Ivan Rubtsov’s Reviews > The Life of a Fossil Hunter > Status Update

“If I have found, scattered along a wash, the bones of some fossil fish or reptile, as soon as we have pitched camp and eaten our meal … we both return with pick and shovel, and, carefully saving each weathered fragment, trace the remains to where the rest of the bones lie in situ, as the scientists say — that is, in their original position in their rocky sepulcher.”

I like how it fells like a western.

“He sent me J. C. Isaac, from Illges Ranch, Wyoming; … for Mr. Isaac had but a short time before seen five of his companions 48shot down and scalped by a band of marauding Indians … Consequently, he saw an Indian behind every bush;”

I am reading this book side by side with Dragon Teeth and I find the overlap of non fictional characters with the real in this book. I think Dragon teeth take inspiration.

“The cinnamon sends forth its perfume beside the sassafras… Many other beautiful plant forms grace the landscape, but the glorious picture is only for him who gathers the remains of these forests, and by the power of his imagination puts life into them.”

I find it intriguing how some early palaeontology are related to the Wild West. But I have doubts that the writer is a non fiction writer, feels academic.