THE OVERLAND ROUTE — COU:b^CIL BLUFFS tO OGDEN. 



59 



East of Percy the train enters a cut 65 feet deep and IJ miles 

 long through beds of coal, carbonaceous shale, and sandstone. It 



is reported that the coal taken up here by the steam 



Percy. 



EleA^ation 6,932 feet. 

 Omaha (ai>5 miles. 



shovel was used in the 



engnie 



and furnished the 



power for 



making 



the cut. The best bed thus 



exposed contains coal 8 feet thick. 



Elk Mountain, which is visible from many points on the route, 

 is seen to best advantage to the left (south) from Percy station. 

 This great momitain of granite, conical in form and 7 miles in 

 diameter at its base (PL XII, 5), rises to an altitude of 11,162 feet 

 and is at the north extremity of the Medicine Bow Pange. To 

 the west of it is a relatively smah peak of irregular outline called 

 Sheephead Mountain. Farther southwest can be distinguished on 

 a clear day the Sierra Madrc, near the northern boundary of Colorado. 

 About 1| miles west of Dana the traveler passes from the rocks of 

 the "Upper Laramie^' to those of the underlying "Lower Laramie'' 



formation, but the change is inconspicuous from the 

 train because the rocks are obscured by surface 

 material near the road. The "Lower Laramie'' con- 

 sists of sedimentary rocks more than 6,000 feet thick, 

 mainly coarse-gramed sandstone, in which are a few thin beds of coal. 



Dana. 



Elevation 6,782 feet. 

 Omaiia 659 miles. 



■walked on its hind legs. From speci- 1 shaped bony shutter, like the visor of a 

 mens showing impressions of the skin it | helmet, which could be closed over the 

 is known that the animal was covered 



with an epidermis made up of tubercles, 

 or knoblike plates, of tw^o sizes, the 

 larger ones predominating on the back 



and sides. One of the most remarkable 

 features about this reptile was its mouth, 

 which was armed with 2,000 or more 

 separate teeth arranged in vertical rows. 

 Each jaw has from 45 to 60 rows and from 

 10 to 15 teeth in each vertical row. 

 These were self-adjusting, and as one 

 w^as lost or worn out another pushed up 

 to take its place. 



As in Morrison time, so in the very 

 much later Lance epoch there were 



eyeball, so that all the \Tilnerable parts 

 of this animated fortress were protected 

 by bony armor. The ''horned toad/' 

 one of the small modern lizards of the 

 western plains, is not very different from 

 the armored dinosaurs except in size, 

 (See PL XI, A, p. 53.) 



The most striking of the flesh-eating 

 dinosaurs was the TyrannoSaurus, or 

 tyrant lizard, the largest carnivorous 

 animal that ever lived on land. It was 

 40 feet in length, and when it stood 

 erect the top of its head wbb 18 to 20 



The fore limbs 

 were email, and it must have walked 



feet above the ground. 



ai'mored and flesh-eating reptiles, and | entirely upon its powerful hind le^. A 



perfect skull of this animal is exhibited 



some of these were even more ugly than 

 their Morrison progenitors. Ankylosau- 

 rus was an armored dinosaur v/hose entire 

 back was covered by flattened ridged- 

 skin plates of bone. The animal waa low 

 of stature, had a short, blunt head, and 

 carried on the end of its stout, hea\'y 

 tail a great trians^ular club of bone. Even 



the eyes were provided with a cup- 



in the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York City. The jaws 

 are 4 feet in length and bristle v^tix 

 shai-p-pointed teeth, several of which 

 project 6 inches from their sockets. It 

 is with a feeling of awe that one standing 

 before the huge head contemplates a 

 beast of such terrible ferocity. 



