Douglass : A Geological Reconnaissance. 235 



in the Fort Union deposits, nor are they exactly like the usual char- 

 acter of the Lower White River beds, yet I believed it to be Lower 

 Oligocene. I procured a small collection of leaves here, among which 

 Professor Knowlton found species of Popubis and Credneria (?), 

 and some small leaves, unknown to him, which are probably new. In 

 a letter to me he wrote that the species found near Dickinson 

 " thought to be of Oligocene age are Fort Union species, but it should 

 be added that we do not know as yet a typical Oligocene flora from 

 this country, and it may be necessary to revise the upper extension of 

 the Fort Union." Professor A. G. Leonard, in the third biennial 

 report of the North Dakota Geological Survey (pages i6o and i6i), 

 gives a section at this place. 



Near the road between Dickinson and the Little Bad-lands are very 

 soft beds in which there are strata of peculiar looking sandstone, form- 

 ing ledges and flat-topped hills. Broken fragments of the sandstone 

 are scattered over the surrounding country. Deposits of nearly the 

 same character occur in the Lower White River beds of Montana. 



The Little Bad-lands. 



The Little Bad-lands is a strip of Tertiary exposure in a line of 

 bluffs, terraces, flats, and bare hills, three or four miles in length, ex- 

 tending irregularly in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction 

 about twelve or sixteen miles southwest of Dickinson. It is drained 

 by a branch of the Heart River, which flows northward. East of it 

 are grassy hills or mounds, between which are broad grassy flats. 

 Some of the hills are comparatively high for this region. West of the 

 bad-lands is a rolling grassy prairie. The bluffs or escarpment which 

 form the eastern border are highest (125 feet or more in height ) near 

 the northern or northeastern portion, and they decrease in elevation to 

 the south westward where they merge into the plain. The face of the 

 higher, northern portion of the bluffs does not rise in an abrupt man- 

 ner from the adjoining flat land, but in peculiar terraces formed by 

 landslides. The bluffs are composed of the Lower White River at the 

 base, the Middle White River higher up, and what is probably Upper 

 White River at the top. Along the foot of the steeper portion of the 

 bluff's is a trough or depression, extending nearly the full length of 

 the higher portion of the escarpment. This is caused by the breaking 

 away and sliding down of large masses of strata. On the southeastern 

 side of the depression are the cliffs, from which the large masses have 



