74 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



tide, we would commence the work of excavating the fossils, taking up 

 each skull, limb or skeleton in a block of matrix and placing it in a con- 

 spicuous place where it could be easily seen. Each day we would follow 

 close upon the heels of the receding tide and, working as rapidly as pos- 

 sible without endangering the bones, take up one skull or skeleton after 

 another, until the turn of the tide and the waters came setting in again, 

 when the work of excavating was abandoned, in order to convey the 

 material already secured to the shore and place each specimen in a place 

 of safety above high-water mark. At times, when delayed longer than we 

 had anticipated in the excavation of a particular skeleton, or having been 

 enticed. by reason of an overpowering interest in our work to continue it 

 longer than was prudent, this work of transporting the fossils to shore be- 

 came a work of rescue in every sense of the term, frequently quite excit- 

 ing, and on one or two occasions the question of rescue became a matter 

 so entirely personal to ourselves as to become exceedingly disagreeable. 



All our material safely stored upon the beach, the remainder of the day 

 would be spent in trimming the superfluous matrix from the different 

 specimens, hardening the softer bones and otherwise preparing them to 

 withstand the vicissitudes of their long journey from the Straits of 

 Magellan to Princeton. The bones and skulls, as well as the matrix sur- 

 rounding them, were of course thoroughly saturated with sea-water, and 

 in that cold and damp climate several days were necessary before they 

 were sufficiently dried to permit of packing for shipment. 



Ours was a remarkable and interesting experience, as patiently pursu- 

 ing our work, we sat on the surface of the talus-covered slope at a safe 

 distance from the waters that dashed furiously beneath, with the enormous 

 wall at our backs, rising perpendicularly to a height of more than four 

 hundred feet, while over the sandstones of the beach, from which but a 

 few hours previously we had been excavating the remains of prehistoric 

 animals, there now rolled a sea sufficiently deep for the safe navigation 

 of the largest transatlantic liner. What a remarkable change, and in so 

 short a time ! Not many experiences even among those of my childhood, 

 that most impressionable period of our lives, have left themselves so in- 

 delibly engraved upon my mind. At this somewhat distant perspective, 

 when not engaged in any particular line of thought, as sometimes hap- 

 pens, I frequently detect myself in the midst of a most vivid mental pic- 

 ture drawn from some particularly interesting point along this coast. 



