178 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



for his home near Moscow, Idaho, riding bareback. 

 I felt sorry for him, but he had a stubborn fit on, 

 and there was no doing anything with him. After 

 I had hired Bill Day, he wanted me to overlook the 

 past and re-employ him, but it was too late then. 



I suppose Bill Day must have weighed about a 

 hundred and eighty pounds, but he was an expert 

 hunter and a keen observer. He owned a herd of 

 ponies and furnished me with all that I wanted, and 

 as he knew every inch of the fossil beds and all the 

 best camping grounds, his services were invaluable. 

 He kept our larder supplied with venison, also. I 

 think my success in that region was largely due to 

 his assistance. I was also indebted to a Mr. Mascall, 

 a man who lived on the second bottom of the river. 

 He had an extra log cabin behind the one he lived in, 

 and he let us use it as a storeroom for our extra 

 supplies of food and for our fossils, when we began 

 to secure them. 



This Mr. Mascall had a wife and daughter, and 

 when we came in from the fossil beds, after several 

 weeks of camping out, it seemed almost like coming 

 home to be able to put our feet under a table, eat off 

 stone dishes, and drink our coffee out of a china 

 cup, and to sleep on a feather bed instead of a hard 

 mattress and roll of blankets. Then Mr. Mascall 

 was a good gardener, and always had fresh vege- 

 tables, a most enjoyable change from hot bread, 



