62 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



night saw the wagon perched on the edge of a deep canyon^ 

 or draw, in the bottom of which there was a small pool 

 of sweet water. 



Here we stopped for two days. The exposures drew 

 us far from camp. The first surprise came in finding a 

 nautilus and some marine shells in what we had all along 

 been prospecting for land deposits. Otherwise it was poor 

 collecting until we came to the big bluff which paralleled 

 the coast some eight miles inland. Here accompanying 

 the Patagonian oysters there was a bed of finely preserved 

 shell of many varieties. We had failed to realize our dis^ 

 tance from camp, so that when Shumway and I got in it 

 was already dark and Turner was out hunting for the horses. 

 We had seen them in another direction, so I took ropes and 

 started back to find them in the dark, which after some 

 delay was accomplished, by first catching one, and letting 

 him go to the others. Coming back I found a search party 

 out for me on the supposition that I had failed to find the 

 way back. 



Next morning the others took the saddle horses out to 

 the escarpment, while I, with the barometer, measured 

 and diagramed a section from the ocean to the top of the 

 escarpment. We got a good set of shells, and Billy found a 

 thin layer fairly crowded with various kinds of shark's 

 teeth, crab limbs, and marine shells, this again where we 

 were looking for land deposits. However, we were glad 

 to get these indubitable indications of the origin of these 

 beds. While crossing over one of the ledges, I ran upon 

 an ostrich nest containing seventeen eggs. This was on the 

 twenty-sixth of September. There was no true nest, only 

 a slight depression in the bare ground with a few feathers 

 and bits of grass for a lining. The eggs had apparently 

 been laid several days before, and had been chilled by the 

 last rain, so that they had been deserted. Two were broken 

 and bad, but the others were all good, and made a heavy 

 load (added to our fossils) for two of us to carry into camp. 



