Conclusion 273 



reddish shale, the remnant of an old peat-bog. I 

 found the end of a horn core of Triceratops, and 

 further excavation showed I had stumbled upon the 

 burial place of one of these rare dinosaurs. How 

 thankful we were that after so much useless labor 

 we had at last secured the great object of our hunt. 

 It will prove a beautiful skull when prepared and 

 mounted under the direction of Dr. Smith Wood- 

 ward, Keeper of Geology in the British Museum, 

 where so many of my discoveries have gone. 



Unfortunately the skull was somewhat broken up, 

 and one horn core is missing. But one side of the 

 face with the large horn core, the back of the head, 

 and the great posterior crest, seems entire, as well as 

 large pieces of the other side of the face, and a fine 

 specimen will be made of it. The total length of 

 the skull is 6 feet 6 inches. The horn core over the 

 eye is 2 feet 4 inches high ; while the circumference 

 in the middle is 2 feet 8 inches, and it is 15 inches in 

 diameter at the base. 



This was a fully matured animal. As the bony 

 ossicles of the head armature are co-ossified with the 

 margin and remain as undulations more or less 

 sharply defined, I am inclined to believe that they are 

 ornaments. They might assist a little in defense 

 but not offense. 



In the mean time my oldest son, George, told me 

 of a region he had explored a half-mile from our 



