136 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



erous and the Dakota Group of the Cretaceous, 

 has even been found in this big ditch, which, less 

 than a quarter of a mile wide at the head of the 

 Smoky Hill branch at Wallace, broadens out to a 

 width of several miles at the mouth of the Kansas 

 River. 



It is impossible to compute the vast amount of 

 mineral matter which has been cut out from these 

 Kansas plains and carried by the river into the 

 Mississippi and on to the Gulf. Since the first nar- 

 row trench cut its way through the hardened ooze of 

 the Cretaceous ocean bed, all the flood-plains of the 

 Missouri and the Mississippi below Kansas City 

 have been enriched by the material that once covered 

 these valleys of Kansas, and the delta below New 

 rleans has been partly built up by it. 



It may interest my readers and give them a 

 glimpse into the daily routine of a fossil hunter's 

 life, if I quote one or two notes from a diary 

 which I kept during my work in these Loup Fork 

 beds. 



"Friday, July n. This is to record the most 

 successful day since we have been in the field. We 

 have collected three sets of under-jaws, three skulls. 

 It has been extremely hot. We have put in eight 

 hours of hard work." 



" Saturday, July 12. To-day I got out and 

 packed our three skulls and three lower jaws. They 



