TEN DAYS IN MONTANA. 139 



four wild geese. They slipped up within range, and opened 

 fire on them. After a good deal of shooting they succeeded 

 in bagging all four of them. Each member of the party was 

 confident that he had killed one or more of them, and that it 

 was the others who had done so much bad shooting. But the 

 next day a ranchman, who lived in the neighborhood, turned 

 up at headquarters and demanded pay for four "pet" wild 

 geese that the soldiers had killed the day before, and that 

 belonged to him. Then a change came o'er the spirit of their 

 dreams, and each man was confident that he had not killed 

 any of them, that it was the ' ' other boys ' ' that had done the 

 good shooting ; that he was a little off that day. Finally, by 

 a preponderance of testimony, the geese, and likewise the 

 cigars, were saddled onto Lieutenant McCoy, for it was 

 pretty clearly shown that he had killed them all. The event 

 was duly celebrated the night we were there, in an extempo- 

 raneous song by Mr. Howard Eaton, of Pennsylvania, which 

 brought down the house, and some more cigars. 



The Little Missouri bad lands are also rich in fossils, petri- 

 factions and other geological specimens. I saw stumps of 

 trees there seven or eight feet in diameter, and two to three 

 feet high above the ground, that were perfectly petrified, and 

 thus preserved intact. In some cases the bark remains on 

 them as when in the full vigor of life. 



The roots can be traced into the ground several feet. 

 There are numbers of these scattered along the line of the 

 road, and many of them will eventually be dug up, shipped 

 East, and placed on exhibition in museums, parks, and priv- 

 ate grounds. I saw many fine specimens of marine fishes, 

 mollusks, crustaceans, etc., that the engineers and others had 

 collected, and also found a number myself, which I brought 

 home, and shall value them above almost any others in my 

 collection, owing to the fact that they were collected while. 



