'...•- 





^ I ■•■ . t 





118* The Ottawa Naturalist. [Jan. 



to offer which will compare with the use of the hammer and 

 chisel in collecting fossils from nature's own museum. It is 

 the object of this paper to encourage the reader to collect fossils 

 in such a way that their scientific value will not be impaired 

 or destroyed, as often happens through the use of improper 

 methods. 



Collecting Methods.* 



In collecting fossils a rather heavy hammer is indispensible . 

 Many palaeontologists prefer the ordinary bricklayer's hammer, 

 with its long broad blade, which is very effective in splitting 

 open blocks of rock and in digging in shales. A small chisel 

 is frequently useful, and a note book should be carried. A 

 tube of glue and a small vial of hydrochloric acid are valuable 

 adjuncts to the collector's outfit. A bag or basket with a 

 supply of old newspapers or tissue paper for wrapping specimens, 

 together with a substantial lunch, complete the essential ele- 

 ments of the collector's outfit for a day in the field. 



There is no royal road to finding fossils. But success 

 usually comes to the collector who prostrates himself on the 

 ledges and searches the beds foot by foot as he crawls over the 

 surface. Beds which are nearly or quite barren of fossils are 

 often separated by comparatively thin bands in which fossils 

 abound. Much patience and close scrutiny are often required 

 to detect these rich beds. In this work haste has no place, 

 and keen eyesight plays the same role in finding fossil animals 

 that it does in hunting living ones. Sometimes the fossils are 

 composed of harder material than the enclosing rock, and stand 

 out in strong relief on the surface of the ledge. In such cases 

 they are easily found. But more frequently the only clue to 

 the presence of fossils is the indistinct outline on the surface 

 of the rock of the cross section of fossil shells, w^hich have little 

 resemblance to the specimens as they appear after removal 

 from the matrix. Where the fossils occur in shales they are 

 often found lying loose on the surface, having been set free 

 by weathering. 



If the collector wishes the fossils which he finds to have 

 scientific value he must keep a systematic record of the exact 

 geographic locality from which each lot comes. This is easily 

 done by keeping a numbered record in a note book of the col- 

 lecting stations, and attaching a corresponding ntmiber to each 

 lot of fossils collected. It shotdd be the practice of the collector 

 or field geologist to prepare for each specimen or group of speci- 

 mens a field label before leaving the collecting station, giving: 



*No attempt is made here to discuss methods of collecting vertebrate fossils. 



