xii Introduction 



which extend over the vast arid and semi-arid area 

 of the West, scattered over both the great plains 

 region and the great mountain region, has resulted 

 in the creation of a distinctively American profes- 

 sion : that of fossil hunting. The fossil hunter must 

 first of all be a scientific enthusiast. He must be 

 willing to endure all kinds of hardships, to suffer 

 cold in the early spring and the late autumn and 

 early winter months, to suffer intense heat and the 

 glare of the sun in summer months, and he must 

 be prepared to drink alkali water, and in some re- 

 gions to fight off the attack of the mosquito and 

 other pests. He must be something of an engineer 

 in order to be able to handle large masses of stone 

 and transport them over roadless wastes of desert 

 to the nearest shipping point; he must have a deli- 

 cate and skilful touch to preserve the least frag- 

 ments of bone when fractured; he must be content 

 with very plain living, because the profession is sel- 

 dom, if ever, remunerative, and he is almost invaria- 

 bly underpaid; he must find his chief reward and 

 stimulus in the sense of discovery and in the des- 

 patching of specimens to museums which he has 

 never seen for the benefit of a public which has little 

 knowledge or appreciation of the self-sacrifices 

 which the fossil hunter has made. 



The fossil fields of America have fortunately at- 

 tracted a number of such devoted explorers, and one 



