EXPLORATIONS IN THE JUDITH RIVER GROUP. 327 
iDg to go on their annual buffalo hunt. An amusing incident occurred here. 
The Professor had taken out some false teeth and was washing them; some 
Indians saw him, and when he replaced them in his mouth their astonishment 
was unbounded. When they found their voices the)' called out, "do it again, do 
it again "; and the next day they brought over a number of others to see the won- 
derful feat. After that the Professor was a great man in their estimation, if he 
had had a cork leg and glass eye they would doubtless have fallen down and 
worshipped him. The Professor so won the respect of the Crows that none of us 
were molested. We saw a few days afterwards the profligacy with which they 
destroyed their choicest fruit. We were following their trail up the Judith River 
and found on either side great quantities of the branches of berry-bushes scattered 
along : the Indians had rode up to the bushes and cut off branches, after eatitg 
the berries they had thrown them down. They call them the bull-berries and it 
is a nice acid fruit. 
We also saw where the squaws had cut down a great many large cottonwoods 
with their chisel-shaped axes, the only use they made of them was to cut off the 
dead branches from the top of the trees, choosing only those that were dry and 
hard and without bark; they burn them in their wigwams, as they make good 
coals and but little smoke. I never saw so many well formed men in my life 
among the same number, as I saw among these River Crows, and was told that 
the Mountain Crows were still larger. They will prove a formidable enemy 
should they ever take the war path. 
We were camped in August, 1876, on Dog Creek under some large cotton- 
woods. The Bad Lands presented their bold escarpments, or steep hill-sides on 
either side. They assumed all the characteristics of Bad Land scenery, rugged 
hills, rounded mounds, sharp pinnacles, long narrow ridges, etc. Some of the 
hills reached a height of 1,200 feet above the creek level. They were composed 
largely of the black shales of the Fort Pierre Group, through which were scattered 
beds of soft coal, or lignite, from a few inches to six feet in thickness. These 
Bad Lands will be the great fuel producers for the farmers of the great treeless 
plains, that extend far north into the domains of England. The Bad Lands of the 
upper Missouri present a scene of singular barrenness, and desolation: the black- 
ness of the hills is covered up in places by sage brush, greasewood and cactus. 
The shale disintegrates readily and produces a loose dirt into which one sinks 
a foot, this prevents one from sliding down the hill, as the accumulated dirt stops 
his downward progress. This dirt is carried down by every rain and helps aug- 
ment the number of mud banks in the Missouri. At this point, except during high 
water, the river is clear; it receives its characteristic color from the Yellowstone. 
On top of the Fort Pierre shales are the buff-colored sandstone of the Fox Hills 
Group, then the yellowish clays of the Judith Group. It is a fresh and brackish 
water deposit, and has three beds of rusty sandstone, and a few beds of lignite. 
On top of the whole is a large bed of oyster shells, showing that at the close of 
the cretaceous and for the last time the sea again gained access : these are the 
transition beds between the cretaceous and tertiary, or the age of reptiles and 
