142 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



discovered in the desert of eastern Oregon. Go to 

 Fort Klamath, Oregon, and from there to Silver 

 Lake, to a man by the name of Duncan, the post- 

 master. He will guide you to the fossil bed in the 

 heart of the sage-brush desert. You will likely find 

 human implements mingled with extinct animals. 

 You are to go secretly; tell no one where you are 

 going. Have your mail sent by a circuitous route, 

 so you cannot be traced." 



I received the Professor's order with excitement 

 and great joy; but in spite of his injunction to start 

 at once and without communicating my intention to 

 anyone, I could not bring myself to leave for the 

 Pacific Coast, to be gone for an indefinite time, with- 

 out bidding good-by to my father and mother, and I 

 concluded that even if someone should find out 

 where I was going and try to follow me I could 

 easily give him the slip and get to the field first. 



Buffalo, the nearest railway station, was seventy- 

 five miles away, a two days' journey, with our big 

 load of fossils. So I mounted my riding pony and 

 made the long trip the next day, reaching the station 

 at sunset, tired and sore. My pony, however, en- 

 dowed with the enduring power characteristic of a 

 good Indian pony, was still fresh enough to shy at a 

 rattlesnake in the road, and as I happened to be sit- 

 ting sideways in the saddle, throw me to the ground 

 within a few feet of the snake. 



