Further Work in Kansas Chalk 109 



them then from what it is now, for fossil hunting is 

 as capable of improvement as any other form of 

 human endeavor. Then we went over, in a few 

 months, all the chalk in western Kansas, which lines 

 the ravines on either side of the Smoky Hill and its 

 branches for a hundred miles; now it takes us five 

 years to get over the same ground. Then we dug 

 up the bones with a butcher knife or pick, and 

 packed in flour sacks with dry buffalo grass, which 

 we pulled with our fingers. Some strange animals 

 were created by Cope and Marsh in those early days, 

 when they attempted to restore a creature from the 

 few disconnected bones thus carelessly collected. 

 Now we take up great slabs of the chalk, so that we 

 can show the bones in situ, that is, in their original 

 matrix, so that they may be the more easily fitted 

 together in their natural relations with each other. 

 When, after much careful exploration, we find, 

 sticking out of the edge of a canyon or wash, the 

 bones of some " ancient mariner " of the old Cre- 

 taceous ocean, we first lay bare a floor above the bones 

 by picking away the rock. Then I, usually stretched 

 at full length on this floor, with a crooked awl and 

 a brush, uncover the bones enough to be able to 

 determine how they lie, often keeping up the tedious 

 work for hours. When the position of each bone 

 has been ascertained, my son George, who for years 

 has been my chief assistant, and I cut trenches 



