2O2 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



siderations having been but a secondary inducement. 

 And I wish to remark that the courage and dis- 

 regard of physical comfort displayed by the gentle- 

 men above referred to are qualities of which their 

 country may be proud, and are worthy of the 

 highest commendation and of imitation in every 

 field." 



Before leaving this interesting field, I wish to 

 show my readers Cope's figure of the great saber- 

 toothed tiger, Pogonodon platycopis (Fig. 31), 

 which was secured in 1879 by Leander Davis. I 

 do not remember who first discovered the specimen, 

 but for weeks each of us collectors, Wortman, Davis, 

 and I, tried to devise some means of securing it. 

 The skull topped a pinnacle, perhaps thirty or forty 

 feet high, and tapering like the spire of a church. 

 At the top it was only a foot in diameter. We 

 knew that it would not be strong enough to support 

 the weight of a ladder, and it was too steep to scale. 

 Moreover, if we blew it up with powder, the skull, 

 whose rows of teeth seemed to grin at us defiantly, 

 would be shattered to bits. 



By whatever method it was secured, it represented 

 a feat of the greatest possible bravery, and Cope did 

 only justice to Leander Davis in publishing his un- 

 derstanding of the manner in which it was done. 

 That description is attached to the skull to-day, and 

 thousands have read of Davis' heroic act in securing 



