her wrinkling
or sinking of the surface of this part of the American continent, the
slumbering volcanic fires may be awakened to new life and activity.

CHAPTER IV

TWO PREHISTORIC CEMETERIES--GIANT REPTILES AND GIANT TREES

Although reptiles appeared first in the period known as the
Carboniferous Age, or age of plant life, they did not attain their
greatest development until Jurassic and Cretaceous times, when many were
of prodigious size and ruled the world. The gigantic ichthyosaurs,
mesosaurs, and dinosaurs held dominion over the sea and land, and the
monster flying reptile, the pterodactyl, over the air.

Ages ago a great inland sea embracing Wyoming and the surrounding region
occupied the area east of the Rocky Mountains. For many years students
of geology had found this section a fertile field for the study of rock
formations and the collection of fossils; but not until 1898 was the
geological wonderland of central-south Wyoming discovered.

This discovery proved to be a graveyard of prehistoric monsters dating
back probably several millions of years ago. Entombed in the rocks of
the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, many lizard-like animals of
gigantic size called saurians were found. Several fossil skeletons of
these animals have been chiselled out of the solid rocks and mounted in
museums, the work entailing a vast amount of labor and expense. The
discovery was made by Mr. Walter Granger, who had been sent out by the
American Museum of Natural History, of New York, to hunt for fossils.

In the desert section near Medicine Bow River, Wyoming, he found what
seemed to be a number of dark-brown bowlders. On a critical examination
they proved to be ponderous fossils that had been washed out of a great
bed of reptilian remains. The fossil graveyard in question was found to
be two hundred and seventy-five feet in thickness. Near by was a Mexican
sheep-herder's cabin, the foundations of which were constructed of huge
fossils. The vicinity was christened Bone Cabin Quarry. Ten miles south
of the Bone Cabin Quarry, in the Como Bluffs, another bed containing the
remains of huge dinosaurs was discovered. From these remarkable
cemeteries many fossils have been obtained.

The term saurian means "lizard," and it has many prefixes to indicate
the different genera and species. The prefixes generally express to a
certain extent the characteristic appearance or habits of the different
kinds of saurians. Some were f