
~ 
1891.] The Hat Creek Bad Lands. 971 
region was occupied by cattle rangers, and thousands of heads 
were to be found here. Here and there, flowing down from the 
cafions, are small streams which afforded water, while in the dry 
climate the grass cures on the ground and is available for 
pasturage the whole year round. Rarely are the snows suffi- 
ciently deep to preyent the animals feeding in the open field. A 
few years ago the region was preémpted by settlers. The cattle 
were driven out, and to-day the barb-wire fence shows the limits 
of the farms. But these farmers have a sorry time of it. No 
rain,no crops. I should not be surprised to see the whole country 
go back to grazing. 
Owing to various circumstances we had but twelve hours’ 
actual collecting time; and we went over but a corner, some six 
miles across, of the Bad Lands. Not much could be expected in 
so short a time and in such hurried and superficial collecting, yet 
when we got back to the railroad and packed our fossils we 
found that all four had obtained over 450 pounds. A list of the 
species we obtained would prove dry, but a rapid examination of 
the fossils showed some thirty or forty species represented by 
fragments or more complete remains. 
Of animals we found comparatively few traces. The region is 
not such as to support an extensive fauna. We were told that 
mountain lions, timber wolves, and coyotes were comparatively 
common. Inthe Bad Lands and in the country surrounding we 
found several skulls and a good many horns of the buffalo. 
Horned toads are comparatively common in the whole region. 
The cacti form a habitation for a true cochineal insect; but to me 
the most surprising find was a scorpion in the Bad Lands. I did 
not suppose that they occurred nearer than Southern Kansas and 
Colorado, three or four hundred miles nearer the equator. 
One of our party was an entomologist, and he obtained 
numerous good things on the trip. One evening, as we were 
making up our beds in the open air, we were completely covered 
by a small June bug. The entomologist told us that the species 
_ was described but a few years before from specimens which he 
collected. Scarcely half a dozen specimens represented the 
species in all the collections of the world. He took hundreds of 
specimens away with H 


