454 THE WYOMING FOSSIL FIELDS EXPEDITION 



face of the bluff was nearly covered with collectors, and chips and 

 fragments of stone were flying in all directions, to such an extent^ 

 indeed, that it Avas uncomfortable and almost unsafe to remain in the 

 vicinit3\ The men labored long and hard, and, while most of them 

 returned to supper, some became so entiiusiastic as to forsret their 

 meals, until darkness compelled their return to camp. That night 

 the cam)) fires along Cooper Creek burned brightly, and the stimulus 

 gained l)y a successful afternoon's stuch' and work engendered a feel- 

 ing of mirth and jollity that broke forth in stor\'-teiling and college 

 songs. 



The next day being Sunday, camp was not moved. The wagons, 

 however, were placed at the disposal of the members of the expedi- 

 tion, and many of them drove to the Medicine Bow Mountains, which 

 were only five miles distant, and climljed to snow-line, played snow- 

 ball, and wandered in the pine forest until the^'' came in contact with 

 an area of fallen timber, through which they did not wander to any 

 extent. The sunshine and dry atmosphere had begun to tell on the 

 noses and lips, and to some extent on the cheeks, of nearly all. 



From Camp No. 2 the trail crossed Dutton Creek, passed some local 

 coal-mines, and then followed down Rock Creek, where the topog- 

 raphy reminds one more of an eastern valley than of a mountainous 

 country. By the fifth day out the expedition had collected two tons 

 of fossils, which were chiefly invertebrates and fossil leaves. 



On the arrival of the expedition at Como Bluff, rendered famous by 

 the work of the late Professor Marsh, enthusiasm was unbounded. It 

 was from this locality that Yale University received its largest amount 

 of dinosaur material. The bluff rises to a height of 200 to 300 feet, 

 and parallels the Union Pacific Railroad for five or six miles, being 

 south of the track, and nowhere over half a mile away. It is capped 

 with conglomerate, and just below this band are the dinosaur beds 

 of variegated marls and clays, plainly visible from passing trains. 

 From these beds Professor Marsh secured his largest dinosaurs, which 

 not onl}'' made him famous, but gave Wyoming the distinction of 

 possessing geological graveyards containing fossil remains of the 

 largest land animals that have ever inhaVjited the earth. The mem- 

 bers of the exj^edition Avere successful in finding a great many dino- 

 saur bones, and some opened quarries that gave promise of being 

 very valuable. The time spent at this point, however, was so short 

 that there was no opportunity to remove marls enough to investigate 

 even partially the many finds. 



