THE GUIDE TO NATURE, 



"WITH A TEAM OF CAYUSES, ARCHIPPUS AND A CAMP OUTFIT 

 WE DROVE TO CANON FERRY." 



best exposures of the White River beds 

 (named from White River in South 

 Dakota where the deposits were first ex- 

 plored) I had seen in Montana, and they 

 were thousands of feet in thickness, I 

 searched in vain for the smallest frag- 

 ments of bone, though there were some 

 impressions of leaves and portions of 

 petrified trunks of trees in the rocks. 



I wished to cross the river, and the 

 nearest bridge was some distance away, 

 but on Sunday, Mr. Beatty's son and 

 family came visiting from over the river, 

 so I had an opportunity to return in a 

 boat. I had previously returned to Win- 

 ston for my camera, and my outfit now 

 consisted of this, a pick, and a sack con- 

 taining cotton and paper for wrapping 

 specimens. 



I stopped over night at a ranch-house 

 on the long sloping bench-land about 

 half way between the river and the Belt 

 Mountains which bound the valley on 

 the east. The next day I bought, for 

 $30, a horse, old but gentle, and an old 

 hornless saddle. 



After searching the ravines and bluff's 

 for a day or two and finding little except 

 a jaw and some teeth of ancient horses, 

 I tied my pick and sack to the saddle, 

 put the carrying strap of my camera over 

 my shoulder, and started — not exactly 

 "sallied" — forth. I began working my 



way northward up the valley — "work- 

 ing" is the correct word, for my horse (I 

 named him "Archippus," which is the 

 Greek for "ancient horse") was slow, 

 his youthful hopes and ambitions 

 having changed to a gentle, meek, sub- 

 missive endurance. On the right, the 

 broad bench of Tertiary deposits sloped 

 gently up to the bases of the Belt Moun- 

 tains. On my left, toward the west, was 

 the river valley, beyond that the bad- 

 lands which I had recently examined, 

 and beyond those the Spokane Hills. 

 For hours we travelled over these 

 smooth, sloping benches, but there were 

 few good exposures of the underlying 

 Tertiary sands and gravels. 



Near evening the scene began to 

 change. The road descended from the 

 high bench and made its way along the 

 foot of the bluffs, between them and a 

 long lake. There were here quite exten- 

 sive exposures of the Tertiary rocks. At 

 last I passed a high mound or projecting 

 portion of the bluffs which looked as if it 

 might contain buried animals ; but it was 

 too late to examine it that night. At 

 dark I arrived at a little old stage sta- 

 tion named Canon Ferry, in a little 

 canon beside the river on the stage road 

 from Helena to White Sulphur Springs. 

 The canon is still there, but the "ferry" 

 has been replaced by an iron bridge, a 



