Ancient Giants 149 



ing many other forms. As he continued to feed 

 I continued to think. I was not surprised to 

 see him alone, because reptiles as a rule care lit- 

 tle for their fellows. They do not mass together 

 in herds like mammals. Each one seems to live 

 for himself, the stronger ones winning in the 

 battle of life. They seem to have none of the 

 almost human sensibilities of mammals, show 

 little love if any for the ofifsprings. As soon as 

 the young are large enough for food, in the case 

 of flesh-eaters, their hungry parents may gobble 

 them up, and they are no safer from them, than 

 any others of the hungry tribe. The only way to 

 escape is to keep out of the way. Of course our 

 trachidont is, as we have already seen, herbivor- 

 ous in habit; and is not likely to do battle, ex- 

 cept in self defense, from jealously, or over the 

 food supply. Neither would he lead others to 

 the feast, each one must look out for himself. 

 I was not surprised that this fellow was a 

 swimmer. In 1908 my oldest son George, found 

 a skeleton of a trachodon in the famous Beds of 

 Converse County, Wyoming, complete except 

 that the tail and hind feet were missing. He lay 

 on an old drift on his back, wrapped in his skin, 

 as in a mantle, or rather the impression of his 

 skin, for the original substance had long ago dis- 

 appeared. His head lay twisted under his left 

 shoulder. The skin in the abdominal region had 

 collapsed, and lay across the inside of the verte- 

 bral column, all going to prove he had died in the 



