184 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



narrow well, with my back braced against one side 

 and my feet planted against the other. 



But such experiences as these, instead of making 

 us timid, only spurred us on to more dangerous 

 attempts. To show how reckless we became, I re- 

 member that once Bill found a skull in a perpendic- 

 ular cliff of solidified volcanic mud, the termination 

 of a ridge that ran far back into the hills. The skull 

 was located about twenty feet up the face of the 

 cliff, and too far below the surface of the ridge to be 

 reached from above; so that there was no way to 

 get at it but by scaling the cliff. I cut niches on one 

 side, and Bill on the other, and we climbed up until 

 we could reach the specimen with our picks, cling- 

 ing to a niche with one hand and wielding the pick 

 with the other. I worked with my right hand and 

 Bill with his left. 



The rock was very hard, and it took a long while 

 to hew out the specimen. While we were at work, 

 we heard a mountain sheep bleating for her young. 

 By reaching up we could get our hands over the 

 edge of the cliff, and pull ourselves up so that we 

 could just peek over. Sure enough, the sheep was 

 coming down the ridge toward us in great excite- 

 ment, rending the air with calls for her lamb. I 

 began to imitate the bleat of her offspring, and she 

 increased her speed toward us with every sign of 

 relief. 



