‘222 The American Naturalist. [March, 
shell might be by a low coe sponge. This seemed to 
give additional evidence for the “sponge ” idea. 
The only other bones that were found on the north side of 
the river was an Oreodon skull. This was dug out a few 
inches above the upper end of a “screw.” On the hills of the 
other sideof the river, however, fragments of Rhinoceros were 
not uncommon. 
Nearly all the specimens were so large that we were obliged 
to content ourselves with a few of such small ones as could 
be readily dug out. These we carefully packed in hay in the 
wagons, and after a stay at Agate Springs of only a few days, 
set about our return for Harrison. 
After spending a day in packing up, depositing our precious 
corkscrews in the store room of the depot where they made a 
goodly pile of boxes, we left Harrison for the Bad-lands and, 
eventually, the Black Hills. From the Hills, at the head of 
Sowbelly Cafion, we caught a glimpse of the great Hat Creek 
Valley to the northeastward. But the view from here is not 
nearly as striking as that obtained from the buttes further 
west and north.. One can ride up to the edge of these until 
the broad expanse of the valley, from seven hundred to a 
thousand feet below, bursts upon him without warning. These 
views cannot fail to call forth an exclamation of wonder 
and admiration. At one’s feet it seems as though the valley 
has been formed by a great fault; eastward and northeast it 
stretches as far as the eye can reach, on the west it rises into 
the hills of Wyoming, while on the north it seems bounded 
by the low-lying dark colored hills, the Black Hills, some sev- 
enty miles away. If the atmosphere is favorable, Harney’s 
Peak, the highest point of the dark colored range, may be seen. 
Through the apparently smooth and floor-like valley mean- 
ders Hat Creek, gathering up the waters of its various tribu- 
taries as it flows along. Scattered along these tributaries, 
which run back into the ridge from which the view is taken, 
may be seen small clumps of cottonwoods, so far away as to 
appear like brushwood. Nearer by and along the foot of the 
ridge, fields of grain wave in the breeze, while here and there 
may be seen herds of cattle, moving specks that recall the 
