ANOTHER STRANGE HORNED DINOSAUR
In September, 1913 at the camp from which I discovered the spiked
Dinosaur, Mr. Lambe’s _Styracosaurus_, I found above our tent back in
the badlands in a perpendicular escarpment, a fine skull of another
strange horned dinosaur. Mr. Lamb called it _Centrosaurus_, while Brown
still holds the name Cope gave a similar genus he collected in the
Judith River Formation in 1876, namely, _Monoclonius_, of which genus
I discovered two species that were new at that time. This specimen I
discovered, was about two hundred feet above the river. The first work
was to build a platform around it on which I could stand, so I could
work around the specimen. Mr. Lambe, himself, found the type of this
genus, which consisted of a neck frill about 1898. In this specimen
of mine I found a large part of the skull. It was however, due to
Charles M. Sternberg’s patient labor, that science is in debt for a
perfect skull of this strange reptile. It was found the next year after
I found mine, in the Dead Lodge Canyon near its lower extremity. You
may think from my description of so many fine specimens that we had
an easy job of it. When George found his plated dinosaur, he had
thirty-five feet of solid sandstone to remove. He needed Charlie’s
assistance very badly. But I was determined, if possible that he, and
I too, each should find a specimen worth collecting. Our journey down
to Dog Creek, Montana, had given George some three weeks the start of
us in hunting, and he had been very successful. As every hunter likes
to tell of his companions luck in the field, so also he likes to have
trophies of his own. So we searched over miles and miles of badlands,
week after week I was completely exhausted at night, after a day’s
unsuccessful hunt. There is no work so trying, as that of clinging
hour after hour to steep ascents, and searching every inch of exposed
surface, in and out among the winding slopes. Often we would climb two
hundred feet or more to the head of a coulee, to find after going a
few rods, a land slide had taken down acres of shaken up strata. Then
we would either climb to the summit, and go around, or go down to the
bottom and climb up on the other side of the slide. In many places we
were obliged to use our picks, as our chief dependence, in walking
around some almost perpendicular escarpment, or to cut niches in which
to secure a treacherous foothold in the steep slopes. I know that when
I got to camp at night, and had set down to our camp table, to eat the
fine supper, Mr. Johnson had prepared for us, appetising indeed, as
he made bread and cakes and many other dishes not usually expected in
camp where pancakes and baking powder biscuits are the rule generally;
my feet would swell so badly I would often be obliged to crawl on my
hands and knees to my tent and cot. There, stretched at full length,
with lamp above me, I read until bed time, never thinking of getting on
my feet until the next day, when I went through the same experience.
Charlie, as I said was the lucky one, he found the most complete skull
of this strange creature we have ever obtained. The Figure 26, shows it
in its rocky sepulcher after it was uncovered ready for wrapping. In
order to get to it we were obliged to leave our wagon on the prairie,
and go down into a coulee some five hundred feet below; cross over, and
on a road we made, haul our sled to it a hundred feet above the river.
Although the skull is badly injured by pressure, it is so perfect that
all the sutures between the bones can be detected, as in the case of
the _Chasmosaurus_ skull, George discovered.
I was able to completely restore my specimen from Charlie’s. So we have
now mounted in the Hall of Vertebrates, two skulls. The picture No.
27 shows some of the characters quite well. The nasal horn is curved
forward, and there are two short horns over the eyes; while in my
specimen, Figure 27, there are none.
I would like to take you to my shop again; where George is at work.
He is putting on the steel half ovals, that are to hold up the crest;
he is using an electric drill as you notice, Figure 28, and boring
holes through steel and skull so the bolts can be inserted to hold
the crest securely to the skull. In the back ground is the inch tube
that holds the ends of the half ovals, and is the standard that will
support the skull, on the permanent base. It all looks very simple,
but it represents a great deal of skilled labor. The strip of half
oval steel that supports the crest, was heated hundreds of times
and beaten to fit inequalities in the surface of the crest. It must
fit exactly, so there is no spring in the steel, otherwise when the
plaster jacket that covers the top of the skull is removed, the spring
will break the bones. The jacket is made of separate sections fitted
closely to the top of the skull. It serves two purposes, that of giving
a firm, uniform base behind the bones, so they may be cleaned, and
also to enable us to turn the skull over by looping a rope over it,
fastening this to the triplex block that rides on a trolley moving on
the eye-beams fastened to the ceiling. The skull (Fig. 28), is then
gently lifted, turned over, and the upright set in the permanent base
of polished mahogany. Then the jacket should lift off, as in the case
in hand. After cleaning the upper surface, the skull is ready, as
you see it, for permanent exhibition (Fig. 27), with the exception
that the glass case so necessary to protect it from dust, and vandal
fingers has not yet been put in place. It took all four of us, many
months to complete this skull for exhibition. I worked on it nearly
all one winter cleaning off the bog iron that covered it completely. If
you will notice closely the rough skull, especially with a glass, you
will see the bones were fractured in all directions. The first thing
I had to do, was to fasten these fragments securely in their places,
so I could remove the iron rust that clung firmly to them. After many
experiments with shellac, I found a thin solution of ambroid was the
most satisfactory. It would penetrate better than shellac, and when
dry, was hard as the flinty rock itself. If any of the fragments broke
loose under the tools I used, I must fill them again and again and wait
twenty-four hours or more for the cement to set firmly. You will notice
the lower jaw and crest seem rather smooth compared with the rest of
the skull, and they are, because they are restored in plaster, from the
complete skull Charlie found. The crest was chiefly prepared by Levi.
This was done while it was still in the plaster jacket. It was first
restored in moulding wax, copying exactly the perfect crest. I mean by
that, the wax on the jacket was manipulated by my son until it was a
facsimile of the original parts so as to be beyond criticism. Then a
cast was made in plaster of the wax model, the wax taken away, and the
place it occupied replaced with plaster colored as near the original
color of the bone as possible, to prevent a discord, or lack of harmony
in the completed skeleton. You see, then, we must be more than fossil
hunters; and I must say though I have collected fossils nearly every
year since 1867, and as my readers who have read my story know, have
often suffered in the field, it all sinks into insignificance compared
with the work of preparing the material for public exhibition. Take
the skull I am describing from 9 in the morning, with an hour’s
intermission at noon, until 5 p.m. I must have perfect control of
myself, I must not make a mistake, or I may ruin the entire skull.
That not only represents a great deal of expense, but is largely the
result of a lifetime spent in a business to which I was born; without
that experience and that of my sons, through most of their lives,
in all likelihood, we could never have discovered or collected it.
Then we do not work for today alone. As long as the Victoria Memorial
Museum stands, this and the other Red Deer Dinosaurs we collected, and
prepared, will be admired. It is because men will forget the worker in
their admiration for these strange relics of a day some three million
years ago, that I am going so exhaustively into detail, the life of
a fossil hunter in field and shop, so that the observing public,
when they go through one of our great museums may feel they are on
holy ground. The creatures of the misty past are before them; God’s
creatures, for if he cares for the raven, for the fall of a sparrow,
he must have cared for the creatures of his hand, that existed so many
ages before man appeared--these lords of creation, that domineer over
God’s green earth.
Look at the picture again, and you will notice two long spike-like
projections over the openings in the crest. They are evidently not
horn-cores, but bundles of ossified tendons, over which the muscles
intertwined, that controlled the powerful lower jaw. The entire skull
is over five feet long. Two horn-cores bend inward in the center of
the crest behind, and the rounded sides are sculpted into bony knobs
that in life were doubtless covered with horn. This creature must have
been as large as the spiked dinosaur nearly--at least nine feet long to
the drop of the tail, although I did not discover any skin impression
similar to that in _Chasmosaurus_, the environment was the same boggy
swamps and mossy meadows, his skin scales were colored to harmonize
with his surroundings. He would not be noticed when asleep in some
rushy embrassure, and when feeding, he was ever alert, ready to flee
from his enemy _Gorgosaurus_, or if need be face him and fight it out,
as we saw the spiked dinosaur along the margins of the cretaceous lake.