Expedition to John Day River 195 



had received no answer, while Cope, from his end 

 of the line at Philadelphia, had sent tracers out over 

 every route he could think of, trying to locate the 

 fossils. 



A Mr. Wood, the owner of a large herd of horses, 

 was driving the herd to a point near the Dalles for 

 protection from the Indians, and I joined his party. 

 But the several hundred horses raised such a volume 

 of dust that, after a few days of suffocation, I con- 

 cluded that I might as well lose my scalp as be 

 choked to death, and leaving the herd, went on 

 alone. All along the way, men, women, and chil- 

 dren were fleeing for safety to the Dalles, and 

 dozens of homes and ranches were being deserted 

 just at the time when the people should have been 

 saving their grain. I never in my life saw so much 

 excitement and fear. As many white men were 

 fleeing for their lives as there were Indians on the 

 warpath, and every man of them was blaming 

 General Howard for not having exterminated the 

 hostiles before they started. 



I met the man who had hauled my Fossil Lake 

 collection in to the Dalles, and for the first time 

 learned the truth about them. It seems that they 

 had never been shipped. Mr. French simply had 

 a warehouse, and forwarded goods by the Steam 

 Navigation Company, and mine had been covered 

 up in the warehouse and entirely forgotten. I was 



