First Expedition to Kansas Chalk 43 



thirst in his anxiety to get a glimpse of his game, 

 that he may add its antlers to his list of trophies, 

 we fossil hunters, Professor Mudge's party and my 

 own, sought our prey over miles and miles of bar- 

 ren chalk beds, cheerfully enduring countless dis- 

 comforts. 



Urged on by enthusiasm and the desire to secure 

 finer and finer material, I went over every inch of 

 the acres of exposed chalk along these ravines and 

 creeks, hoping each moment to find stretched before 

 my delighted eyes a complete skeleton of one of 

 those old sea serpents described by Cope, or a speci- 

 men of that wonderful Pteranodon, or toothless fly- 

 ing reptile, whose wing expanse was twenty feet or 

 more. 



All day, from the first streak of light until the 

 last level ray forced me to leave the work, I toiled 

 on, forgetting the heat and the miserable thirst and 

 the alkali water, forgetting everything but the one 

 great object of my life to secure from the crum- 

 bling strata of this old ocean bed the fossil remains 

 of the fauna of Cretaceous Times. 



The incessant labor, however, had a weakening 

 effect upon my system so that I fell a victim to ma- 

 laria, and when a violent attack of shaking ague 

 came on, I felt as if fate were indeed against me. 



I remember how, one day, when I was in the 

 midst of a shaking fit, I found a beautiful specimen 



