The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1897-01-15
SEARCH OF SCIENTISTS.
Prof Osborn's Hunt for Prehistoric
Quadrupeds OF the Rockies
Fossil HuatinR and lite Attendant yfcis-
situdss and Emotions summer
Heat . Great Obstacle
to success

Prof. Henry Fam Field Osburn, cura-
tor OF vertebrate Ealeontology IN the
-.merican Sluseum of Natural l.-story,
contributes d paper on "PrGh .storIc
Quadrupeds of the Rockies" in which
he says:
''EeIore describing the animals them
selves We may stop to hote W hat our
present knowledge of them has cost in
human skill and endurance. Every one
OF these pictures ID drawn from COM
plete skeleton hewn out of the solid
rock, and each OF these skeletons rep
resents years and years OF arduous ex-
;jloI at ion in which Workman, Hatcher,
Peterson and others sent out by the
American museum. by Princeton or by
Yale, have become famous. Our party
found the Titanothere ia broiling
alkali canyon of South Dakota Its
head was protrudIng from a hard sand
stone cliff, and the chest, limbs and
trunk were chiseled out by the men un
der a rude shelter which lowered the
noon temperature to lo6 degrees
They encouraged to think
that the whole beast had been
mired in standing position.
This was probably the case orig
inally, but suddenly they came
across fault: it appeared that the
hind limbs had been swept away; and
it required two years more searching
before bones of all animal Of a CORE
~?onding size were secuted. Every
other sLl Teton has its oU l. &tory OF de
termination, disappointment and sur
prise.
The old lake basins, once on sea level,
and enriched by the moist, Dalmy winds
of the Pacific, are now elevated from
1000 to $500 feet. The only Iedeeming
feature of heir present aspect of alb
solute barrenness is that the absence
of vegetation leaves the old graves and
burying grounds bare. Fossil bones
and skeletons are not plentiful-faI
from it; but a trained eye sees n great
distance along the bare gullies, cliffs
and canyons, and your daily scramble
of from Is to 20 miles enables you to
prospect over vast stretch. You are
off in the morning, stiffened by frosty
right. You know by sad experience
that the ice in the basins does not prom
ise a cool day. Your backbone is still
freezing while the sun begins to broil
and blister your skin, and you are the
living cInbodiments of the famous des-
sert served by the Japanese-a hot crust
without, an ice within. Eonr trail be
gins On the upland, which may be the
actual level of the old lake bottom; and,
as If walking through graveyard, you
never look for bones until the land
breaks away by erosion.
when YOU reach the edge of this up
| land yon look off into a sea of rock, wild
beyond description, and you plunge
| down tine slope to a certain level Then
YOU follow the level round and round
and in and out. Here you are on 4 seam
| which bears fossils. Above and below
| il are other familiar fossiliferous seams.
| and between them are barren seams
| where YOU will rot find d bone II you
search till doomsday- This level, per
/ haps, represents the delta of a great
| mountain river which swept the ami
| mails out with coarse sand, pebbles and
/ debris. Sometimes you walk miles and
I miles, up and down, day after day, and
| see nothing but common turtle bones,
which arc so deceptive and tempting II
/, distance that the fossil hunter pro-
| fancly kicks them aside. Turtles are
| found everywhere, because they SWAMI
out, basked in the sunshine in the mid
lakes and occasionally sank TO the bot
| tom, while the carcasses of land animals
were buried in the deltas OF nearei
shore.
| In such n fossIl-barren land the hea-
seems twice as torrid as on the Euttes
| vour muscles and Lack ache doubly
YOUR tongues lies Parched from the las
| eulp Of allaii water, your soul abhors :
fossil and longs for the green shade q
| the east and the watermelon, when, al
of q sudden, n little projecting bon'
| strikes your wcaried eye. You fall OIL
your knees and breathe gently on th'
loose sand; little scraping, and yoI
see signs of a skull-perhaps of SOM
missing link The thrill OF discover,
spreads like an elixir through you
frame, and two or three hours later
after carefully cutting out the prize
| you walk vigorously back TO camp,ever.
\ inch man.
Thus fossil hunting is a life of vicissi
tudes and emotions. The fossil hunte
is predestined to his work, like tn
sportsman. He returns east in tn
autumn, vowing he will never go bacl
| to ths Bad Lands; bat as the favorabl
months of spring come round he be
comes more and moro restless. until h
is Off The country that is as hot q
hades, watercd by stagnant alkali pool,
is almost invariably the richest in foi
sils. Here in fact. as you find the great
| est variety and number of bones, yo
enjoy the most delightful flights of tn
scientific imagination; when parchc
and burned. you conjure before you IN
| glories of these ancient lakes."-Cer
tary,