154 Ancient Giants 



great sinewy body, very short front limbs, pow- 

 erful hind ones, and long tail, with sled-like 

 chevron bones, and extending processes inter- 

 locking the caudal vertebrae, not allowing them 

 to move freely on themselves, as in the snakes 

 and lizards of today. The tail was stiffened and 

 was dragged along on the ground. The body 

 was 40 feet long and the head reached nineteen 

 feet above the ground. As I saw, a blow from 

 his terrible claw-armed hind limb, tore open the 

 trachodon, nearly his equal in bulk. After gor- 

 mandising to his heart's content, he drifted off 

 into the forest, and I saw him no more. I then 

 paddled in short and tying my boat to a sapling, 

 went up to the carcass and secured great strips 

 of the tough skin so beautifully adorned with 

 shining and beautifully colored scales, polygonal 

 or rounded, some so small that they appeared as 

 mere dots, as already observed. I was delighted 

 to see near by a pool of alkali water, in this I 

 doused the skin and it then only took a shore 

 time to break up the glue. I found a poplar log 

 about eight inches in diameter and after sharp- 

 ening one end, I drove it into the ground over a 

 dead log that was lying on the ground. After 

 peeling off the bark from the ends I had a handy 

 device, so stretching the skin over it, scaly side 

 down, and using the edge of a chisel for a scrap- 

 er, I rapidly prepared the skin for use, cleaning 

 off the flesh and broken down glue. By the time 

 it was dry I had tanned it, and it was as pliable 



