The Red Cloud chief., 1896-10-02

VI t' 'fN' W Nv
&yG Rockies" to a cur
rent magazine. The
article is illustrated by drawings by
Charles Knight. giving careful recon
structions of these strange beasts.
Prof. Osborn says: Before describing
the animals themselves. we may stop
to note what our present knowledge
Of them has cost in human skill and
endurance. Every one of these pie
lures Is drawn from a complete skole-
ton hewn out of the solid rock. and
each of these skeletons represents years
and years of arduous exploration in
which Workman. Hatcher. Peterson
ami others sent out by the American
Museum. by Princeton. or by Yale.
have become famous. Our party found
the Titanothere in a broiling alkali
canon of South Dakota. Its head was
protruding from a hard sandstone
cliff, and tho chest, limbs. and trunk
were chiscled out by the men under a
rude shelter which lowered the noon
temperature to lO6 degrees. They
were encouraged to think that the
whole beast had been mired in a stand
ing position. This was probably the
case originally. but suddenly they
came across a fault; ii appeared that
the hind limbs had been swept away;
and itrequired two years more search
ing before bones OF an animal of a or
responding size were secured. Every
other skeleton has it's own story of de-
termination, disappointment. and sur
prise.
The old lake basins, once on sea-lovel
and enriched by the moist. balmy
winds OF the Pacific. arc now elevated
from four TO five thousand feet. The
only redceming feature Of their present
aspect of absolute harrcnnesS is that
the absence of vegetation leaves the
old graves and burying grounds bare.
Fossil bones and skeletons are not
plentiful far from it,; but a trained
eye sees a great distance along the
bare gullies. cliffs. and anons, and
your daily scramble of fifteen to TWEEN
ty miles enable you to prospect over
a vast stretch. You are OFF in the
morning stiffencd Ivy IA frosty night.
You know by sad experience that the
ice in the basinS does not promise a
cool day. YOhr backbone il still freeZ-
ing while the sun begins to broil and
blister your skin. and you are the liv-
ing embodiment Of the famous dessert
served by the Japanese--a hot crust
without. an ice within. Your trail be-
oinc an Tho INLAND which may hn tho
actual level of the old lake bottom:
and as if walking through a graveyard.
you never look for bones until the land
breaks AVA by erosion.
When you reach the edge of this
upland, you look off into a sea of rock.
sometimes wild beyond description.
and o plunge down the slope to a Ger
tain level. Then you follow this level
round and round and In and out. Here
YOU are on a seam which bears fossils.
Above and below II arc other similar
fossiliferous seams, and between them
are barren seams where you will not
find a bone If you search till doomsday.
, This level, perhaps, represents the delta
Of a great mountain river which swept
the animals out with coarse sand, pch-
bles and debris. Sometimes you walk
miles and miles. mp and down, day
after day. and sec nothing nj COM
nor turtle bones. which are so decep-
tive and tempting at a distance tina,
the fossil hunter profancly kicks them
aside. Turtles are found everywhere
because they swan out, basked in the
sunshine in the ~mid-lakes, and occa-
sionally sank to the bottom. while the
carcasses of land animals were buried
in the deltas or nearer shore.
In such fossil barren land the heat
seems twice as torrid. on the buttes
your muscles and back ache LOUDLY,
your tongue lies parched from the last
gulp of alkali water, your soul abholS
"A fossil. and longs for the green shade
of the East, and the watermelon,
when, all of Il sudden, a little project
ing zone strikes your wearied eye. Yol
fall on your knees. and breathe gently
on the loose sand; a little scraping,
and you see the signs Of a skull-per-
hans of some missing link. The thrill
of discovery spreads like an elixir
through your frame, and two or three
hours later, after carefully cutting out
the prize, you walk vigorously back to
camp, every inch a man.
Thus fossil hunting Is a life of vic
issitudes and emotions. The fossil
hunter is predestined to his work, like
the sportsman. He returns East in the
autumn, vowing he will never go back
to the Bad Lands; but as the favora-
BILE months OF spring come round he
becomes more and moro restless until
he is off. The country that is as hot
as Hades, watered by %stagnant alkali
pools, is almost invariably the richest
In fossils. Here, in fact, as you find
the greatest variety and number of
bones, you enjoy the most delightful
flights of the scientific Imagination
when marched and burned Won cOnjurc