The Loup Fork Beds 127 



amount of moisture which accumulates in these 

 sandstone beds and is carried to the surface in 

 springs. 



One very hot day I started to cross the divide to 

 Prairie Dog Creek. I had the wagon sheet stretched 

 over the bows, the sides lifted to admit the breeze, 

 and sleepy with the heat, I let the horses go on about 

 as they pleased; not noticing, until the level rays of 

 the sun warned me that it was time to camp, that I 

 had gone farther east than I had intended. I had 

 my camp outfit with me, however, and as I saw a 

 bunch of trees in a ravine a mile from the creek I 

 knew that there must be water there. So the three 

 requisites, grass, wood, and water, were at hand. 



After pitching the tent, and starting supper, I 

 found to my delight a large exposure of hard 

 siliceous rock, consisting of sand and chalk held 

 firmly together by soluble sand, which proved to be 

 the bottom ledge of a deposit of gray sandstone. I 

 soon found above it a mastodon's bones. My joy 

 knew no bounds, however, when following the nar- 

 row draw up to its head, I found that it cut through 

 a quarry of rhinoceros bones, which were sticking 

 out of the sand on either side, while the narrow ditch 

 at the bottom was filled with toe bones, complete or 

 in fragments, and broken skulls and teeth without 

 number. I have collected fossil vertebrates and 

 plants since I was seventeen years old, but this is the 



