NARRATIVE VOLUME.

( General.)

Yale Expedition, 1868.

" " 1870.

" " 1871.

" " 1872.

" " 1873.

" " 1874.

Leadville Trip, 1879.

California Trip, 1880.

Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming Trip, 1884.

Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming Trip, 1886.

Nebraska, Wyoming, and Dakota Trip, 1889.

Nebraska, Wyoming Trip, 1890.

FOSSIL HUNTING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS:

A Narrative of Thirty Years' Work, with Reminiscences of Friends and Foes.

To the memory of Thomas Henry Huxley,

A guide, philosopher, and friend,

who made me promise to write this narrative, and chided me often for the delay in so doing, this volume is dedicated in grateful acknowledgment of many kindnesses in word and deed.

THIRTY YEARS' WORK ON ROCKY MOUNTAIN GEOLOGY:

A Historical Sketch.

2

when no longer young, and my own experience so far has proved no
exception to this rule. My first lesson in investigating the wonderful
region I was so rapidly passing over gave me the key to one chapter of
its history, and from this other chapters opened one by one as year
after year I returned West with ever increasing zeal to continue the
work.

Before leaving the East on my present trip, I had read of a great
discovery just made on the very route we were traversing, — the finding
of human remains sixty feet below the surface of the prairie, at
Antelope Station, in Nebraska. A deep well had been dug by the railroad
company, many bones were thrown out, and pronounced human by a learned
doctor who saw them, and claimed to be an authority on such matters.
A New York editor was his companion, and soon made known to the world
this discovery of man's great antiquity. I had my doubts, but kept
silent, as I had no facts.

Before we approached the small station where the alleged primitive
man had been unearthed, I made friends with our conductor, and persuaded
him to hold the train long enough for me to glance over the earth thrown
out of this well, hoping perchance that I might thus find some fragments,
at least, of our early ancestor. In one respect, I succeeded beyond my
wildest hopes. By rapid search over the huge mound of earth, I
soon found many fragments and a number of entire bones, not of men, but
of horses, diminutive indeed but true equine ancestors that early man,
if small enough, might have ridden around the lake in which their remains
were preserved. But the horse was not alone. Other fragments told of