24 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



lava flows known to geological history. During 

 the ages that have followed, rain and river have 

 been steadily washing off the surface and cutting 

 channels and canons down into this plateau. 

 Many rivers, especially the John Day, cut down 

 into fossil deposits. Numbers of fossils were 

 washed away, but others, uncovered by the 

 river, were in places to be seen sticking in the 

 walls of the canon. 



Dozens of different species of animals left 

 their fossils in this old ashen rock. Among these 

 were tiny, ancient horses. At one time thou- 

 sands of tiny horses, hardly knee high to a man, 

 roamed over Oregon. One evening by the camp- 

 fire which was between the cook's tent and the 

 river, one of the men asked what I wanted to 

 find. "A horse," was my answer. Everyone 

 laughed loudly when the scientist asked if it 

 was the Chalicothere model. 



The scientist continued, "The Chalicothere, 

 now extinct, appears to have been about the 

 size of a modern horse, with a body of a horse, 

 head and neck giraffe-like, but feet with claws 

 somewhat resembling those of a bear." "That's 

 a good circus model," called the cook. "Are 

 you certain that there is an open season on 

 him?" I asked. An excited hunter, I set off the 

 following morning with my pick to look for a 

 Chalicothere in one of the smaller distant canons 



