READING THE RIDDLES OF THE ROCKS 101 



the plan which has been carefully made as the work of 

 exhumation progressed, all pieces containing bone must 

 be stuck together, and weak parts strengthened with 

 gum or glue. Now the mass is attacked with hammer 

 and chisel, and the surrounding matrix slowly and care- 

 fully cut away until the contained bone is revealed, a 

 process much simpler and more expeditious in the telling 

 than in the actuality; for the preparator may not use 

 the heavy tools of the ordinary stone-cutter ; sometimes 

 an awl, or even a glover's needle, must suffice him, and 

 the chips cut off are so small and such care must be 

 taken not to injure the bone that the work is really 

 tedious. This may, perhaps, be better appreciated by 

 saying that to clean a single vertebra of such a huge 

 Dinosaur as Diplodocus may require a month of con- 

 tinuous labor, and that a score of these big and com- 

 plicated bones, besides others of simpler structure, are 

 included in the backbone. The finished specimen 

 weighs over 120 pounds, while as originally collected, 

 with all the adherent rock, the weight was twice or 

 thrice as great. Such a mass as this is comparatively 

 small, and sometimes huge blocks are taken containing 

 entire skulls or a number of bones, and not infre- 

 quently weighing a ton. The largest single specimen 

 is a skull of Triceratops, collected by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, 

 which weighed, when boxed, 6,850 pounds. 



Or, as the result of some mishap, or through the work 

 of an inexperienced collector, a valuable specimen may 

 arrive in the shape of a box full of irregular fragments of 

 stone compared with which a dissected map or an old- 

 fashioned Chinese puzzle is simplicity itself, and one 

 may spend hours looking for some piece whose proper 

 location gives the clew to an entire section, and days, 

 even, may be consumed before the task is completed. 

 While this not only tries the patience, but the eyes 



