206 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



chase, and I suppose showed my dismay in my face, 

 for the postmaster asked if he could help me. I 

 told him my troubles, and he said that there was a 

 man in town, a Professor W. A. Cummins, who had 

 been Cope's assistant the year before. 



Greatly cheered, I went to the man's house post- 

 haste, to be met at the door by his wife, who told 

 me that the Professor was in Austin. Whereupon 

 my spirits dropped below zero again. But if a girl's 

 face is her fortune, so is a man's sometimes, for I 

 gained Mrs. Cummins' sympathy at once. When I 

 told her why I had come to Texas, she answered, 

 " Why, I was with Professor Cummins on his ex- 

 pedition to the Permian beds," and proceeded to 

 give me all the information which I thought neces- 

 sary. 



I learned that they had made their headquarters 

 at Seymour, in Baylor County, between the Brazos 

 and Wichita rivers, and I supposed that anyone in 

 Seymour could tell me the exact localities from 

 which the fossils came. Later I found to my sor- 

 row that this was not the case; and I wasted months 

 of careful exploration over barren beds before I 

 found the horizon that yielded the wonderful 

 batrachians and reptiles of which I had come in 

 search. 



Much elated, I took the train for Gordon, a cattle- 

 men's town south of Seymour, and the point nearest 



