CHAPTER FIFTEEN 



WESTERN EXPEDITIONS 



FROM 1877 to 1893, I made ten collecting trips to the Far West, 

 beside two others which were undertaken for different purposes. 

 Two of these, 1877 and 1878, in which I was a private, have already 

 been described. The other eight, which were under my leadership, may 

 be brought together in one chapter, instead of distributing them chrono- 

 logically through my narrative. 



EXPEDITION OF 1882 



The party left Princeton on June 26 and proceeded to Cheyenne, 

 Wyo., the acquaintance of which we had made four years before. We 

 found it improved out of recognition and a very pleasant place of 

 sojourn. Cattle ranching was then in its hey-day and Cheyenne was the 

 centre and shipping point of a very large area of cattle and horse ranges. 

 Many of the cattlemen were gentlemen in every sense of the word, 

 and the Cheyenne Club, at which I was put up as a guest, was a very 

 agreeable resort, not only because of the creature comforts, but also be- 

 cause of the good company to be found there. 



The party was composed of six students, Professor Magie, of the 

 physics department, and myself. Magie was enamoured of the "Wild 

 West" and accompanied me on three of my trips, though he professed 

 no great interest in palaeontology. It was all important to get the ex- 

 pedition into camp and thus put an end to ruinous hotel bills and the 

 first step toward this was to find a camp cook. We found a prize in 

 Proctor, the second best of the many camp cooks I have employed. The 

 first in rank was CharHe, a trained professional whom we had on the 

 trip of 1 891. Proctor was a great talker and kept us amused for a while, 

 but was so profane and foul-mouthed that I could not record much of 

 his talk here, even if I remembered it. I had got a camp estabUshed at 

 Chalk Bluffs over the Colorado line, where some fossils, such as they 

 were, were to be found. There the party remained until I could get 



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