QUATERNARY AGE. 303 



— they should be mingled with silicious matter, and often the soil 

 below them will answer for this purpose, as frequently they are 

 only a few inches thick. 



The Bad Lands. — These have already been discussed and de- 

 scribed under the Miocene Period. They deserve a reference here 

 because they constitute all that there is of the surface beyond the 

 White Earth River, in the northwest corner of the State. As al- 

 ready stated, this section is made up of Miocene rocks. The sur- 

 face materials here are mostly made up of white and yellowish in- 

 durated clays, sands, marls, and occasional thin beds of lime and 

 sandstone. When going through these Bad Lands I observed these 

 lime and sandstones to appearand disappear in the most unexpected 

 manner, indicating a great variety of conditions under which they 

 were formed. Hayden first made known these wonderful regions. 

 It is hard to realize the grandeur and uniqueness of this region 

 without visiting it — this, at least, was the case with myself. 

 Here in the deep canyons, at the foot of the stair-like projections, 

 the earliest of those wonderful fossil treasures was found which 

 have been described by Leidy, and which have done so much to 

 revolutionize our notions of the progress of life and of Tertiary 

 times. 



Agriculture in such a region as this, where comparatively little is 

 now growing, is of course impracticable. The scanty grasses, 

 however, can be, and are beginning to be — at least on the borders 

 of this region — utilized for pasturing stock. Even here rainfall is 

 increasing, as is indicated by a great increase in the quantity of 

 grass that is spontaneously produced. Whether this region can 

 ever be utilized for the purposes of agriculture, even when once the 

 rainfall is sufficient, is a problem for the future. Regions as rough 

 have been cultivated by hand. Whenever in the distant future 

 population crowds in this direction, and the rainfall has sufficiently 

 increased, even these Bad Lands can be fertilized, if they need fer- 

 tilization, by the immense quantities of natural fertilizers, such as 

 marl, that here abound. In the mean time it will be utilized for pas- 

 turing stock. Though this region is so unattractive to the utilitar- 

 ian, I doubt whether any other equal area of Nebraska will be of 

 more benefit to mankind, simply because here we have outlined so 

 marvelously the old life of Miocene times, and it must ever be a 

 stimulus to geological studies, and those grand results which scien- 

 tific culture produce^. No novel can be as interesting to a thought- 



