Although the summer days are long in this latitude the season is short and thousands of geese flying southward foretell the early winter. Where the temperature is not infrequently forty to sixty degrees below zero in winter, it is difficult to think of a time when a warm climate could have prevailed, yet such condition is indicated by the fossil plants.
When the weather became too cold to work with plaster, the fossils were shipped from a branch railroad forty-five miles distant, the camp material was stored for the winter and with block and tackle the big boat was hauled up on shore above the reach of high water.
In the summer of 1911 the boat was recalked and again launched when we continued our search from the point at which work closed the previous year. During the summer we were visited by the Museum's President, Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, and one of the Trustees, Mr. Madison Grant. A canoeing trip, one of great interest and pleasure, was taken with our visitors covering two hundred and fifty miles down the river from the town of Red Deer, during which valuable material was added to the collection and important geological data secured.
As a result of the Canadian work the Museum is enriched by a magnificent collection of Cretaceous fossils some of which are new to science.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Transactions Kansas Academy of Science, p. 43.
[20] From Fossil Wonders of the West. Century Magazine 1904, vol. lxviii, pp. 680-694. Reprinted by permission.
[21] At this time the Union Pacific Railroad directly passed the bluffs; in the recent improvement of the grade the main line has been moved to the south.—H.F.O.
[22] A different interpretation of this contraction is given upon p. 68.