The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1921-05-28
BIG GAME HUNT WITH
PICK AND SHOVEL
Trained Biologists and PaIeontholog-
lists are at Work at Agate Spring
Ranch Near Agate, Nb.

Agate, Neb., May ~ by the Asso
ciated Press).--The annual big game
hunt of trained biologists and paleon
tologists of the world is under way al
the Agate Springs ranch near here. In
stead of using high-powe rifles tC
bag their game, these expert hunters
of rhinorcerosis, mastodons, camel ant
deer use pick and shovel. The ami
mails sought are not live ones, but are
the bones of prehistoric earth travel
ers of a million or so years ago.
The Agate Springs ranch, owned by
Captain James H. Cook, extends along
the Niobrara river for ten miles in
Sioux comfy and is about twenty five
miles southeast of Harrison. On it il
located what is said to be the great.
est prehistoric bone quarry in the
world.
Since its discovery 30 years ago per.
sons interested in the study of fossil
remains have been making explora
tions. During the coming season, the
quarries will be worked by the United
States National Museum, Smithsonian
institution, under the direction of J.
w Gidley and others. The American
Museum of New York will have the
usual party here taking what they de-
sire but continuing the search for Dino
hyussn ancestral hog about the size of
the OK in height and weight. A fine
skeleton of the Dinohyus was secured
i'm 1904 blythe Moril geological expedi-
tion. II stood nearly seven feet in
height.
In prehistoric times, the place now
called Agate Springs ranch il believed
by some 10 have been water hole.
similar to the modern African wa
ter holes where at times great herds
of animals gathered to drink. Other
scientists believe the place to have
been once lake and that carcases
drifted to this spot and their bones
dropped. Captain Harold |. Cook, son
of the owner of the ranch and consult
ing engineer, says ii seems more prob
able that the bone bed is the result Of
great eddy in cove along the shore
line of an immense river. The car
casses Of various herds and individuals
are believed to have been picked up
by the moving water and lodged in the
cove. This. he believes, would account
for the partial segregation of types as
well as the miscellaneous mixture Of
animals found in the quarries.
The Titanotherium, or giant beast, is
the largest animals bones to be found
in this region. 1t is about the size Of
an elephant. The most common fossil
mammal in the bad lands of Nebraska
is the 0redon, an herbiviorous animal
about the size of the domestic sheep.
As many as eight OF ten skulls of the
Oredon have been found frequently in
space no larger than the floor of an
ordinary room.
II has been discovered here by sci
entists that America is the home OF
the rhinoceros, the camel, as well as
that of the horse and many other ami
mails now TO be found only in foreign
countries or not at all. Mr.. Cook says
that Nebraska is the home OF the
rhinocerosis and their wanderings led
them into other parts of the world. At
Agate, the bones and skulls occur in
heaps He saws they became extinct
in Nebraska at the close of plicocene
half million years ago.
The fossils collected from the bone
beds at Agate Springs ranch are en-
tirely mammalian. Only q few of
these, however, attract general at
tention, such as titanotheres, oredon,
rhinocerosis, horses, boys, bovine, mas
todons, mammoths, camels, deer and
carnivores.