The Great Spiked Dinosaur 103 



the same results. I realized then if I could not 

 climb over when in my ordinary condition, cer- 

 tainly could not when frightened. I therefore sat 

 down on the narrow ledge until I recovered my 

 composure. And by careful searching the steep 

 slope I had come up, I found a little ditch with 

 small bushes growing in it. It was washed clean 

 of mud, and I got a foothold in it, and gradually 

 let myself down into the bed of the coulee. I did 

 not attempt to leave this again and at last reach- 

 ed the head. Many other ravines headed near by, 

 and in going over to one of them I saw in the 

 steep slope of a narrow gorge, in gray sandstone, 

 the skull that is rather poorly shown in the pic- 

 ture. It was 200 feet below the prairie, and it 

 required a great deal of labor to collect and load 

 it in the wagon. It was first packed securely in a 

 box, after it had been carefully wrapped in bur- 

 lap dipped in plaster, and secured with strong 

 poles to hold it together. A road was cut in the 

 face of the cliff, and our faithful team hauled the 

 box weighing about nine hundred pounds, out 

 of the ravine ; they often fell down and cut them- 

 selves, but they scrambled up the narrow road 

 with their burden fastened to a sled. When they 

 got to the level prairie, the boys let the hind 

 wheels into the ground to the hubs and rolled the 

 box in. The skull was partially prepared by me 

 the next winter as shown in the photograph which 

 gives a top view of it. This is one of the many 

 remarkable forms that were so abundant during 



