242 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



here and there sawed-off mountains that are 

 succeeded by flat basins, where once the buffalo 

 grazed in countless numbers, and where even 

 to-day one may occasionally see the sheeny coat 

 of an antelope glistening in the sun. The 

 eastern portion of the state bordering on Da- 

 kota shows in its cliffs, buttes, and gravel beds 

 a land once shaken by volcanic convulsion, and 

 water-swept by flood and glacier. Timber is 

 rarely seen upon it, grass grows in small tufts 

 but a few inches high, and the predominant 

 growth is sage-bush and cactus. Yet its weird- 

 ness and its desolation make it attractive ; and 

 to one interested in color it is the queerest 

 region in all the world. The dry, alkaline clay 

 throws off local hues of red, orange, pink, and 

 yellow with the first glint of sunshine ; and the 

 shadows are blue, violet, and lilac. These are 

 the same hues of decay that we met with in 

 Venice, for the Bad Lands region died centuries 

 ago. It is to-day showing us that beauty of 

 color which we see in iridescent glass, and the 

 cause of the one is the cause of the other ; that 

 is to say, the disintegration of fibre, the chemi- 

 cal rot of matter. 



But the Bad Lands country is something of 

 an accident of nature a tumbled and broken 



