One thing I have demanded as my right, in my opinion an inalienable right, although I am sorry to say that there are those who have denied it to me,—I demand that my name appear as collector on all the material which I have gathered from the rocks of the earth.

I might have sold to showmen or dealers; in fact I have the assurance of one of the largest dealers in America that I made a great mistake in selling directly to museums instead of through him. If I had done as he advised, the thousands of fossils I have collected would have cost the museums fifty per cent. more than they have, and my work would have been measured by the money these dealers would have been pleased to allow me, and I should never have been known as one of those who have devoted their lives to the advancement of paleontology.

CHAPTER II
MY FIRST EXPEDITION TO THE KANSAS CHALK, 1876

I spent the winter of 1875 and ’76 as a student at the Kansas State Agricultural College.

Here a party was gathered to explore western Kansas for fossils, under the leadership of Professor B. F. Mudge, the enthusiastic state geologist and a popular professor of the college. The expedition was to be made under the auspices of Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, whose efforts have secured for that institution the largest collection perhaps in the world of American fossil vertebrates.

I made every effort in my power to secure a place in the party, but failed, as it was full when I applied. It has always been hard, however, for me to give up what I have determined to accomplish; so, although almost with despair, I turned for help to Professor E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia, who was becoming so well known that a report of his fame had reached me at Manhattan.

I put my soul into the letter I wrote him, for this was my last chance. I told him of my love for science, and of my earnest longing to enter the chalk of western Kansas and make a collection of its wonderful fossils, no matter what it might cost me in discomfort and danger. I said, however, that I was too poor to go at my own expense, and asked him to send me three hundred dollars to buy a team of ponies, a wagon, and a camp outfit, and to hire a cook and driver. I sent no recommendations from well-known men as to my honesty or executive ability, mentioning only my work in the Dakota Group.

I was in a terrible state of suspense when I had despatched the letter, but, fortunately, the Professor responded promptly, and when I opened the envelope, a draft for three hundred dollars fell at my feet. The note which accompanied it said: “I like the style of your letter. Enclose draft. Go to work,” or words to the same effect.

That letter bound me to Cope for four long years, and enabled me to endure immeasurable hardships and privations in the barren fossil fields of the West; and it has always been one of the joys of my life to have known intimately in field and shop the greatest naturalist America has produced.