198 The Wonders of the Permian 



The children had gone to bed and our camp 

 fire of dry fern stumps burned brightly, or faded 

 away as Levi and Maud replenished it. At last 

 worn out with the excessive heat and labor we 

 all retired to our respective huts. We were soon 

 lost in sleep. When the Amphibians greeted the 

 rising sun with their chorus of what to us 

 seemed like discordant notes (doubtless they 

 were melodious to the natives of these early 

 wilds where foot of man had never trod before). 

 The human element stirred themselves, and after 

 breakfast we all wandered down to the beach for 

 an early plunge. We dried our salty clothes by 

 running or walking along the level sandy shore. 



Maud had called our attention, in a land 

 locked bay to a fleet of Ammonites. Those lovely 

 nautilus-like chambered shells, who had spread 

 their transparent sails to the morning breeze. 

 Some were enormous, over two feet in diameter, 

 and resembled huge cornucopias. They floated 

 as lightly and as elegantly as a flock of swans. 

 They were arrayed in all the colors of the rain- 

 bow. We could also see fishes, all clad in armor 

 of enameled scales, in many a lovely hue, gar- 

 pike and sturgeon were among the most common. 

 The bony fishes did not appear until the Cre- 

 taceous Age, you remember. 



What the children loved to do most was to 

 dig in the sand or hunt for the nests of small 

 reptiles, six or eight inches long, that often lay 

 coiled a few inches below the surface, their heads 



