176 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



the river was not over thirty or forty feet wide, and 

 I was determined, after coming so far, to find some 

 fossils and a good camping ground, I decided to 

 strip, jump out as far as I could, and paddle the rest 

 of the way across. 



No sooner thought than done. In I sprang, dis- 

 covering too late that I had reckoned without my 

 host and that the river, which had been penned in 

 for miles by the walls of the canyon, was here flow- 

 ing away from its prison with amazing swiftness 

 and power. My weak little body was as helpless as 

 a straw in its grasp: down I went, and striking a 

 boulder at the bottom, was flung up five feet into the 

 air, I took in breath and closed my mouth as I went 

 down again; tossing me hither and thither like a 

 cork, beating me against rocks and hurling me high 

 into the air, the river bore me swiftly on, until at 

 last, thank God ! it tired of its toy, and threw me to 

 one side into deep water, under a willow whose wel- 

 coming branches I eagerly clasped. There I hung 

 until I had regained my strength enough to pull my- 

 self out. 



But the fossil vertebrates of the John Day beds 

 were still across the river and the questions which I 

 had crossed the mountain and risked my life to 

 answer were still waiting for replies. Unwilling to 

 return home beaten I walked up and down the river 

 shore, and was delighted to find an old boat caught 



