194 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



work sawing up the lumber and making boxes. 

 The other men never let their guns leave their 

 hands, and kept guard all night, expecting every 

 moment to hear the whoop of the Indians. 



By daylight I had every fossil neatly packed, each 

 in a little box, and then we all took hold, and carry- 

 ing the boxes down to the first river bottom, hid them 

 under a great grapevine, which completely covered 

 them. After throwing dead leaves over our trail, 

 I was satisfied that we had done all that we could, 

 and as we could not induce Mascall to abandon his 

 property, we left him and went over to the Gulch. 

 We found nearly all the settlers keeping house in- 

 side the stockade, which was built of pine logs and 

 covered enough ground to hold their teams, wagons, 

 and cattle, as well as themselves. 



As I realized that it would be impossible for us to 

 do any work in the John Day beds, fearing every 

 moment to be surprised by Indians, I concluded that 

 this would be a good time to go to the Dalles and 

 try to find out what had become of the collection of 

 Fossil Lake material which had been sent off the 

 year before, and had been lost somewhere. I had a 

 receipt for the specimens from a Mr. French, who 

 was, I supposed, the agent for the Oregon Steam 

 Navigation Company. His letterhead read " For- 

 warding Agent for the O. S. N. Co./' but I had 

 repeatedly written to the agent at the Dalles, and 



