io Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



tends back from the river for many miles, and has been 

 called always, by Indians, French voyageurs, and Ameri- 

 can trappers alike, the " Bad Lands," partly from its 

 dreary and forbidding aspect and partly from the difficulty 

 experienced in travelling through it. Every few miles it 

 is crossed by creeks which open into the Little Missouri, 

 of which they are simply repetitions in miniature, except 

 that during most of the year they are almost dry, some of 

 them having in their beds here and there a never-failing 

 spring or muddy alkaline-water hole. From these creeks 

 run coulies, or narrow, winding valleys, through which 

 water flows when the snow melts ; their bottoms contain 

 patches of brush, and they lead back into the heart of the 

 Bad Lands. Some of the buttes spread out into level 

 plateaus, many miles in extent ; others form chains, or rise 

 as steep isolated masses. Some are of volcanic origin, 

 being composed of masses of scoria ; the others, of sand- 

 stone or clay, are worn by water into the most fantastic 

 shapes. In coloring they are as bizarre as in form. 

 Among the level, parallel strata which make up the 

 land are some of coal. When a coal vein gets on fire 

 it makes what is called a burning mine, and the clay above 

 it is turned into brick ; so that where water wears 

 away the side of a hill sharp streaks of black and red 

 are seen across it, mingled with the grays, purples, and 

 browns. Some of the buttes are overgrown with 

 gnarled, stunted cedars or small pines, and they are all 

 cleft through and riven in every direction by deep narrow 

 ravines, or by canyons with perpendicular sides. 



In spite of their look of savage desolation, the Bad 



