GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 13 



water into myriads of forms, ' regular, irregular, and fan- 

 tastic.' The general bottom of the bowl is level ; and 

 scattered over it, in most picturesque irregularity, are hills 

 and mounds, with their almost perpendicular faces cut 

 into every conceivable and inconceivable design castles 

 and towers, domes and pinnacles, obelisks, monuments, 

 and pyramids. The palace and the Indian ' tepee ' are 

 here side by side, and all the varied forms are fluted by 

 water, and frescoed in variously-coloured earths, forming 

 a grand and wonderful coup d'ceil that no man can imagine 

 or realise until he sees it. 



Travel through these 'Bad Lands' is not difficult. 

 The ground is covered with fragments of the bones of 

 animals and reptiles ; and the man must indeed be insen- 

 sible who can pass unmoved through these most magnifi- 

 cent burying-grounds of animals extinct before the advent 

 of his race. 



Almost everywhere throughout the whole length and 

 breadth of the plains are found, in greater or less pro- 

 fusion, animal remains, fossils, shells, and petrifactions. 

 Bones are very numerous and in great variety, from the 

 Saurion and Mastodon to the minutest reptile, ranging 

 in point of time from the remotest ages to the present day. 



When the Union Pacific Eailroad was building, an 

 attempt was made to obtain water for the engines by 

 sinking a well at Julesburg. No water was obtained ; but 

 many interesting facts were developed, during the progress 

 of the work, as to the nature of the great plains deposit. 

 When the shaft had been sunk to a great depth (I think 

 between 200 and 300 feet), the workmen came to an 

 immense deposit of bones of animals in every state of 

 preservation or decay. These, as they were brought to 

 the surface, were eagerly picked over by curiosity-hunters, 

 and the most perfect carried off. Some time after this 

 I was so fortunate as to be stationed at Fort Sanders, 

 when that post was honoured by a visit from Professor 

 Agassiz. He had hardly been at the post twenty-four 



