Searching
for
Dinosaur and
Other Prehistoric Animal Fossils
The Yale College Expedition of 1870
A first hand account of
the 1870
College Expedition lead by Othniel Charles Marsh to the Rocky Mountains. |
|
|
| THE
peaks of the Rocky Mountains
once
projected as islands from a vast inland sea
whose waves swept from the Gulf of Mexico to the polar ocean.
In this era of the world a
tropical climate extended far beyond the arctic
circle, and the tepid waters swarmed with sea
serpents and other reptilian monsters. At the
close of this period, known to geologists as the
cretaceous, a slow upheaval drained this ocean
from the continent, and left behind great lakes,
whose shores and waters teemed again, in tertiary time, with new forms
of tropical life. Rhinoceros,
crocodiles, and huge tortoises
basked
upon the banks or lay beneath the shade of gigantic palms ; and as the
ages rolled away prolific nature brought upon the scene the
mammoth, mastodon, and horse. During the tertiary period mud and sand
accumulated in the
lakes to the depth of
many hundred
feet, and |
|
entombed
the
bones of all these animals. Then
came a time when all was dry, and torrents from
the mountains wore through the deep accumulations. Ages
have
passed since then, while
rains and streams have toiled to wash away the
work of all the prior years; and in the crumbling bluffs that now
remain as memorials of
the past the patient geologist may find the petrified remains of all
the forms of life belonging
to that early time. To
the region of these eroded basins Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale
College, had
long contemplated a
geological expedition; and in June, 1870, he organized, from
graduates and students
of that university,
the party to which it was the
writer's privilege to belong. Our first
exploration was to be made
along
the Loup Fork River, in Nebraska. We
started from Fort M'Pherson
escorted by a
company of cavalry;
for this was the country of the |
|
|
Sioux, and they were now in a state of unusual
excitement.
Across
an
unexplored
desert of sand hills between the river Platte
and the Loup Fork the celebrated Major North, with two Pawnee Indians, undertook to
lead
us. These
guides rode about a mile in advance of the column. The
major pointed out
the least difficult
paths;
while the Indians crept up each high bluff,
and from behind
a bunch of grass peered over the top for signs of
hostility. Next
in the line of march
came the company of cavalry, commanded by Lieutenants Reilly and
Thomas ; |
|