Review : Real Indianas

Ever wonder how palaeontologists felt a century ago? Discovering Dinosaurs
in the Old West, edited by Michael Kohl and John McIntosh, reprints the field
journals English immigrant Arthur Lakes wrote when he uncovered Stegosaurus and
Apatosaurus. He waxes eloquent about the wonders of giant bones and the Wyoming
landscape, and tells tales about Indians and train robbers, but grows terse in
the winter: “February 3, Severe weather. Froze my ear. Train off track by
cattle.” Rough-edged but realistic. Published by Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, £19.50, ISBN 1560987006.