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- — 
