t unlike the back shield on the helmet of a
fireman, and over each eye was another protective plate of bone,
doubtless intended, as was the rear one, to guard vital organs.

The Triceratops was the largest animal of his kind, more than
twenty-five feet long, and while he may not have matched the
Brontosaurus, or Thunder Lizard, which was from forty to sixty feet
long, from ten to fourteen feet high, with thigh bones measuring six
feet in length (the largest single bones known to science)--while, I
say, the Triceratops may not have been a match for the Thunder Lizard,
he was a Dinosaur to be reckoned with.

And as the remains of this prehistoric monster, that had lived, walked,
eaten and fought on earth from ten to twenty-five million years ago,
rose out of the pit, even the workaday cowboys could not repress a
cheer.

"That's the idea, boys!" cried Professor Wright, who was quite a
different person, now that his work was crowned with success. "I feel
like cheering also! This is the culmination of my life's ambition, and
that of my helper, Professor Blair!"

When the wounded had been cared for and the prisoners had been sent to
the nearest jail, the remains of the skeleton of the Triceratops, part
of the bones imbedded in rock, were carefully hoisted out and laid to
one side. When I tell you that the skull, alone, of one of these
monsters, imbedded in rock, weighed, when boxed for shipment to a
museum, over three tons, you may form some idea of the magnitude of
this sort of relic collecting, and understand why many powerful steers
were needed, with tackle, to raise specimens out of a deep pit.

That the boy ranchers were intensely interested in the remaining work
of restoring to science the lost Triceratops, goes without saying.
When it was made plain that the two professors and their men were not
cattle rustlers, Mr. Merkel gave them every assistance in his power,
assigning some of his cowboys to help with the labor of excavating the
remaining bones, not all of which could be found.

For it is rare that a complete skeleton of these monster Dinosaurs is
recovered. While our western states, in certain places, are rich in
fossil remains, there is very seldom a complete skeleton unearthed. At
best there are but a few bones, or the impressions of bones, in the
sandstone rocks or shale. But from these bones, from the impressions
of those that have been eaten by time, and by their knowledge of what
sort of anatomy