38 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



and consist almost entirely of the remains of micro- 

 scopic organisms, which must have fairly swarmed 

 in the water. They were discovered by the late Dr. 

 Bunn, of Lawrence, while a student in the labora- 

 tories of the Kansas State University, after Dana 

 and others had said there was no chalk in America. 



When the animals that inhabited this ocean died 

 or were killed, their carcasses, buoyed up by the 

 gases that formed after death, floated about on the 

 surface of the water, losing a limb here, a head 

 there, a trunk or tail somewhere else. These de- 

 tached fragments, sinking to the bottom, were cov- 

 ered by the soft ooze of the ocean floor, and re- 

 mained there as fossils, while the sedimentary rock 

 was being lifted three thousand feet above sea level. 



My explorations began on Hackberry Creek, 

 where I went over every inch of the exposed chalk, 

 from the creek's mouth to its head, in Logan County. 

 Then I searched the river and the ravines that cut 

 into its drainage area along the flanks of the divides. 



Perhaps a description of a typical day's experience 

 in one of the long ravines that gash the southern 

 slope of the country may be of interest to my 

 readers. 



Human beings, in order to accomplish any result 

 of moment, must be reasonably comfortable, that is, 

 they must not be overhungry or thirsty or sleepy. 



