1 8 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



might live at home and avoid the hardships and ex- 

 posures of camp life. 



With collecting-bag over my shoulder and pick in 

 hand, I wandered over the hills of Ellsworth 

 County. If I chanced upon a locality rich in fossil 

 leaves, thrilled with a joy that knows no comparison, 

 I walked on air as I carried my trophies home ; while 

 if night overtook me with an empty bag, I could 

 scarcely drag my weary limbs along. 



Among the rich localities that I discovered was 

 one which I called " Sassafras Hollow," because of 

 the countless sassafras leaves I quarried there. It 

 it situated about a mile southeast of the schoolhouse 

 on Thompson Creek, in the Hudson brothers' neigh- 

 borhood, and lies at the head of a narrow ravine in 

 a ledge of sandstone, with a spring beneath. Here 

 too, the noted paleobotanist, Dr. Leo Lesquereux, 

 collected fossils in 1872, securing among other speci- 

 mens a large, beautiful leaf which he named in my 

 honor " Protophyllum stcrnbcrgii." 



I have a vivid recollection of the discovery of 

 another locality. One night I dreamed that I was 

 on the river, where the Smoky Hill cuts into its 

 northern bank, three miles southeast of Fort Harker. 

 A perpendicular face in the colored clay impinges 

 on the stream, and just below this cliff is the mouth 

 of a shallow ravine that heads in the prairie half a 

 mile above. 



