114 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



absolute blanks and some remarkably large 

 prizes, and every collector hopes that it may 

 fall to his lot to win one of these, and is willing 

 to work long and arduously for the chance of 

 obtaining it. 



It may give some idea of the chances to say 

 that some years ago Dr. Wortman spent al- 

 most an entire season in the field without suc- 

 cess, and then, at the eleventh hour, found the 

 now famous skeleton of Phenacodus, or that a 

 party from Princeton actually camped within 

 100 yards of a rich deposit of rare fossils and 

 yet failed to discover it. 



Let us, however, suppose that the reconnois- 

 sance has been successful, and that an outcrop 

 of bone has been found, serving like a tomb- 

 stone carven with strange characters to indicate 

 the burial-place of some primeval monster. 

 Possibly Nature long ago rifled the grave, wash- 

 ing away much of the skeleton, and leaving 

 little save the fragments visible on the surface ; 

 on the other hand, these pieces may form part 

 of a complete skeleton, and there is no way to 

 decide this important question save by actual 

 excavation. The manner of disinterment va- 



