52 THE WHITE RIVER BADLANDS 



far at least as immediate topography is concerned, wholly 

 apart from the forces of vulcanism, have been performed 

 under a kindly sun and through benevolent combination by 

 ordinary winds and frosts and rains, and to a lesser degree 

 by plants and animals. What the earliest beginning may 

 have been is not known. Suffice it to say that then, as now, 

 the sun shone, the winds blew, and the rains came, and such 

 irregularities as may have existed influenced in some de- 

 gree the earliest run off. Season by season the elements 

 weakened the uplifted sediments, and little by little the 

 growing streams cut the yielding surface. In time lateral 

 tributaries pushed their way into the interstream areas and 

 these tributaries in turn developed smaller branches, the 

 series continuing with ever increasing complexity to the 

 delicate etching at the very top of the highest levels. All 

 the important streams give indications of an eventful his- 

 tory, but for this there is little opportunity for discussion 

 here. Cheyenne river and White river are the chief factors 

 today in the production and continuation of the badland 

 features, and of these, White river clings most closely to its 

 task. The Cheyenne has already cleared its valley of the 

 badland deposits except in the important locality southeast 

 of the Black Hills and in the western Pine Ridge area be- 

 yond the headwaters of White river and even in these areas 

 the main stream has cut entirely through the formations 

 and in most places deeply into the underlying black Cre- 

 taceous shales. White river, on the other hand, for more 

 than fifty miles of its middle course, meanders across a wide 

 alluvial bottom, underlain by badland sediments, while its 

 many branched head and all of the larger tributaries from 

 the south and many from the north continue to gnaw vig- 

 orously into deposits that retain much of their original 

 thickness. 



Among the innumerable tributaries within the badlands 

 proper, few are of great length, but many are of note in the 

 physiography of the region, in the history of early day 

 travel, and in the yielding of important specimens to the 

 fossil hunter. Of those leading from the Badlands to the 

 Cheyenne river, the following are important and often 

 referred to in the scientific literature: Bull creek, Crooked 

 creek, Sage creek, Hay creek, Bear creek, Spring crek, In- 

 dian creek, Little Corral draw, Big Corral draw, Quinn 



