104 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



inches. On the Pacific coast of Oregon and Washington, whose gigantic 

 forests are celebrated all over the world, we find that from fifty-five to 

 sixty-five inches of rain fall annually. We might multiply these illus- 

 trations, but the evidence seems to be conclusive. 



There is another point that may be worthy of note here, and that is 

 the prevailing impression among all the inhabitants of the West of a 

 gradual change of climate by settlement and the cultivation of the soil. 

 It is true, that over a width of one hundred miles or more along the 

 Missouri Elver the little groves of timber are extending their area 5 that 

 springs of water are continually issuing from the ground where none 

 were ever known before; and that the distribution of rain throughout 

 the year is more equable. Such being the case, time may work import- 

 ant changes, and settlements may at some time cause a large portion 

 of that belt which has hitherto been regarded as given up to sterility to 

 become of value for the abode of man. 



The valleys of the Loup Fork and the Niobrara Eivers, although 

 largely uninhabitable, are full of interest to the geologist. Located 

 along these rivers is one of those grand cemeteries of extinct animals 

 which have excited the wonder of intelligent men all over the world. 

 Further to the northwest, on White Earth Eiver, is another of these 

 far-famed bone deposits. These two interesting localities bear such a 

 relation to each other in the order of time and the relationship of the 

 animals preserved in them, that they should be described in the same 

 connection. I will therefore take the reader at once to the valley of 

 White Earth Eiver, near the southwestern base of the Black Hills, and 

 there we shall behold one of the wildest regions on this continent. It 

 has always gone by the name of "Bad Lands;" by the Canadian 

 French as "Mauvaises Terres ; " in the Dakota tongue, " Ma-lcoo-si-tcha." 

 These words signify a very difficult country to travel through, not only 

 from the ruggedness of the surface, but also from the absence of any 

 good water and the small supply of wood and game. In the summer 

 the sun pours its rays on the bare white walls, which are reflected on the 

 weary traveler with double intensity, not only oppressing him with the 

 heat, but so dazzling his eyes that he is not unfrequently affected with 

 temporary blindness. I have spent many days exploring this region 

 when the thermometer was 112° in the shade and there was no water 

 suitable for drinking purposes within fifteen miles. But it is only to 

 the geologist that this place can bave any permanent attractions. He 

 can wind his way through tbe wonderful canons among some of the 

 grandest ruins in the world. Indeed, it resembles a gigantic city fallen 

 to decay. Domes, towers, minarets and spires may be seen on every 

 side, which assume a great variety of shapes when viewed in the distance. 

 Not unfrequently the rising or the setting sun will light up these grand 

 old ruins with a wild, strange beauty, reminding one of a city illumin- 

 ated in the night when seen from some high point. The harder layers 

 project from the sides of the valley or canon with such regularity that 

 they appear like seats, one above the other, of some vast amphitheater. 

 It is at the foot of these apparent architectural ruins that the curious 

 fossil treasures are found. In the oldest beds we find the teeth and 

 jaws of a Hyopotamus, a river horse much like the Hippopotamus, which 

 must have sported in his pride in the marshes that bordered this lake. 

 So, too, the Titanotherium,a gigantic pachyderm, was associated with a 

 species of hornless Ehinoceros. These huge rhiuoceroid animals appear 

 at first to have monopolized this entire region, and the plastic, sticky 

 clay of tbe lowest bed of this basin, in which the remains were found, 

 seems to have formed a suitable bottom of the lake in which these thick- 



