Work in the Dakota Group 19 



In my dream, I walked up this ravine and was at 

 once attracted by a large cone-shaped hill, separated 

 from a knoll to the south by a lateral ravine. On 

 either slope were many chunks of rock, which the 

 frost had loosened from the ledges above. The 

 spaces left vacant in these rocks by the decayed 

 leaves had accumulated moisture, and this moisture, 

 when it froze, had had enough expansive power to 

 split the rock apart and display the impressions of 

 the leaves. 



Other masses of rock had broken in such a way 

 that the spaces once filled by the midribs and stems 

 of the leaves admitted grass roots; and their root- 

 lets, seeking the tiny channels left by the ribs and 

 veins of the leaves, had, with the power of growing 

 plants, opened the doors of these prisoners, shut up 

 in the heart of the rock for millions of years. 



I went to the place and found everything just as 

 it had been in my dream. 



Two of the largest leaves known to the Dakota 

 Group were taken from this place. One, a great 

 three-lobed leaf, the stem passing through an ear- 

 like projection at its base, Dr. Lesquereux called 

 'Aspidophyllum trilobatum; the other, equally large, 

 over a foot in diameter, and three-lobed too, 

 but indented with large teeth, he called Sassafras 

 dissectum (Fig. 4). 



I believe I am the only fossil hunter who has 



