HUNTING BIG GAME OF OTHER DAYS 



415 



"BAD LANDS" OF THE EDMONTON FORMATION OPPOSITE THE MOUTH OF BIG VAEEEY 



This is the most picturesque section along the Red Deer River. Rains rapidly wash away 

 the soft, friable clays, eroding the hillsides like organ pipes and exposing the fossil bones. 

 The hard sandstone layers resist erosion and form terraces. Here we found dinosaur bones 

 in abundance. 



quite similar to those in the rocks imme- 

 diately below, and inferentially the tem- 

 perature had not changed. 



The geologic formations along the 

 Red Deer were first determined by the 

 Canadian Geological Survey, members 

 of which secured a variety of fossils, 

 chiefly from the Judith (Belly) River 

 formation, where the fossils are better 

 preserved and more abundant than those 

 in similar rocks in t^e United States. 



HOW AND WHERE COLLECTORS HUNT BIG 

 GAME OF THE PAST 



Usually fossils are found in "Bad 

 Lands," a name applied by the Jesuit 

 missionaries to desolate regions denuded 

 of grass and eroded into picturesque 

 hills and ravines. In such places camp 

 is located near some spring or stream, 

 and the collectors ride or walk over the 

 exposures till the region is thoroughly 

 explored. 



Quite different are the conditions on 

 the Red Deer River. In places the can- 

 yon walls are nearly perpendicular, and 

 the river winds in its narrow valley two 

 to five hundred feet below the prairie, 

 touching one side, then crossing to the 

 other, so that it is impossible to follow 

 up or down its course any great distance, 

 even on horseback. 



For many years the American Museum 

 of Natural History of New York City 

 has been making a systematic collection 

 of fossils along this river, sending an ex- 

 pedition there every summer, and each 

 succeeding expedition has returned with 

 notable results. As the only feasible way 

 to work these banks is from a boat, the 

 parties proceed to the town of Red Deer, 

 where the Calgary-Edmonton Railroad 

 crosses the river. 



There, with the aid of several carpen- 

 ters, we constructed a flat-boat, 12 by 30 

 feet in dimension, similar to a Western 



