5 
964 The American Naturalist. [November, 
Jersey shore. Yet these hillocks of shifting sand and scattered 
tufts of coarse grass are interesting, for in them we find evidence 
that this portion of Nebraska was not so treeless as it was when 
the first settlers entered it. As the sand blows it uncovers here 
and there the well-preserved trunks of pine trees. What could 
have caused their extinction? Certainly not change of climate, 
for in the cañons in this same region the same pine grows 
abundantly. 
Beyond Alliance we cross the upper Niobrara, and the land- 
scape again changes, for we have now to cross that long line of 
hill, Pine Ridge, which extends for over a hundred miles across 
the northwestern corner of the state. On the southern side there 
is nothing striking except the pine trees. These have a different 
habitus from pines in the east. In Maine and in Michigan the 
pines form dense forests; but here they are scattered like the 
spruces on a lawn. The train now goes through a tunnel, and we 
enter the valley of the White River. What a change in the 
landscape! It is no longer tame, but it is cut and eroded into the 
most fantastic shapes. To the north is the valley of the river— 
here a small stream,—and from it the grassy slopes ascend gradu- 
ally for several miles ; then a more rapid rise, and then the Buttes. 
Look where you will, you see them. You are among them while 
far to thenorth. Clear across the White River you see the same 
formations. One cannot help thinking that here the process of 3 
world-making was suddenly interrupted. 
From Crawford to Harrison we follow up the White River. 
We climb first to the foot of the Buttes; then above them to a 
broad, level prairie, much like those in the eastern part of the 
state. Here we find the town of Harrison, 5,000 feet above the 
sea, where we leave the cars ¿and take a wagon for the Bad _ 
Lands 
For three miles north the road gradually ascends, and we strike 
the head of one of the cafions which are to lead us to the Hat 
Creek valley. Did I say we were above the Buttes? Even in 
this highest point we see here and there slight piles of rock, the 
last remnants of Buttes which once covered this region. 


