Near Wagner's ranch the canyon was prospected and so many bones found that it appeared most desirable to do extended searching along the river.
Usually fossils are found in "bad lands," where extensive areas are denuded of grass and the surface eroded into hills and ravines.

A camp is located near some spring or stream and collectors ride or walk over miles of these exposures in each direction till the region is thoroughly explored.

Quite different are conditions on the Red Deer River.

Cutting through the prairie land the river had formed a canyon two to five hundred feet deep and rarely more than a mile wide at the top.

In places the walls are nearly perpendicular and the river winds in its narrow valley, touching one side then crossing to the other so that it is impossible to follow up or down its course any great distance even on horseback.
It was evident that the most feasible way to work these banks was from a boat; consequently in the summer of 1910 our party proceeded to the town of Red Deer, where the Calgary-Edmonton railroad crosses the river.