SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES 21 



east-west direction, disclosing for much of the distance a 

 continuous serrated skyline series of towers, pinnacles and 

 precipitous gulches. Sheep Mountain, the cedar covered top 

 of which overlooks all of the surrounding country, presents 

 a view that is hopelessly indescribable. One side leads 

 gently down to a high intricately etched grass-covered flat 

 covering a few cramped square miles. In all other direc- 

 tions everything is strange and wierd in the extreme. Far 

 away cattle or horses may be seen feeding on levels of green 

 and here and there distant dots in ruffled squares indicate 

 the abodes of happy homesteaders. Immediately about all 

 is still. Until recently the sharp eye could occasionally 

 detect a remnant bunch of mountain sheep, once numerous 

 in this locality, but quickly and quietly they would steal to 

 cover among the intricate recesses of the crumbling preci- 

 pices. Song birds are present but they are prone to respect 

 the solitude. Only an occasional eagle screams out a word 

 of curiosity or defiance as he sails majestically across the 

 maze of projecting points and bottomless pits. Magnificent 

 ruins of a great silent city painted in delicate shades of 

 cream and pink and buff and green! Domes, towers, min- 

 arets, and spires decorate gorgeous cathedrals and palaces 

 and present dimensions little dreamed of by the architects of 

 the ancients. 



At first as one looks over the strange landscape there 

 may come a feeling of the incongruous or grotesque but 

 studying more closely the meaning of every feature the 

 spirit of this marvelous handiwork of the Great Creator 

 develops and vistas of beauty appear. Here on Sheep 

 Mountain or on the higher points of the Great Wall the 

 contemplative mind weaves its way into the long geologic 

 ages. There are visions of Cretaceous time. A vast salt 

 sea stretches as a broad band from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 Arctic regions and slowly deposits sediments that are des- 

 tined to form much of the great western plains of the con- 

 tinent. Strange reptiles sport along the shores of this sea 

 and myriads of beautiful shellfish live and die in its mud 

 laden rush-fringed bays. Changes recur, the salt becomes 

 less pronounced, the sea shallows, brackish conditions pre- 

 vail but the animals and plants with many alterations and 

 much advancement live on. Deep rumblings in the neighbor- 

 ing Black Hills and in the Rocky Mountains with accom- 



