According to the record of the ranch managers and the neigh- 

 bors, the trapping of barnyard animals is no uncommon circumstance. 

 On one occasion a fine horse of three years, frightened by a passing 

 automobile rushed across the field and ran unwittingly into one of 

 these tar pools. When the owner discovered it, it had sunk to half 

 way up its sides in the mire. All efforts to extricate the beast were 

 in vain until a traction engine, passing by at the critical moment, 

 was pressed into service. With a rope around the horse's neck, and 

 with a long steady pull the animal was rescued, hut it was not until 



with greal labor and patience in applying gasoline that tin It was 



made respectable. 



As these skeletons were deposited from year to year during the 

 centuries, thousands doubtless wasted away and appear only as de- 

 cayed animal matter, while others, thoroughly preserved by the tar, 

 remain to the present almost as perfect as recent hones. These fossils 

 are not petrifications as in most other cas< s elsewhere, hut are the 

 real hones, unchanged except in loss of animal matter and in their 

 discoloration caused by the tar. This discoloring, however adds to, 

 rather than detracts from their beauty, for when polished they shine 

 like the best of old bronze. 



The fossil vegetable forms also suffered the same fate and appear 



Fossil Cypress. 



L'l 



