Horse

Spring, 1906 While all of my animal friends have been able to relax in their new homes at the Smithsonian Zoological Park in Wasshington DC, I have had to continue my hard work as a horse since there are not yet any exhibits of North American horses in the zoo. Allthough I have not gone from a wild animal to a caged one, my life has changed dramatically. I have been sold to the Smithsonian Institute, and as a strong, young horse I expect to embark on long expeditions carrying the scientists of the Smithsonian Institute on my back. Winter, 1908 Today I thought I saw some of my friends from back at Yellowstone National Park in the Smithsonian, but I was mistaken. What I saw were these: Autumn, 1909 I have finally begun work on my expeditions of scientific discovery. I am currently in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in an area known as the Burgess Pass. I carry on my back a very important man at the Smithsonian Institution, the wife of [|Charles Doolittle Walcott], the secretary of the institution. After several weeks of searching and making little progrees, I stumbled upon a fragile piece of land, and tripped over it. It turns out that what i tripped over was a patch of ancient fossils, millions of years old. My clumsy footwork led to what is thought to be one of the greatest scientific deiscoveries of modern times. According to the story told in Mr. Walcott's obituary, "One of the most striking aspects of Walcott's final discoveries came at the end of the field season of 1909, when Mrs. Walcott's horse slid going down the trail, and turned up a slab which at once attracted her husband's attention. Here was a great treasure – wholly strange Crustacea of Middle Cambrian time - but where in the mountains was the mother rock from which the slab had come? snow was falling, and the riddle was left for another season, but next year the Walcotts were back to Mount Wapta, and eventually the slab was traced to a layer of shale, later called the [|Burgess Shale], 3000 feet above Field.”