14 The Bad land Formations of the Black Hills Region 



through- the marvelous network of rounded hillocks, wedge 

 slopes, grassy flats and sheer declivities about Sheep Mountain 

 and the Great Wall, the highest and ruggedest portions of all 

 the badlands. The Great Wall viewed from White River val- 

 ley, presents a particularly rugged aspect and, like the great 

 wall that it is, stretches for many miles in a nearly east-west 

 direction, disclosing for much of the distance a continuous sky- 

 line series of towers, pinnacles and precipitous gulches. Much 

 of the view from the top of Sheep Mountain, which projects 

 five hundred or six hundred feet above the lower valleys, is 

 hopelessly indescribable. Far away cattle may be seen feeding 

 on levels of green and here and there distant dots in ruffled 

 squares indicate the new abodes of sturdy homesteaders. Im- 

 mediately about all is still. The sharp eye may possibly detect 

 a remnant bunch of mountain sheep, once numerous in this lo- 

 cality, but quickly and quietly they steal to cover among the in- 

 tricate recesses of the crumbling precipices. The song birds 

 ?eem 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 bottom- 

 less pits. Magnificent ruins of a great silent city painted in del- 

 icate shades of cream and pink and buff and green. Domes 

 towers, minarets, and spires decorate gorgeous cathedrals and 

 palaces and present dimensions little dreamed of by the archi- 

 tects of the ancients. At first there may come a feeling of the 

 incongruous or grotesque but studying more closely the mean- 

 ing 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 

 ago. There first come 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 destined 

 to form the great western plains of the continent. Strange rep- 

 tiles sport along the shores of this sea and myriads of beautiful 

 shell-fish live and di£ in its mud-laden rush-fringed bays. 

 Changes recur, the salt becomes less pronounced, the sea grows 

 less deep, brackish conditions, prevail but the animals and plants 

 with many alterations and advancements live on. Deep rum- 

 blings in the northern Black Hills, and in the Rocky Mountains, 

 with accompanying porphyjry intrusions, portend widespread 

 changes, the shallowing sea slips away and fresh water marsh- 

 lands and deltas prevail. The Tertiary comes and with the 



