Expeditions in the Texas Permian 231 



covered the complete skeleton of a huge beast. So, 

 filled with high ropes, I followed his lead along the 

 rough face of the mountains, until at last, when we 

 were completely exhausted by the ruggedness of the 

 way, he pointed out a pile of the weathered and 

 broken bones of a species so common that they were 

 not worth picking up. 



Dropping in a moment from my -hill of ex- 

 pectancy into a slough of despond, I turned home- 

 ward, Mr. Galyean, who was as disappointed as I 

 was, leading the way to a short cut through a gap in 

 the mountains. As he got on the trail, which had 

 been made by animals on their way to the spring, he 

 stooped and picked up something, remarking, 

 " Why, here's a bone ! " I took it, and was aston- 

 ished to find it a complete skull, covered with a hard 

 siliceous matrix from a heavy bed of Indian red 

 clay, which was completely covered with concre- 

 tions. I had never carefully explored this horizon, 

 as I had taken it for granted that it was barren. 

 And I suppose that other collectors had imagined the 

 same, for although it was within a mile of Willow 

 Springs, where Boll and Cummins and other col- 

 lectors had camped through a series of years, I 

 was the first to discover this deposit of extinct 

 animals. 



We followed the trail over a slight rise into an 

 amphitheater a couple of acres in extent, and then 



