On the Judith River, Montana 115 



apart. Vulcanism has often lifted the older beds 

 higher than the more recent ones. The 

 what seemed to us true, the ammonites, baculites 

 and plesiosaurs, were the same in the two marine 

 beds, though separated by the fresh water Judith 

 River series, which is of the same age as the 

 Belly river beds. 



We walked up the steep slope to the divide be- 

 tween the breaks of The Missouri river and Dog 

 Creek, this divide is neary 600 feet above the 

 river. Somewhat different from what my mem- 

 ory had told me of these great canyons. I speak 

 of them as being over a thousand feet deep in 

 "The Life of a Fossil Hunter." In 1876 we had 

 no barometer to take our altitude and my notes 

 were lost in a fire in 1881, it is natural for the 

 mind to exaggerate depth and height as well as 

 level surfaces. However, as we made this trip 

 by moonlight, and through the solemn silence, I 

 was again overcome with awe when I gazed into 

 the stupendous gorges and at the beetling crags 

 that overlooked them. Hour after hour we pass- 

 ed slowly along the trail, often only the narrow 

 ridge between two great canyons, and a balky 

 team might have backed us off into the abyss 

 filled with inky darkness. Only a journey under 

 such conditions and in such a region of utter 

 barreness, can give the reader an idea of the 

 emotions that over-powered me. We made camp 

 about midnight, and the only sign of human 

 habitations we saw, (except a deserted sheep 



