Ancient Giants 155 



as newly tanned leather. I continued my labor 

 until I had prepared a great roll. Not of buck- 

 skin, but trachodon skin. I saw in prospect 

 sails, ropes paulins for my boat and myself, as a 

 protection against the rains and for many other 

 things. Where the skin had been torn from the 

 dorsal spines, I saw bundles of ossified tendons, 

 like those of a turkey's leg. They lay across each 

 other diagnonally to the spines, while other rows 

 were parallel. What were they for? I supposed 

 to stiffen, and strengthen the dorsal column. 

 Perhaps too, if our trachodon had not been so 

 foolish as to face his enemy, and had continued 

 the retreat, and the tiger had leaped on his back, 

 his claws finding no foothold on account of these 

 same bony tendons, he might have lost his foot- 

 ing. They extended some distance into the tail, 

 making the forward part like an oar. The un- 

 dulations we saw, were performed by the poster- 

 ior part of the tail while in the act of swmming. 



