canyons, fertile plains, and great deserts of Wyoming, that they are in the very midst of one 

 of the greatest treasure-locked regions of the entire world. Some may wish to argue 

 this point ; and to such let me say that one has only to visit our National Museum, 

 the American Museum of Natural History, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University 

 of Wyoming to fully appreciate what Wyoming has done for science and the work has 

 just begun. In another quarter of a century the collections will be doubled, and the 

 material found will play even a greater part in upbuilding the theory of evolution than it has 

 in the past. Up to the present time no State or Territory in the United States, and indeed, 

 no equal area in the world, has done so much for the theory of evolution and comparative 

 anatomy as this State. These are broad and sweeping assertions, but they are nevertheless 

 true and can easily be confirmed by any one who will intelligently consult the memoirs and 

 monographs by Leidy, Cope, Marsh, Osborn, Wortman, Scott, and many others. 



" What are these treasures ? They are the remains of huge reptiles, so large that only 

 those with a vivid imagination can form any adequate idea of their size ; huge mammals of 

 elephantine dimensions mingled with numerous orders of large animals that have long been 

 extinct ; besides such as camels, rhinoceroses, dogs, cats, elephants, and monkeys ; great sea 

 monsters that were truly sea serpents ; fishes that compare favorably with the finny tribe of 

 our great lakes ; shell fish almost innumerable, and fossil leaves that prove conclusively that 

 in early ages Wyoming was densely clothed with trees of tropical and semi-tropical verdure. 



' Work in collecting from this vast storehouse commenced in the '408, and during the 

 years that have elapsed since, Wyoming has been a favored collecting ground for the leading 

 geologists and paleontologists of the entire country. The early expeditions encountered the 

 treacherous Sioux, but were not baffled, though they had to " outfit " on the Missouri River 



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