156 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



Valley from the cactus-covered sandhills of southern 

 California. 



At night, after a day's journey through sand and 

 sage-brush, we came to a ranch beside an alkaline 

 lake in the very heart of the desert. Here, in a 

 cabin built of logs from the neighboring mountains, 

 lived the hermit of this region, a man named Lee 

 Button. Had it not been that the road passed his 

 door, he would have seen only a hunter now and 

 then, out after the deer which abounded in the 

 desert, or perhaps the cattlemen when in winter they 

 turned their cattle loose in the desert to look out for 

 themselves. On all the neighboring ranches, the 

 cattle were turned into the desert for food and shel- 

 ter in winter. Here, protected from storms, they 

 fed upon the alkaline grass and sweet sage and upon 

 the thick leaves which fell in handfuls from the 

 greasewood bushes. These cattle had cut innumer- 

 able paths at every conceivable angle, and one un- 

 accustomed to the country might easily become con- 

 fused and lose himself in the labyrinth of trails. 

 There was horror in the thought of being lost in that 

 solitude. 



Mr. Duncan put up his horses in the barn of the 

 ranch, which was well stocked with hay and oats, 

 and we picketed our ponies on a flat covered with 

 alkaline grass on the borders of the lake. Then 

 from under a certain post which he knew of, Mr. 



