Ancient Giants 143 



and sinew still adhering to them, carried out as 

 toll to the sea, from bayou or river. But the 

 ocean soon tired of them and after playing with 

 them until the time of high tide, returned them 

 to the land with her own shells, seaweeds, and 

 dead fishes, to fester in the sun. 



These bones showed me they had lived but a 

 few days before, and were perhaps the remains 

 of the feast of some titanic carnivore. I deter 

 mined to go on a hunt for them. Here were 

 limbs of duckbills ten feet in length, togethei 

 with the strong ligaments that bound the boners 

 together in life. Here, too, the mighty Tricera- 

 tops has left a monstrous head, seven feet in 

 length, to mingle with the drift. 



The Carnivores were represented by powerful 

 feet with three great claws, and a spur like a 

 rooster. The feet along measured over three feet 

 long, the horny claws measured ten inches. 

 Crocodilian bones and those of small reptiles 

 and fishes lay around. 



But as I was determined to find a log of the 

 right size to hew into a boat, I wandered on, 

 searching the drift pile with eager eyes. I could 

 not be idle, and was determined to take advan- 

 tage of the opportunity offered me, to study 

 these wonderful creatures of a far-awa)y day. 

 I wondered whether they would in life prove 

 what the students of their remains in the Twen- 

 tieth Century supposed. I longed to know. 



At last, after much effort, I found a redwood 



