112 On the Judith River, Montana 



was carried from there, over the fields. We got 

 off the train at Big Springs, went to the Spokan 

 Hotel, and registered in the bar room, where 

 they had the office at one end of the bar. I 

 thought that was going it some, excuse the slang, 

 and that Montana needed "Total Prohibition" 

 pretty badly. The dining room opened off the 

 bar. At the livery stable we hired a team and 

 democrat wagon for two weeks for $50. In the 

 afternoon we drove out in a buggy to the coal 

 mine eight miles southeast. Here the light yel- 

 lowish sandstones with harder parts were filled 

 with thin circular concretions as flat as a pan- 

 cake. The vein of coal is about five feet thick 

 at an angle of about 16 degrees. On either side 

 are narrow beds of yellow sandstone dipping in 

 various directions, the strike being paralell with 

 the Bear Paw Mountains not far off to the south. 

 Between the sandstone layers is a dike of vol- 

 canic trap, black, and fine grained, pushed up 

 through the strata so it forms a hog back eleva- 

 tion above them. There are also beds of light 

 colored shales, with seams of iron stone between. 

 On July 3rd, 1914, we drove to a flat near the 

 site of a reservoir, now dry, and stopped at a 

 farmer's. We had skirted the eastern limits of 

 the Bear Paw Mountains, passed through a roll- 

 ing prairie, crossed Eagle Creek, where a fine 

 flow of water, full of little fishes, runs over 

 gravel and sand towards the Missouri river. As 

 we journeyed south we saw evidence of vulcan- 



