254 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



ing heat, I started on a long trip to the head of 

 Brushy Creek, on horseback. I climbed Table 

 Mountain, which was, perhaps, three hundred feet 

 above the camp, and struck west along the divide 

 between the two creeks. I frequently left the horse 

 tied to a fence, while I plunged down into the gorges 

 on either side. At last, about three miles northwest 

 of camp, at the bend of a branch of Brushy Creek, I 

 noticed a denuded tract of the kind of bed I have 

 already described, to which an abundance of bog 

 iron lent a metallic luster; the very place to look 

 for fossils. 



The first thing I found was the perfect skull, six 

 inches long, of a batrachian (Diplocaulus copei 

 Broili) ; then, lying on the surface, another beautiful 

 skull ( V aranosaurus acutirostris Broili), with 

 many of the bones of the skeleton, from which the 

 hard red matrix had been washed off clean. The 

 upper and lower jaws were locked together, and the 

 long row of glistening teeth shone in the fierce light. 

 The eyes were set far back, and the nose openings 

 were near the front. It was so different from any- 

 thing I had ever seen before that I was sure it must 

 be new. Dr. Broili, in describing it, speaks of it 

 as the most perfect specimen ever found in these 

 beds. Nearly all the other skulls I had secured are 

 compressed vertically, while this was compressed 

 laterally. 



