witness of it and wrote me a most interesting letter; he regarded the 

 insufficiency of food as the root of the trouble. 



EXPEDITION OF 189I 



I had long planned to visit an area in central Montana, from which 

 Cope had described a few very interesting fossils, but no one else had 

 collected there. The trip was to be a short one, hardly two months in 

 all, and I again had the pleasure of Professor Magic's company. The 

 success of the enterprise hung on a hair, so to speak, and was saved 

 only by a remarkable chapter of accidents. I was even more than 

 usually reluctant to go, because the International Geological Congress 

 was to meet in Washington and by going West I should miss the 

 chance of meeting many European friends. Nevertheless, as the news- 

 boy said at the banquet, "the time to take pie is when pie's passin'." 

 As matters turned out, I was to have my cake and eat it too, for, by an 

 undesigned coincidence, I found most of my friends in the Yellow- 

 stone Park. 



Our first objective was Helena, Mont., which seemed to be the best 

 outfitting point and, in consequence, Magie and I went there ahead of 

 the others, to assemble "transportation and equipment." We travelled by 

 the Northern Pacific Railway through a region which I had last seen 

 seven years before. I was struck by the great extension westward of 

 the settled and cultivated area and the vast heaps of buffalo bones, which 

 I had seen with sorrow and indignation in 1884, had completely dis- 

 appeared; the fertilizer factories had absorbed them all. At Helena, we 

 were advised to see Colonel Broadwater, the magnate of the place in 

 those days. He received us very kindly and, when I had explained 

 my plans, advised us to go on to Great Falls, about one hundred miles 

 to the northeast on the Great Northern Railway. He gave us a letter 

 to the Hon. Paris Gibson, of Great Falls, which was the means of sav- 

 ing the whole enterprise from destruction. Accordingly, I went on to 

 Great Falls, while Magie remained in Helena, to direct the party, when 

 it should arrive. "Professor" Mortson had been recommended to me as 

 a guide, but I didn't want to take him, for he was entirely self-taught 

 and an old soldier and I expected to find him one of the pestiferous 

 cranks who had so often annoyed me. When, however, he called on me 

 and I had a few minutes' talk with him, I changed my mind, for he 

 understood the geology of the country thoroughly. Though an English- 

 man, he had been a sergeant of engineers in the U. S. Army and could 

 make excellent sketch maps. He was a great find and to him the success 



