116 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



broken, and when a bone three, four, or even 

 six feet long, weighing anywhere from 100 to 

 1,000 pounds, has been shattered to fragments 

 the problem of removing it is no easy one. 

 But here the skill of the collector comes into 

 play to treat the fossil as a surgeon treats a 

 fractured limb, to cover it with plaster band- 

 ages, and brace it with sphnts of wood or iron 

 so that the specimen may not only be taken 

 from the ground but endure in safety the com- 

 ing journey of a thousand or more miles. For 

 simpler cases or lighter objects strips of sacking, 

 or even paper, applied with flour and w^ater, 

 suffice, or pieces of sacking soaked in thin plas- 

 ter may be laid over the bone, first covering it 

 with thin paper in order that the plaster jacket 

 may simply stiffen and not adhere to it. Col- 

 lecting has not always been carried on in this 

 systematic manner, for the development of the 

 present methods has been the result of years of 

 experience ; formerly there was a mere skim- 

 ming-over of the surface in what Professor 

 Marsh used to term the potato-gathering style, 

 but now the effort is made to remove speci- 

 mens intact, often imbedded in large masses 



