280 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



COLLECTING FOSSIL SKELETONS. The vertebrate zoologist glo- 

 ries in the skeleton of almost any living 1 species of vertebrate, 

 but a fossil skeleton he fairly worships. The more of previous 

 theories it upsets, the dearer it is. If it is a reptile with 

 feathers on its tail, a bird with teeth, or a scientific what-is-it, 

 as was the gigantic megatherium, it is simply canonized. Be- 

 ware, then, red-handed hunter of living species, how you 

 recklessly pass by a bit of bone protruding from a " cut bank '' 

 beside some stream, for you know not the day and the hour 

 when you may touch elbows with His Mysterious Highness, 

 the Missing Link. 



The tertiary deposits of the United States contain the fossil 

 remains of many magnificent vertebrates, impossible even to 

 mention here. Very often huge bones and tusks of the masto- 

 don are unearthed in well or ditch digging, and before they 

 receive proper attention are exposed to the air and allowed to 

 crumble into dust in a few hours. If a fossil bone is very soft 

 when dug up, it will crumble in a short time unless properly 

 cared for. If this is likely to be its fate, cover it up again with- 

 out delay, to keep the air from it until you are ready to pre- 

 serve it. To accomplish this, prepare a kettle of glue water 

 (simply hot water with a little glue dissolved in it) and wrap 

 the bone tightly from end to end with an abundance of twine. 

 Then with a ladle or large spoon pour the glue water over the 

 bone or tusk, gradually, but continuously, so that it will soak 

 in, and when dry, it will bind together the weak material and 

 form a hard shell of some thickness and protect the form of the 

 bone intact. This will often save a fossil which would other- 

 wise fall into countless tiny fragments in a few hours. 



If a skeleton or portion thereof is embedded in a matrix of 

 hard rock, do not attempt to work it out fully in the field. That 

 is work for the laboratory and a very good one at that, some- 

 times requiring costly tools, much skill, and plenty of time to 

 chip away the surrounding rock. 



Oftentimes the fossil remains of a fish, small reptile, or mam- 

 mal are uncovered bodily by the removal of the slab of rock 

 which has covered it for ages, like a blanket. In such cases 

 do not attempt to pick the bones, one by one, out of their rest- 

 ing-place, but procure the necessary tools, cut out the entire 



