lO 



The greater part of mj' collection was obtained along the bluffs 

 bordering the lower Madison valley on the east. These extend north 

 and south for a distance of fifteen miles, being in some places seven 

 hundred feet or more in height. Though there are no permanent 

 streams cutting through them, occasional heavy rains and melting 

 snows have carved many ravines into the soft material, and exposed 

 much of the rock. On the northern slopes grass and ti-ees sometimes 

 grow in abundance, while the hot dry southern slopes only support 

 dwarf cedars, scattered, hardy shrubs, cacti, and occasional bunches 

 of grass. The conditions are favorable for the finding of fossils if they 

 occurred in any great number. 



All the Madison valley fossils with the exception of a few teeth 

 and bones, and the skull and jaw of a rodent taken from the White 

 River beds were found in the Loup Fork strata. 



I have found a limited number of fossils from both horizons in 

 widely separated localities from near Lima on the Red Rock to the 

 vicinity of Townsend on the Missouri. 



Southeast of Dillon is an exposure of a few rods in extent where 

 fragments of teeth and bones were quite numerous. Prof. E. A. 

 Steere, then principal at Dillon, discovered this locality in 1894, and 

 obtained from it parts of upper and lower jaws and teeth, with 

 other bones, of a species of Protohippus. 



West of the main divide * only a few fragments have been found, 

 among which are a small piece of mastodon tooth, the distal end of 

 the ulno-radius of a camel, an incisor of a i-odent— probably Sciurus, 

 and a few pieces of fossil wood, found in the Bitter Root valley. Some 

 wlio have dug wells have found fossil wood and fragments of bone; 

 but, so far as I have examined them, these beds are vei-y poor in 

 fo'ssils. 



There were lakes west of the mountains that existed in later times 

 tlian the others that have been described. In the latter region there 

 are few, if any, places where the ancient shore line can be plainly 

 traced. In the Missoula and Bitter Root valleys on the mountain 

 sides and along the foot hills are level lines or small terraces, evi- 

 dently shore lines, formed by the dashing of waves against the 

 mountain sides. Tliese can be nicely studied around Missoula. The 

 I'niversity buildings stand at the foot of a steep mountain slope, 

 and on this slope about sixty of these lines can be counted, beginning 

 near the foot and extending upward, perhaps a thousand feet. The 

 same is seen on Mt. Jumbo, and on the hills north of Missoula. They 



* Since this was written a small Loup Foi-k exposure near Drlim- 

 mond has yielded some excellent specimens. Several White River 

 fossils were found near the same place. 



