THE JUDITH RIVER GROUP. 731 
we only discovered loose bones, teeth and turtle shells. We had hard work cling- 
ing to the almost perpendicular bluffs, where a misstep would hurl us into a cafion 
1500 feet deep. We had often to cut niches for our feet with hand picks, which 
we always carried, as without them we would have been unable to travel. The 
surface was covered with loose angular fragments of cherty rock, that rolled un- 
der our feet. One great hardship we had to endure, was the lack of drinking 
water during the day, as all that was found inthe Bad Lands was strongly im- 
pregnated with alkaline salts. Another hardship was the presence of great swarms 
of small gnats that got under our hat rims, and inflicted wounds that poisoned the 
flesh. But our toils were well rewarded, as we were able to add some forty new 
species of strange animal life to science; and I think that of all the singular and 
unique animals that have peopled our earth, some that we discovered were the 
strangest. They were great land saurians or Dinosaurs. They were the most 
numerous of the animal remains we collected. Some of them reached to the 
enormous height of twenty-eight feet. They walked on their hind limbs, which 
were strong and pillarlike. An immense tail helped support their ponderous 
weight while feeding on the tender branches and leaves of trees. Their front limbs 
were short and armed with powerful claws for grasping. In each jaw were three 
rows of teeth, and below each old tooth was a hollow groove containing five 
young ones. As fast as one row wore out another took its place. We found 
thousands of these cast-off crowns. Of course I have been speaking of the 
-Herbivorous or plant eaters. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs were lighter and more 
elegantly built for springing on the huge plant eaters. They were armed with a 
‘ single row in each jaw, of long re-curved teeth, with serrate edges. Young teeth 
were ready to take the place of old ones, when they were broken or worn out. 
The Dinosaurs resembles the.bird in many parts of its structure. They have 
but one occipital condyle. Their bones are light and hollow. ‘They also resem- 
ble the mammals by their habits, and the structure of the pelvis and pectoral 
arches. But on account of many reptilian characters, they are classed in that 
division of vertebrate life. Turtles were abundant, and were usually soft-shelled, 
and other fresh water species. ‘The shells were often curiously marked with ele- 
vated or depressed lines, or punctures. Among the fishes Ganozd, or the Lepidos- 
teus, that ancient and persistent type, were common. One peculiar species I dis- 
covered of the shark family, had six-sided teeth, with a line down the long diame-. 
ter, with dark-colored enamel on one side and light on the other. They were ar- 
ranged in the roof and floor of the mouth, like bricks in a pavement, and were 
used as a mill for grinding up shells. Prof. Cope calls it Myledaphus bipartita. Ba- 
trachia were abundant. No mammals were found, though anumber of geologists 
have thought these beds to be of Tertiary age. The explorations of Prof. Cope, 
have, I trust, proved conclusively that they are Cretaceous. The upper beds are 
covered in places with oyster shells, showing that at the close of the Cretaceous 
the sea covered the formation. Large deposits of lignite are found both in this 
and the Fort Pierre group. There are also great quantities of fossil wood scat- 
tered through the formation. 
