TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 103 
The rise of the land continues until we reach Box Elder Valley, where the high plateau is seen 
extending east and west, and here a descent of 80 feet is made to the level of the stream. 
Box Elder Creek takes its rise in the Judith Mountains, and, after a northerly course of about 
seven miles, turns easterly and then southeasterly, finally reaching the Musselshell River. At the 
stage-station, where we camped for several days, its course is nearly east and west. Itis a running 
stream and furnishes fair water. Our delay at this point gave us an opportunity to explore to 
some extent the Judith Mountains. 
In the neighborhood of Box Elder, we pass from the Fort Picrre clays, Cretaceous No. 4 of 
Hayden, to the sandstones of the Fox Hills Group, or Cretaceous No. 5, overlying them. Ata 
locality lying nearly south of Box Elder station and distant from it about a mile, we observed a 
ledge of sandstone containing some tolerably-preserved shells. The rock is a yellow ferruginous 
sandstone in rather thin beds, but quite firm. Occasional calcareous layers contain fossils similar 
to those in the sandstone, but much better preserved. The thickness of this yellow fossil-bearing 
sandstone is small; and beneath it is a friable white sandstone, easily rubbed into powder with the 
fingers. The dip of the exposed strata is slight, toward the northeast. The fossils found at this 
locality are as follows : 
1. Sanguinolaria oblata, Whitf. (n. sp.). 
2. Liopistha (Cymella) undulata, M. & OH. 
3. Tellina isomma, Meek. 
4. Tellina scitula, M. & TU. 
5. Mactra warreniana, M. & H. 
6. Mactra maia, Whitt. (n. sp.). 
7. Tapes montanensis, Whitf. (n. sp.). 
8. Ostrea congesta, Con.???. 
9. Lunatia concinna, H. & M. 
10. Inoceramus, sp. 
11. Fusus Galpinianus, M. & U1. 
Sandstones of a similar character to that mentioned may be seen at a variety of points where 
the excavation of the deep coulées has laid bare the rock beneath. One striking locality was visited 
some four miles east of the station, where, on the east bank of a deeply-cut coulée, the sandstone 
is exposed at a height of 200 feet above the creek-bottom. 
The section was as follows: 
Two feet of a white sandstone, in thin layers ; 
Thirty feet of a white, soft, thickly-laminated sandstone, underlaid by an uncertain thickness of 
rusty-yellow sand-rock. . 
No fossils were found here, though they were searched for with care. 
JUDITH MOUNTAINS. 
Our examination of the Judith Mountains was hasty and incomplete, owing to lack of time at 
this point; and our movements were still further embarrassed by the necessity of taking some pre- 
cautions against the hostile Sioux, known to be in the vicinity at the time. 
The following cut (tig. 5) will give some idea of the extent and bearings of the Judith Mountains, 
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