102 The Great Spiked Dinosaur 



into shore at "Happy Jack Ferry, twelve miles 

 below Steveville. We pitched our tent on the 

 southern side of the river. On the 19th of Sep- 

 tember, I made the discovery of the strange spik- 

 ed dinosaur, called by Mr. Lambe Styracosaurus. 

 The ground was wet with repeated showers. The 

 fossil beds are not safe then, as one slips as if 

 walking on soft soap. There is much clay in all 

 the rocks ; in fact more than half of them are 

 made up of clay, interlaid with silver gray sand- 

 stone, also containing much clay. However, I 

 could not be idle about camp and made the at- 

 tempt to get in the bad lands walking up the bed 

 of a long coulee that was filled with boulders. I 

 got to where it was extremely difficult, as the 

 bed was narrow and crooked. So I attempted to 

 scale a steep slope and got up a hundred feet; 

 that brought me over a perpendicular precipice, 

 while above was a heavy bed of clay. I knew if 

 I could get over the clay, I would be all right, as 

 I would then be on top of a spur from the prairie, 

 wide enough for me to walk on. However, the 

 minute I would drive my pick into the clay to 

 hold me from slipping, it would break loose and 

 let me slip back to a narrow ledge above the cliff. 

 I attempted to cut a path with the same result, 

 and as I saw I could not go up, I resolved to go 

 down the way I had gone up. This I found was 

 impossible; for if I sat down I would slide and 

 be hurled over the precipice. I then got frighten- 

 ed and attacked the steep clay slope again, with 



