[ I ] 



92 



point out the public buildings ; one appeared to have a large dome which 

 might be the town hall ; another, a large angular, cone-shape top, which I 

 would suggest the court house or some magnificent building for public 

 purposes ; then would appear a row of palaces, great in number and superb 

 in all their arrangements. Indeed the thought frequently occurred as we 

 rode along, that at a distance, this portion of the ground looked like a city 

 of palaces; every thing arranged upon the grandest scale and adapted for 

 the habitation, not of pigmies, such as now inhabit the earth, but of giants, 

 such as would be fit to rule over the ponderous animals whose remains are 

 still found there. Again and again, as from different positions these hills 

 came in sight, would such thoughts arise in my mind, and I could almost 

 fancy, that upon the wind would occasionally be borne, the din and bustle 

 of the immense city. 



The mintl could not remain with the present ; it must range back to the 

 earliest period, and ask whence were these things? but soon a nearer view 

 would destroy all illusion and fancy would have to give place to fact, and 

 allow these self-created cities to be mere sand hills. But sand hills as they 

 are, they are wonderful and must excite the greatest interest in the scientific 

 world. I wish that we had with us a company of men of this kind pre- 

 pared for a thorough exploration, as my only hope is to be an humble 

 pioneer, and to l)e the means of prompting others more able to engage in 

 the work. Our route lay to the west of the Lands, and away in the dis- 

 tance, still further west, appeared a dim blue outline which marked the 

 Black hills ; these are distant about two days march. 



The road from Fort Pierre is in a direction nearly due west, until about 

 Pinot's spring, where it takes a general direction of south by west. As it 

 approaches Sage creek, ho\vever, it becomes very serpentine, for so great is 

 the descent from the plains to the water level here, that the road must 

 follow all the wincbngs of the ridse to set down to it. 



The tops of the highest butes in the BafI Land appeared to be aliout on a 

 level with the plain, but I took no exact observation. About five o'clock, 

 we came near to Sage creek and entered on the Bad Lands ; here it is 

 merely a great number of small hills of all shapes thrown together in great 

 confusion and very barren. In thinking of how these lands were formed, 

 it occurred to me very forcibly, that it was by some convulsion of nature 

 by which the ground sunk — the hills were not elevated, but were left so by 

 the depression of the surrounding land. This opinion appears to be con- 

 firmed by the fact, that the highest butes have on their tops, prairie land 

 covered with vegetation, such as the plain beyond the Bad Lands ; then 

 again, the formation of one of the first hills over which the road passes, 

 confirms it ; the hill is very steep on both sides and ranges nearly north and 

 south, I think ; it is just about long enough for a good road, and is covered 

 as thick as the bottom of any stream with gravel and small stones, such as 

 are found in the beds of streams here ; at each end of this little hill stand 

 two butes, one very slightly elevated, between which the road passes, and 

 just opposite and east of the right hand one, is another like them, the tops 

 of all of which are nearly level, and as well as I could observe, covered 

 with the same kind of small stones as cover the road and just as thick ; the 

 sides of these small butes are perpendicular, and the strata of clay they ex- 

 hibit are horizontal, showing that they have not been distributed by any 

 up-heaving force. 



This same thing is true of a great many of the hills ; the strata are pep- 



