We Explore Dead Lodge Canyon 63 



one fore foot were missing. A very fine head was 

 found pressed back against the back bone, show- 

 ing that the animal had died in the water, when 

 the gases raised it to the surface and the pressure 

 of so large a body against the head, forced it 

 back. When the gases were liberated the body 

 settled in a mud bank where it became covered 

 over, and lay buried, through all these ages, un- 

 disturbed until the recession of the bluffs carried 

 away the tail. Underground channels destroyed 

 the two feet. 



But of these bones themselves; how can I de- 

 scribe their condition, I have been faithfully at 

 work on them for over three months, (at this 

 writing), and am just beginning to see that I 

 will have a fine skull when it is cleaned (See 

 Fig. 16), I have since finished it. It was pre- 

 served in a clay sandstone that chips at right 

 angles to the bones, breaking them into thou 

 sands of pieces. Then the bones are enclosed 

 with a heavy coating of bog iron, and between 

 bones and around them, is stone as hard at flint. 

 The bones themselves are poorly petrified. The 

 spongy bone not filled with rocky material. If 

 the thin outer covering is broken through, the 

 spongy bone within crumbles like an egg shell. 

 If a tool should slip through the covering, the 

 bone within is broken to fragments. How is it 

 possible with such obstacles to ever overcome 

 them and prepare the skeleton for study and ex- 

 hibition? Well! first of all, whenever after the 



