GEOLOGY OF LITTLE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 401 
mountain mass rather than a chain of peaks. Several buttes ris- 
ing above the slopes of the margin of the uplift form conspicu- 
ous features of the region. The highest summit reaches an 
elevation of over 6500 feet above the sea and about half that 
height above the surrounding plain. The scenery, though pleas- 
ing and attractive, is not grand, as the mountain summits are 
generally rounded, covered by a thick growth of small pines and 
are lacking in boldness and the usual striking features of Cor- 
dilleran topography. Numerous streams which head within the 
mountains flow in deep V-shaped gorges that trench the area, 
but their flowage is small and in summer water is found running 
only where the channel is cut in schists or porphyry. The 
scenery of the limestone belt, which forms the outer portion of 
the mountains, is quite attractive, as the heavily bedded Carbon- 
iferous limestones are cut by deep and narrow canyons and the 
stream valleys present a variety of vegetation that is most pleas- 
ing after traveling over the barren, grassy plains. 
The only settlement within the region is the town of Lan- 
dusky, which sprang into existence in the brief weeks of feverish 
activity consequent upon the discoveries of gold leads in the 
hills in 1894. The town is built in the upper valley of Rock 
Creek and contains some twenty or thirty houses and as many 
more uncompleted buildings stretching along the main street 
parallel to the stream ; it is surrounded by rather open acclivities 
with scattered pines and grassy slopes, above which occa- 
sional limestone crags rise abruptly. A mail road crosses the 
Indian reservation from Harlem on the main transcontinental 
line of the Great Northern Railway, to St. Paul’s Mission just 
northwest of the mountains, the road continuing over the moun- 
tains to Landusky. 
The open plains surrounding the mountains present on the 
different sides strongly contrasted surface features. To the 
south extending to the Missouri River, is an open benchland, 
with long level stretches having a uniform slope of 2° toward 
the Missouri, and showing good exposures of the soft Creta- 
ceous strata where cut by the streams. The surface has a scanty 
