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THE YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY

November 2

strata of an ancient lake bottom through which the water had cut. There were many exposures of the so-called *mauvaises terres*, and in these bare clay surfaces fossil bones were found. The escort made short marches up the river, and the Easterners, with a small guard of soldiers to act as look-outs, devoted themselves to bone hunting. After a little while the soldiers became as interested in collecting fossils as the members of the party, and brought in many specimens. As they gained experience, some of them became quite skillful collectors.

The region then examined was of late Tertiary age and gave us many Pliocene mammals—horses, camels, and other vertebrates—which tended to throw light on various problems more fully elucidated by recent investigations.

We worked up the river quite a long way, but I have never known which of the branches we followed. At last, turning southward, we set out again for the railroad, and once more entered an area where water was hard to get. What little we did find was bitterly alkaline. This was a region of dry lakes, and water could be had only by digging. Some years later, when as a humble cow-puncher I worked cattle through this country, I had excellent deer-hunting among these dry lakes.

From Fort McPherson we proceeded west by rail to Cheyenne, and a few days later left Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming Territory, to explore a region lying between the north and south forks of the Platte River. Before long we came upon some bad lands not previously known, the southwestern boundary of a Tertiary lake basin, in the margin of which were entombed and waiting to be excavated turtles, rhinoceroses, *Oreodon*, and the huge *Titanotherium*. These beds we followed for a long distance westward. At Antelope Station on the railroad, a locality from which Professor Marsh had secured some fossils the year before, we found several species of horse, one of them a little fellow only two feet high and having three toes.

After some weeks in this general region the party traveled

west by rail to old Fort Bridger in Wyoming, a trading post established long before by the famous Jim Bridger. At and near Fort Bridger a long stay was made. South of the fort were great washed deposits of greenish sand and clay of the Eocene age, and here we found great numbers of the extraordinary six-horned beasts later described by Marsh as Dinocerata. It was from this locality too that came *Eohippus*, the earliest horselike animal of which we know.

At White River, not far from where it joins the Green, many Pliocene fossils were found, and before long, with pack animals heavily loaded, we crossed the Green River near the ancient trading post known as Fort Roubidoux and made our way to Ford Uinta, the agency of a section of the Ute Indians. From here a Shoshoni Indian guide led us through the Uinta Mountains, over a beautiful forested country with frequent open parks through which flowed clear sparkling trout streams. The region, known only to the Indians, had much game, and the journey in early autumn was full of joy. Going down one of the rough narrow mountain trails toward the valley of Henry's Fork we lost the pack mule which carried our mess outfit, and at the foot of the cliff were able to recover from its load only a few battered tin plates and broken knives and forks; even the saddle that the animal wore was smashed to matchwood. It was here that a curious free Cretaceous crinoid *Uintacrinus* was discovered. This was described much later.

The plains of Kansas were the next collecting ground and here great numbers of Cretaceous reptiles were unearthed, among them giant mosasaurs and many fishes. From these beds came, a little later, the extraordinary birds with teeth—*Hesperornis* and *Ichthyornis*—and later still many pterodactyls. These bone fields are in a region that is now a great wheat-and corn-growing district. In Kansas some members of the party killed buffalo, which were abundant there.

The expedition now began to break up. Some of its members returned in late November, and before Christmas time the last of them had reached New York and New Haven.

Cuts by courtesy of "Natural History"

THE PERSONNEL OF THE YALE EXPEDITION OF 1870

Standing, left to right: Nicholson, Grinnell, James W. Wadsworth, '98 Hon., Professor Marsh, Betts, Ziegler, Sargent
Seated: Griswold, Ewing, Whitney, Brig. Gen. Charles McC. Reeve, '70, Russell