72 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



able country, fantastically carved by the erosion of 

 distant ages and torn in places by long-dead volca- 

 noes, its red rocks almost impassable here and there 

 for miles, is scenically striking, often gorgeous in 

 form and color, but rarely beautiful. Several mil- 

 lions of acres offer little variety. 



William H. Bandy, engineer of the United 

 States Land Office, describes Badlands on the banks 

 of the Missouri River for three hundred miles below 

 Fort Benton, Montana: 



"As a result of being forced by the continental 

 ice sheet in Pleistocene time to seek a new channel, 

 the Missouri here has cut a canyon 600 to 800 feet 

 deep. This intrenchment has given a steep gradient 

 to all its tributaries, and they also have cut deep 

 channels in their lower courses, producing a much 

 dissected region in which the highly folded and 

 faulted strata are strikingly exposed. This erosive 

 action is still taking place rapidly on the soft or sol- 

 uble sedimentary strata cutting deep gashes and fan- 

 tastic forms as it forces its chisel back into the for- 

 mation, uncovering an endless variety of fossil forms 

 that have been preserved deep in the ground. The 

 altitude of this area ranges from 2,100 feet to 3,500 

 feet above sea level. 



"Many of these canyons and gorges are as much 

 as 600 and 700 feet in depth, with steep, almost per- 

 pendicular walls of clay and sandstone, of different 

 colors, which viewed from the buttes and plateaus 

 under different light conditions, offer studies in col- 



