PRIMEVAL MAN 227 



deposits. The tar round the edges of the pools 

 or pits hardens, becomes covered with dust, and 

 looks like solid earth; and water often stands 

 in the tar pits after rain, while at night the 

 shallow pools of fresh tar look like water. Evi 

 dently the big grazing or browsing beasts now 

 and then wandered out on the hard asphalt next 

 the solid ground, and suddenly became mired 

 in the soft tar beyond. Probably the pits in 

 which water stood served as traps year after 

 year as the thirsty herds sought drink. Then 

 each dead or dying animal became itself a lure 

 for all kinds of flesh-eating beasts and birds, 

 which in their turn were entrapped in the sticky 

 mass. In similar manner, thirty years ago on 

 the Little Missouri, I have known a grizzly 

 bear, a couple of timber-wolves, and several 

 coyotes to be attracted to the carcass of a steer 

 which had bogged down in the springtime be 

 side an alkali pool. 



Another result of the peculiar conditions un 

 der which the skeletons accumulated is that an 

 unusually large number of very old, very young, 

 and maimed or crippled creatures were en 

 trapped. Doubtless animals in full vigor were 

 more apt to work themselves free at the moment 

 when they found they were caught in the tar; 

 and, moreover, a wolf or sabretooth which was 



