74 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



my clothing, covered with dust as it was, had acted 

 as a brake upon the polished surface. I lay for an 

 hour with trembling knees, too weak to make my 

 way back to camp. 



This experience of mine is another instance of the 

 fact that the human brain forgets nothing, and will 

 yield up everything when the right kind of stimulus 

 is applied. 



The excitement of our work and the danger with 

 if seemed to make us reckless of life, Professor 

 Cope even more so than the rest of us, although he 

 was at that time United States Paleontologist, and 

 worth a million dollars. I remember one night he 

 was following a buffalo trail to the river, when sud- 

 denly his horse stopped and refused to go further. 

 Without dismounting to find out the cause, he 

 plunged his spurs into the animal, and it sprang into 

 the air. Mr. Isaac, who was behind, followed. The 

 next day they were surprised to find that they had 

 crossed a gorge ten feet wide, and that but for the 

 keen sight and the strength of their horses, they 

 would have been dashed to pieces a hundred feet 

 below. 



Cope's indefatigability, too, was a constant source 

 of wonder to us. We were in excellent training, 

 after our strenuous outdoor life in the Kansas 

 chalk beds, while he had just been working four- 

 teen hours a day in his study and the lithographer's 



