“This beast has got four legs.”
The professor nodded approvingly at his nephew.
“Very good, Perry,” he said, “I’m glad to see that you tell bones so clearly. The Eosiren did have hind legs. Both the manatee of Florida and the dugong of the Red Sea have lost their hind legs. The Halitherium of the Oligocene Period had only a rudimentary hind leg, so that you can see how far back in the history of Sirenian development this Eosiren comes. But what makes him especially interesting to us on this trip, Perry, is that he’s distantly related to the ancestor of the elephant, and, as you know, we’re hot on the trail of elephants.”
“I don’t see how a sea-cow can be on the road to the elephants,” ejaculated Perry in surprise. “It looks a heap more like a seal.”
“Looks don’t count for a great deal in paleontology, my boy,” warned the scientist. He turned to Antoine, who was putting up his pencils. “Have you finished?”
“Yes, sir,” answered the younger man, showing his sketch to the leader of the expedition, who scanned it closely.
“H’m, yes,” he said, “that’s about it. Now we’d better get up the bones.”
The fragility of the Eosiren skeleton made this a more difficult task than Perry had expected, and he inwardly blessed Antoine a dozen times that his friend had kept him from trying to pull the bones out of the sand by main force. First, by carefully hardening them with glue, and then by wrapping them with canvas and plaster-of-paris bandages, finally all the bones were got ready for removal, and, for the time was wearing on, the party hurried back to the camp, snatched a hasty breakfast and gave word for the caravan to start. As they moved away, Perry and his uncle turned for a last look over the level which had given the boy his first paleontological prize, and the scientist drew his nephew’s attention to the ruined temple of Qasr-el-Sagha, visible in the distance.
“That’s an easy place to remember,” said the scientist, and plunged into the history of the temple when it stood on the very banks of Lake Moeris and was the center of a busy Roman colony, “easy to remember because it has given its name to the giant coney of Eocene times. If you did a little digging here, you would find many of his bones. Think a minute and see if you can’t guess the name.”
“‘Therium’ means beast,” said Perry, meditatively, “and the name of the temple is Qasr-el-Sagha. Oh, I know!” he said, eagerly, “the Saghatherium! We’ve got him at home in the Museum.”