OF A RANCHMAN 23 



cotton-wood trees or else be simply a great 

 grass meadow. From the edges of the val- 

 ley the land rises abruptly in steep high 

 buttes whose crests are sharp and jagged. 

 This broken country extends back from the 

 river for many miles, and has been called al- 

 ways, by Indians, French voyageurs, and 

 American 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 Lit- 

 tle Missouri, of which they are simply repe- 

 titions 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 nar- 

 row, 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 



