40 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



that have been preserved there, and feasts upon them 

 until they have been entirely consumed, thus thriving 

 at the expense of God's buried dead. More fine 

 fossil vertebrates have been destroyed by this plant 

 than by the denudation of the rock, or the vandal 

 hand of man, although both of the latter have been 

 powerful factors in the destruction of fossils. In 

 those days, however, there were no curiosity hunters 

 to dig up the precious relics, so that they were more 

 abundant than they are now. 



All this time I am wandering along the canyon 

 in search of water. Sometimes I cpme upon gorges 

 only two feet wide and fifty 'feet deep; sometimes 

 for five miles or more the sides of the ravine will 

 be only a few feet high. 



I know that there is water at the river, but it is 

 so far away from my work that I go on and on in 

 the hope of finding some nearer at hand. Dinner- 

 time comes, and the day is so hot that perspiration 

 flows from every pore. A howling south wind rises 

 and fills our eyes with clouds of pure lime dust, in- 

 flaming them almost beyond human endurance. Still 

 no water. The driver, with horses famishing for it, 

 makes frantic gestures to me to hurry. To ease my 

 parched lips and swelling tongue, I roll a pebble 

 around in my mouth, or, if the season is propitious, 

 allay my thirst with the acid juice of a red berry 

 that grows in the ravines. 



