160 The Cretaceous Seas 



grandes, the first great hood. I had bored a hole 

 through either edge, and with an aralia vine for 

 a handle, I carried it to a nearby hill; where a 

 lovely spring of pure water gushed out, and re- 

 turned with it brimful of the life saving liquid. 

 We used thin shells, we had found on the beach, 

 for plates and made our knives and forks and 

 spoons of wood. At breakfast Maud asked me 

 if I knew where we were. "Yes, dear," I replied, 

 "we are in Western Kansas. These limestone 

 bluffs are composed of jointed limestone. Some 

 day a gorge will be cut through them by the 

 Smoky Hill Kiver ninety feet deep, and a mile 

 long, and it will be in Trego County just below 

 the mouth of Hack berry Creek. Get your hat 

 and we will see !" "I am ready, papa," she cried, 

 so with collecting bag over my shoulder, and 

 pick in hand, we walked rapidly along the hard 

 sandy shoreline. We soon rounded the point, 

 and as I suspected the shore swung off into a 

 vast amphitheatre-like cove. We could just see 

 the distant headland, far to the north. While 

 the land and sea curved in toward the east and 

 back to the north, forming a great land-locked 

 bay. 



"O see papa !" Maud cried, "what is that lying 

 on the water just off shore? It looks like a huge 

 log half-submerged." "No dear. I believe it is 

 a Tylosaur or great ram-nosed lizard, the mon- 

 arch of this ocean. See ! he raises a conical head 

 above the water, that terminates in a long bony 



