only when +necessary, and a child could read and understand this book.” + + +Transcriber’s Notes. + +Italic text is indicated with _underscores_, bold text with =equals=. +Small/mixed capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS. + +Evident typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected +silently. Inconsistent hyphenation/spelling has been normalised. + +The author’s use of “Carniverous” (carnivorous) is retained as is the +use of both “armored” and “armoured”. Instances of lilly/lillies have +been corrected to lily/lilies. Likewise butress/ed/es to buttress/ed/es. + +Transposition of the illustrations for figures 35 and 38 has been +corrected. An errata slip noting the error has been discarded. + +A single footnote has been placed after the paragraph from which it is +referenced. + +Other errors addressed: + +page 19 “delved like Vulvan” corrected to “delved like Vulcan”. + +page 45 “as were the bones, checked” corrected to “as were the bones, +cracked”. + +page 123 “securely to the crest” corrected to “securely to the skull”. + +Fig. 31 (a photograph) in the list of illustrations was incorrectly +described as “Drawing of skull by Weber” The description has been +amended to match the caption “Skull of Chasmosaurus restored by Weber.” + +page 90 “the moment it was” changed to “and the moment it was” + +page 24 “On times eternal camping ground” corrected to “On Fame’s +eternal camping ground”. Misquoted from “Bivouac of the Dead”. + +page 201 Erroneous text discarded (in italics). + +you will see there what I had learned up to the time of writing, the +process by which fossils are made. _I ing, of the process by which +fossils are made. I all fossils._ I found here in the Belly River +Series entirely different conditions. + +page 172 “McNickels”; page 229 “McNickle” ; page 93 “McNickles”. All +corrected to “McNicoll” (Port McNicoll, Ontario). + +page 17 “Waskaskaia”; page 230 “Waskaskia”. Both corrected to +“Kaskaskia” (Illinois river). + +pages 93 & 229 “Keetewin” corrected to “Keewatin” (Passenger liner +operating between Port Arthur and Port McNicoll). + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77814 *** |