228 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



the corporal had pitched my tent on a level and his 

 own A-tent as close to it as he possibly could. 

 " This will never do," I said to myself. " Discipline 

 will go to the dogs, if I allow such close companion- 

 ship." So I ordered him to take down his tent and 

 pitch it a hundred yards away, and to follow this 

 rule in future. The soldiers were very indignant, 

 but they obeyed orders. As a general rule I found 

 that I could handle them, although there were a few- 

 breaches of discipline. 



I was so unfortunate on this expedition as to have 

 my tent burned, with nearly all my personal prop- 

 erty. When the men got to the flaming tent, the 

 first thing they did was to cut the guy-ropes and let 

 it blow over. They then, at my request, brought 

 water and threw it on the burning sacks that held 

 the fossils. This saved the fossils, but to do so we 

 had to let everything else go. 



On the twenty-fifth of April, we started with our 

 load for Decatur, the nearest railroad point. We 

 took the Henrietta road, and camped on the Little 

 Wichita, where, in the sandy shales of the Upper 

 Carboniferous or Permian, we found a locality rich 

 in the fossil flora of that region. We secured a 

 number of large fern fronds, etc. 



Wild turkey were, as usual, abundant. Lee Ir- 

 ving, one of the escort, killed a hen and gobbler, and 

 gave us a change from our customary diet of bacon. 



