4

Messin’ with Texas and Returning for Rhinos

By early December, Hatcher was preparing for a winter season of collecting near Wichita Falls, Texas. His purchases funded by Marsh’s account included a tent, blankets, pen, ink, and a rubber suit, perhaps for warmth. On December 11, he purchased a ticket for just under $35 (about $960 in today’s dollars) and boarded a train in New Haven for a five-day rumble to Fort Worth via Cincinnati and St. Louis. Thus, less than two months after finishing his first field season in Kansas, Hatcher’s first solo foray found him wandering around Wichita Falls on Christmas Day 1884. His charge was to collect fossil vertebrates from Permian rock layers in the area that were between 280 and 270 million years old.¹

In essence, Marsh was sending Hatcher on a mission to compete with Cope. When ensconced in the Wheeler Survey for the US government, Cope had traveled to Texas in 1877, the same year the “Bone Wars” for dinosaurs descended on Colorado and Wyoming further to the north. While working in Texas, Cope met a local fossil collector named Jacob Boll, who was born in Switzerland in 1828 and belonged to a family that had established the utopian society called La Reunion in Dallas during the mid-19th century. Apparently fond of fieldwork, Boll discovered the first vertebrate fossils from the Permian red beds near the Wichita and Red Rivers, and Cope hired him to collect. It was primarily through Boll’s collection that Cope began describing in 1878 the ancient amphibians and reptiles that had inhabited the region around Wichita Falls around 275 million years ago. Lending credence to the hazards of such fieldwork back in those days, Boll actually died in 1880, when he was bitten by a venomous snake while on a collecting trip in the area. From then on, Cope hired William F. Cummins, a Missouri-born Methodist minster and former Confederate soldier turned geologist, to lead his collecting efforts in the region.²

But also in 1878, Marsh had purchased some Permian fossils from nearby New Mexico, discovered by David Baldwin, an enigmatic freelancer who especially loved to collect fossils all alone—except for his burro, some cornmeal, and his pickax—during the dead of winter to avoid the summer heat and take advantage of snowy meltwater. Marsh rather deviously described Baldwin’s fossils before Cope described his from Texas, further inflaming their feud, as illustrated by the following incident:

In the winter of 1877–1878, Jacob Boll of Dallas collected for Cope remains of animals . . . from the Texas redbeds, and the discovery was announced by Cope at a meeting in Philadelphia. It is said that Marsh, present at the meeting, left early to catch a train for New Haven, having remembered that he had purchased (but up to then neglected) a collection of bones, apparently also Permian in age, from New Mexico. He appears to have opened one or two packages and to have hastily written a short paper, which was published within a few weeks. Marsh, despite his knowledge of Cope’s work, calmly stated that “hitherto no Permian vertebrates have been identified in this country.” His work of identification was so superficial that of two species described as belonging to a single genus, one is an amphibian, the other a mammal-like reptile! Cope, quite naturally, was aggrieved at this treatment; and when his own paper was published, appears to have compounded the tangle by claiming it to have been distributed about three weeks earlier than was the case. And so the battle continued.³

All this work helped open a new chapter in paleontological history, as the world was introduced to several new fossilized superstars, such as the giant, salamander-like amphibian Eryops and the fabulous, fin-backed early relative of mammals Dimetrodon—both top predators of their day.

When Hatcher arrived on the scene, he resourcefully hired a driver with a horse-drawn wagon for $2.66 per day, or about $73 per day in modern currency, who knew where Cope’s Cummins-led crew had collected. Having purchased tent poles, groceries, a notebook, and towels on December 23, he informed Marsh that they would depart the next day for a two-week reconnaissance trip. But it would not be conducted under cushy conditions—the temperature was twelve degrees below zero and the small towns that dotted the harsh landscape were fifty to sixty miles apart. In addition, those towns seemed to be rather poorly tended by local law enforcement: “There was rather an amusing though serious instance [that] occurred here the other day. Two men quarreled, one shot and killed the other. The authorities arrested and imprisoned the dead man & let the living one go.” Before parting, Hatcher reported that he hadn’t heard from Cope’s former collector David Baldwin yet. In what would become a recurring refrain, he requested that Marsh immediately send $100 to sustain the operation so it would be there when he returned to town.⁴

Eleven eventful days later, Hatcher chronicled the trials and tribulations on January 3, 1885. While they were in the field, two men in the region froze to death, and David Ballow, the old settler guiding Hatcher, suffered a frozen foot. Hatcher, however, remained healthy. Their travels were aided by the rivers being frozen, which facilitated crossing and allowed them to cover fifty miles during the nine-day trip. Hatcher located three fossil beds, but due to the sub-zero temperatures, the ground was too hard to quarry because it was frozen solid. Yet Hatcher was able to gather fragments of bone on the surface and sent Marsh a few samples for evaluation. Overall, the prospects seemed good for success once the weather warmed, leading Hatcher to confidently proclaim, “I know that the locality is inexhaustible and I think that if I could have 2 or 3 men to help me for as many months and good weather I could easily get a carload [ie. rail boxcar] of bones.” He had a couple of men in mind, including Ballow and a younger local named James Lyons, a cowboy who could double as cook, but they would charge $40 per month, a salary much higher than journeymen in Kansas. After asking for Marsh’s guidance, he closed with his soon-to-be common chorus, “Have not heard from you since I came. Have not rec’d the money I wrote for yet. I am out of money and can not go out again untill [sic] I get money.”⁵

Marsh finally rode to the rescue with a $100 check that Hatcher received on January 7, and with the weather having significantly improved, Hatcher set out for the hinterlands on the eighth. He informed Marsh that he expected to be gone about two weeks.⁶

Upon his return about January 20, Hatcher was, once again, more than miffed to find no letter from Marsh. As he waited for another week, his simmering frustration built up to a roiling boil by the twenty-seventh:

I have received no answer to my letter of Jan. 3. When I left for Texas you authorized me to expend $50.00 for help if it was needed, before hearing further from you. I have already expended a little over that amount & have not heard anything as yet from you about the matter. I have been waiting for over a week to hear from you. I like to do as nearly as possible and directed. We are having good weather now and I feel as though I should be at work, but will wait until I hear from you. I collected & packed three large boxes of bones while out on my last trip and collected & left out there about 250 lbs. which I had not lumber for boxes to pack in. I am fully convinced of the richness of the locality and if I could have anything or anybody to do with & knew what to do I could & would do a great deal here by the first of April or time to go to KS. But I do not feel very much encouraged so far.

As far as hearing from you often is concerned that does not matter but I don’t like to lay around waiting & doing nothing when a word or two would let me know what to do.

If you want me to do anything here please write and let me know as the $50.00 have already been expended and send check for $100.00.”

In terms of fossils, his letter only states that he had collected several jaws with teeth, many toe and leg bones and one skull over a foot long, but he made no attempt to identify them.⁷

In addition to the letter, he must have sent Marsh a telegram complaining about Marsh’s lack of correspondence with additional funding. For the next day on the twenty-eighth, Marsh telegraphically replied, “Letter Jan 3 answered promptly. Keep on with work.” On the twenty-ninth, Hatcher wrote Marsh that he’d received the telegram and was again heading out with Lyons, even though he hadn’t received Marsh’s letter. As to why the letter hadn’t arrived, news in town seemed to suggest an answer: “There seems to be considerable trouble in getting mail through this postoffice [sic]. I understand that the present postmaster has been arrested for destroying mail & that another will take his place. Hope it will be for the better.” Hatcher ended with another plea to send a total of $150 to fund continued work.⁸

A weary Hatcher trundled back into Wichita Falls on February 8, only to find that there was still no letter from Marsh. Having only received $100 during the last six weeks, Hatcher’s woeful missive to Marsh the next day detailed the dire state of his financial affairs: “I can not pay my board, hire a man & team, buy provisions, packing material, lumber etc. for six weeks on a hundred dollars. I have not money enough to buy a postal card nor have not had for some time.” Regardless, Hatcher reported that he’d collected a box of good specimens on the trip and would send some teeth and toe bones by mail before lamenting that he wouldn’t have come in so soon, “. . . but some one came when we were off at work and stole three pair of blankets and a lot of provisions so that we had to come in for more. . . . But I have nothing to get either with.”⁹

At long last, fortunately, Marsh’s check was in fact in the mail and arrived the next day, on the tenth. Flush with $150, Hatcher paid his bills for lumber, hardware, groceries, packing material, and overdue salaries for himself, Ballow, and Lyons. Then he wrote Marsh that he planned to be out for five or six weeks, near Seymour in Baylor County, until it would be time to head back to the Long Island Rhino Quarry in Kansas. Marsh must have badgered him about the burgeoning expenses for the trip, because Hatcher assured him that he would do his best to keep them down, but he needed Lyons to help him handle the thousand pounds of broken specimens he’d already accumulated. As evidence for his economic restraint, Hatcher said he wouldn’t need to buy blankets, since he’d been able to borrow some to replace the stolen ones. However, he ominously intimated to Marsh, “When I go out I am going to visit all the cow camps in the vicinity & if the boys have the blankets I will have them or something else.” Looking forward, Hatcher implored Marsh to send $200 so it would arrive in three weeks, if he wanted him to leave for Kansas in April, which at that point, Hatcher was more than willing to do. The funds would be needed to wrap up, pay bills, and ship the specimens from Fort Sill, now Lawton, Oklahoma.¹⁰

Needless to say, when Hatcher arrived back in Wichita Falls on March 8, there was no letter or check from Marsh to greet him, making it impossible for the road warrior to wrap up his work and head off to Kansas. Infuriated, Hatcher let loose with a lecture:

. . . In order to be there promptly as I have always tried to be prompt with you I walked about sixteen miles & waded the Big Wichita River when there was ice in it only to find when I got there that there was nothing for me & I have received nothing yet.

I do not know why it is that you have been holding back on me since I came here unless you are in some way dissatisfied with me. If you are, I don’t feel that I can better matters for I have done my best since I commenced in July. I like the work and should like to continue in it if I thought I could please you. But I do not like the way matters have been since I came to Texas. When I promise men money at such a time I expect to get it there for them and I don’t like to tell them when the time comes that I haven’t it.

Unless there can be a change I had rather stop work.

Adding to Hatcher’s frustration was the fact that he’d had a verbal battle with Ballow and had to dismiss him because the old codger had complained that Hatcher rode his mule too hard. Yet despite all the trouble, Hatcher had secured seven boxes with between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds of specimens that were ready to ship as soon as Marsh’s check for $200 was received.¹¹

Hatcher had to cool his heels for another ten days before funds arrived, along with Marsh’s explanation that he had taken ill. In his response on the seventeenth, Hatcher expressed hope that Marsh had entirely recovered before informing him that he’d leave for Kansas the next day and had written Overton to expect him there by April 1. But it turned out that Hatcher had not wasted his time while waiting; instead, he’d gathered some juicy intelligence for Marsh:

I have become acquainted with Prof. W. F. Cummins who has been collecting here the past four years for E. D. Cope. He would like to collect for you during this coming summer. I told him that I would stop off in Dallas as I went through & see him. I think he would be a good man at any rate the best one in this part of the country.

He also spoke to me of some fossil birds he wanted to dispose of to you. He says Cope has written him to send them to him, but that he is waiting to hear from you.¹²

It seems Hatcher might have had a hidden agenda for hoping that Marsh would engage Cummins to carry on with the collecting in Texas, for Hatcher’s closing commentary regarding the region is less than complimentary:

I think Texas is the worst place outside of “Hades.” I have done the best I could under circumstances since I came here & have found a great many specimens though most of them are badly broken up. I am not satisfied with my work here for I have had to lay still & do nothing half of the time simply because I had nothing to do [it] with. . . .

If you ever want me to come to Texas again, this Fall for instance, I am willing to come but I want to pick some northern man out to come with me.¹³

And with that, as far as the records show, Hatcher would never return to Texas to collect. It seems that as far as he was concerned, he had gathered his evidence, formed his opinion, and delivered his verdict. In all, collecting the seven crates now constituting thirty-one catalogued Permian fossils in the Peabody collection had cost $532.93, which Hatcher, in his eagerness to calm Marsh’s nerves about his field expenses, meticulously calculated to average out at only $177.64 per month—a mere $4,200 in today’s money.¹⁴

Nonetheless, Hatcher gleaned a respectable, if not spectacular, set of specimens from the rugged landscape. In general, most of the material Hatcher collected during his tenure with Marsh was shipped from the field to the Peabody Museum at Yale, even though technically Hatcher was employed through the USGS. For the most part, it wasn’t until after Marsh died in March of 1899 that a comprehensive program was conducted to split Hatcher’s massive collection between the Peabody and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C. A search through the online collections of both institutions reveals that Hatcher’s 1885 specimens from around Wichita Falls were split rather unevenly between the Peabody, which retains thirty-one specimens, and the USNM, which possesses only one.

Still housed in the Peabody’s collection are a skull, vertebrae, and other skeletal fragments of a bizarre, boomerang-headed amphibian called Diplocaulus, which, with its sharp teeth and three-foot-long body, plied the Permian streams in search of prey around 275 million years ago. Other specimens include a skull, lower jaw and limb bones of Eryops, a 275-million-year-old, six- to nine-foot-long amphibian that probably used its sturdy four limbs to punt through the swampy rivers or occasionally haul out on land in search of prey, which it would grasp with its teeth before tossing its head up and backwards like a crocodile in order to swallow the meal. A fairly closely related amphibious form, called Trimerorhachis, is also represented. Two types of fin-backed, terrestrial, early relatives of mammals also adorn the Peabody’s collection—the dazzling, carnivorous Dimetrodon and the equally elaborate, herbivorous Edaphosaurus. Another Peabody denizen from Hatcher’s Texas sojourn is Diadectes, a seemingly bloated, six- to nine-foot-long beast that was among the first fully terrestrial, herbivorous animals ever to evolve to such a large size. Finally, there are two specimens of a salamander-like amphibian, named Lysorophus, which was probably a fully aquatic form, based on the size of its tiny reduced limbs, and three specimens of the nimble reptilian insectivore called Labidosaurus. Also represented is a freshwater shark named Orthacanthus. The only fossil at the USNM from Hatcher’s Texas haul that is fully identified is a specimen of Captorhinus aguti.¹⁵

After fleeing Texas, Hatcher arrived back in the friendly confines of his Long Island Rhino Quarry on March 22 to find the Overtons glad to see him, especially since he hoped to hire Overton and two of his sons to help with the work and sought Marsh’s approval. By April 3, Marsh, apparently concerned about costs, sanctioned the hiring of one man, and Hatcher concurred, “I am glad you only want one man to work here with me for I think I can do better work. . . . With one man here the expenses will not be above $120 per month.” Although work was going well, with the discovery of two good rhino skulls, Hatcher needed another $100 for salaries and scraping overburden to expand the quarry. By the twelfth, Hatcher’s submission of his weekly activity report listed 727 bones collected and packed into thirteen crates, including four rhino skulls of which three were “perfect,” one mastodon lower jaw, and some rhino hyoid bones that Marsh had indicated he was especially keen to see. On the twentieth, with a $100 check in hand and a good deal of glee, Hatcher noted that the crew was having even better luck than the previous year.¹⁶

Although hampered by rainy weather and a “strained” and painful left hand the following week, Hatcher nonetheless reported finding a skull with lower jaws and a mastodon tusk, along with a tally of twenty-one full boxes, on the twenty-sixth. In early May, after paying the Overtons and purchasing tent poles, twine, glue, straw, and nails, Hatcher still needed more funds for lumber to build crates. He was working in the same quarry as the previous year but believed he’d need to move soon because there was so much dirt and stone in the twelve feet of overburden to move that continuing there would be very expensive. Despite that, by May 10, the quarry had produced “. . . two of the finest skulls . . . we have ever found.” He now had a total of thirty-one packed boxes containing 2,100 bones, mostly rhino except for a few small animals. Regarding his accommodations, he reassured Marsh, “I live alone in my tent & have it right at the quarry where I can watch everything. It is awful lonely.” He again bemoaned his lack of lumber and other supplies, before hopefully concluding, “but I suppose you have already sent the money I wrote for.” However, a week later he complained, “I now have over 300 bones out unpacked & no lumber for boxes to pack them in, nor money to get any with & it rained all day yesterday on them and is raining today.” Perhaps to spur Marsh’s payment, he warned that Henry Fairfield Osborn of Princeton had written young Overton about working there and having Overton work for him. Then he softened the blow with the fact that if Osborn hired Overton, Overton would have to work somewhere else on the property if Marsh said so, adding, “I have no doubt though that I can arrange all that peaceably.”¹⁷

The leverage worked, for Hatcher received a $100 check by May 24 and reported that they had now packed 41 boxes. Confidently projecting forward at that rate, he anticipated having at least 140 boxes by November 1, or 23 more than the previous year. But weather continued to weigh down the pace with hard rain and hail so everything was “drowned out.” Nonetheless, Hatcher reported the finding of two fine rhino skulls, a horse bone, and a mastodon tooth by the thirty-first.¹⁸

Marsh must have inquired again about Osborn, because on June 7, Hatcher told him:

I have heard nothing more of Mr. Osborn and young Overton. But had a talk at the time with Mr. Overton himself on the matter, and he told me that as long as you wanted me to dig bones here you need not be uneasy about his letting anyone else in. The old gentleman knew nothing about Osborn’s & young Overton’s correspondence until I told him, the boy having kept it from everyone but the man he got to read Osborn’s letters for him as he could not read them himself & this man was the first to tell me. I am quite convinced that Sternberg is at the bottom of all of it. But Mr. Overton & myself are on the best of terms & there will be no trouble. ¹⁹

Given the greater responsibilities that he was assuming for managing the project, over and above just collecting fossils, Hatcher apparently felt that he deserved a few more dollars, and in his characteristically steadfast and straightforward way, he addressed Marsh:

When I hired to you last June I agreed to stay two years at $50.00 per month if you wanted me & you said at that time that if I did well you might be able to do better by me. Now that my first year is nearly up I would like to know if you want me another year & if so how much better you can do? During the past year I have worked pretty hard & and just about come out even. I should like to feel like I was making a little clear after the 1st of July. I think while I am out here in the field at work $75.00 per month would not be far from right & $50.00 during the winter while in the museum. Please let me hear from you about this.²⁰

To bolster his proposed bargain he expanded on his very successful week, as shown on his daily report: one good rhino skull and two pair of good lower jaws, as well as an ulna and tibia of some kind of new animal entirely different from those found before. He further noted that he now had fixty-six packed boxes all from the same quarry he worked the preceding year, adding that the bones were getting better, but they now had to move twelve to fifteen feet of overburden to get to the bone layer.²¹ By June 21, Marsh, in addition to sending a $100 check, had decided to see the operation for himself. Hatcher was glad to hear he was coming out during the summer and reported that the railroad would be completed by the time he arrived all the way to Long Island. But Hatcher implored that if Marsh also went to Europe, he please send money to keep them going while he was gone. They now had sixty-six packed boxes and 5,102 numbered bones, all drawn in position on the gridded quarry map, including some good bird bones. Of course, he reassured his mentor, all the horse and camel bones were carefully collected, but they were rare where they were presently excavating.²²

In early July, Hatcher visited home for ten days. The timing of this trip seemed to reflect a natural break, for on the sixteenth, he told Marsh that he had finished his quarry with 117 boxes and would now move back across the ravine next to where Sternberg worked in 1884. Hatcher had neither heard nor seen anything of Sternberg. Apparently to counter Osborn’s feelers for collecting in the area, Hatcher also enclosed two copies of a possible contract signed by D. J. Miller, whom Hatcher believed almost surely had bones on his land. The agreement was drafted so that Marsh could control any bones there for the next three years without it costing a cent, although Miller would receive $50 per month for working under the direction of Marsh’s field supervisor. Hatcher didn’t expect to work there himself but rather to keep others out. Noting that Marsh had spoken the previous year of securing the rights to work on other places, Hatcher felt that there were two other men with whom they should do the same thing if Marsh wanted to control all the Miocene fossil beds in this area. Then Hatcher moved on to another chronic plea for funds:

About five weeks ago I wrote to you to send me $125.00. You have neither sent it nor told me why you did not. By the enclosed balance sheet you will see that I have up to yesterday paid out nearly $75.00 more than received. There will also be $70.00 due Mr. Overton the 29th of this month, 20 of which has been due for some time. I must have money and I want enough to do me a while without being broke all the time. I want $350.00 (three hundred & fifty) dollars. Send this amount in two checks, one for $125.00, the other for $225.00. Please send it at once for I am needing part of it.²³

By the twenty-seventh, Marsh had sent a $125 check and signed the contract. Meanwhile Hatcher was keeping a good lookout for all kinds of bones in his new quarry and finding “a great many that I do not know.” Accordingly, he kept everything, anticipating, “I have no doubt that when the collection from this place is worked over many new things will be found.” Beyond that, despite discouragingly wet weather, he found another rhino skull and two lower jaws, along with two hundred other bones, and reported he’d still not seen or heard of Sternberg. On the thirty-first, Hatcher chronicled the unusual discovery of an articulated partial skeleton of a horse and bones of a small carnivoran, along with an aggravating expense report that showed he’d still laid out $63.63 more than he’d received from Marsh, adding:

Mr. Overton’s July salary is now due. I must have more money. . . . I must have some more lumber soon. There will soon be due young Overton’s $20.00, Mr. Overton’s July and August salary $100, lumber $12.00, and $63.63 now due me, in all over $200.00. I wish you would send me at once $250.00 as both myself and Mr. Overton are needing it very badly. Please send it at once.²⁴

Despite Hatcher’s impassioned pleas, Marsh judiciously doled out a check for only $125 in his response on August 1. Miffed, Hatcher responded on August 7, “You want to know how work is progressing. Very well I think considering . . . the intense heat & amount of dirt & rock we have to move to get to bones.” So far, the season’s haul totaled eighty-seven boxes of bones, already as much as had been sent in the previous year. Hatcher’s luck with the horses continued, “At present we are getting some very fine horse bones which is something of a change from all the rhinoceros.” But he’d need more money by September 1 for scraping fees, lumber, packing materials, and salary for young Overton and Mr. Overton. By the twenty-first, as he continued to expand Sternberg’s old quarry, Hatcher’s next dispatch noted the discovery of many bones of animals not found before, including a lower jaw with teeth and several other bones of a very large carnivore, bones of small carnivores, a lower jaw with teeth and bones of a small ungulate, a nearly complete skeleton of frog, and many good horse bones. Yet his financial woes wore on. “Have expended nearly $150.00 more than I have received and I must have more money or stop work.” He now could boast of securing ninety-five boxes of bones.²⁵

Although two fine rhino skulls and other new kinds of bones continued to appear, by September 1, Hatcher lamented that the expense of getting to them was great due to the amount of overburden removal required, and he asked Marsh if he should continue here or open another quarry. More scraping was needed, but he had no money for it. They had packed 103 boxes with over nine thousand bones so far. His balance sheet for August revealed a continuing deficit of $130.58, including charges for newspapers and cotton for packing, a pick, scraping fees, twine, lumber, and salaries. Yet, always with his pupils peeled for potential poachers, Hatcher asked Marsh if it wouldn’t be a good plan to secure the rights to collect at “Bone Mound,” where Cope’s crew had worked for about three months one year.²⁶

As September blazed on, Hatcher coaxed more material out of the quarry, including rhinos, horses, “deer” and other small ungulates, carnivorans, and two fine skulls and two lower jaws of camels or other large ungulate. But by the thirteenth, Hatcher erupted once again at Marsh for funds.

By the end of October, when the field season concluded, Hatcher had shipped 115 crates of fossils to the Peabody—a prodigious haul, indeed. His 1885 collection from Long Island is now split between Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, with 1,299 specimens being housed at the former and 25 at the latter.

In all, the great majority of the 1885 Long Island, Kansas, specimens represent the rhinoceros Teleoceras fossiger, about which we’ve already spoken, totaling 1,163 in the Peabody. Other intriguing members of the 1885 fauna housed at the Peabody and USNM include another rhino, Aphelops; a primitive mastodon, Gomphotherium; a small, distant relative of antelope, Merycodus; and an advanced, three-toed horse, Pliohippus.

Despite being smaller, the 1885 collection by Hatcher that still resides in the USNM is somewhat more diverse than that of the Peabody, based on the current collection records. For example, four members of the camel family are present: Procamelus, Aepycamelus, Megatylopus, and the early relative of llamas, Hemiauchenia. The antelocaprid, Merycodus, is again represented, along with the somewhat elk-like, but not closely related, Pediomeryx or “Yumaceras.” Carnivorous mammals are represented by the bone-crushing, amphicyonid “bear dog” named Aelurodon and a catlike, saber-toothed carnivore called Barbourofelis. Among rodents, one finds a relative of modern mice, Hesperomys. Especially noteworthy in the USNM collection, the unusual horned mylagaulid rodent is specifically named “Epigaulus” hatcheri, in honor of its discoverer. Frogs are represented by the genus Bufo. Reptiles include a giant tortoise, Geochelone, as well as a bird that was a relative of the limpkin, Aramus.

In addition, the USNM specimen catalogue also contains two entries for the crocodile-like phytosaur named Rutiodon, which lived in the Triassic about 225 million years ago. Interestingly, there seems to be no mention in Hatcher’s correspondence that he took a separate collecting trip to North Carolina where these specimens were collected.

On the strength of all his success in Kansas and Texas, and clearly indicative of Marsh’s growing confidence in Hatcher’s abilities, Hatcher’s request for a raise was granted. As the new agreement, dated March 6, 1886, stated,

I hereby agree to remain with Prof. Marsh on U. S. Geolog. Survey till July 1st 1887, or one year from the expiration of present agreement for ninety dollars [90] per month [almost $2200/mo. in today’s dollars], provided the Govt gives the same or a greater amount for paleontology than this year.

I further agree to remain four years more, or till July 1st 1891, on above conditions, for $100 per month. Signed J. B. Hatcher²⁷ (See appendix 1)