172 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



and was disfigured with holes and ditches and heaps 

 of earth. 



On the fifth of May, after passing through Can- 

 yon City, we started for the John Day Basin. It 

 snowed nearly all day. On the road we met a man 

 who told us of a rich fossil leaf locality, on the Van 

 Horn ranch; and after a sixteen-mile drive we found 

 the place and secured some very fine specimens. 

 The leaf impressions were found in a soft, shaly 

 clay-stone, and were very abundant, representing 

 well-preserved Tertiary flora. That night we 

 feasted on a large salmon trout which I caught in an 

 irrigation ditch. 



On the sixth (I am following my notebook) we 

 worked all day. I collected two hundred specimens, 

 and Mr. Wortman eighty-five. They were all very 

 fine, and represented the oak, the maple, and other 

 species. I secured some fish vertebrae also. This 

 is another case in which I lost credit for early dis- 

 coveries. I was told by Professor Cope, a few 

 years before his death, that these specimens had 

 never been examined. 



In this same locality there is a bed of rock so light 

 that it floats. I threw a large mass of it at some 

 object in the water, and was amazed to see it float 

 off down the stream. It was the first time that I 

 had ever seen a rock lighter than water. 



On the seventh of May, after a journey of fifteen 



