90 
THE NATURALISTS' COMPANION. 
found in great numbers. It grew 
on a stem when alive. It is about 
the size and shape of the finger¬ 
nail. 
The great number of worm-holes 
found in the rocks of this period 
prove the existence of marine 
worms. 
There were many crinoids dur¬ 
ing this period, as is proved by the 
number of broken crinoid stems 
found in its rocks. 
During this period there was no 
moss or grass. The sea had no 
fish, and the air no birds, or even 
the meanest insect. 
(TO BE CONTINUED. ) 
THE BAD LAjYDS. 
By C. D. PENDELb. 
Though nearly every one has 
heard of the Bad Lands, very few 
could give any explanation as to 
their character or origin. The 
name is applied to several wild, 
desolate, treeless and barren tracts 
of land in Colorado, Nebraska and 
Montana ; but is especially appli¬ 
cable to the south-western portion 
of Dakota, along the White River. 
This region consists of immense 
beds of clay, cut out by the com¬ 
bined action of frost and water and 
of rivers which were extinct ages 
ago, into thousands of columnar 
masses often one or two hundred 
feet high. These columns are some¬ 
times round, smooth and tapering, 
like the small end of an egg. Oth¬ 
ers, as Winched happily remarks, 
“in their endless succession, as¬ 
sume the appearance of massive 
artificial structures decked out with 
all the accessories of buttress and 
turrett, arched doorway and clus-» 
tered shaft, pinacle and finial andl 
tapering spire. On nearer approachl 
the illusion vanishes and all theS 
forms which fancy had conjured area 
resolved into barren desolation.”® 
The traveler lost in the confined® 
labyrinthian passages might wan-1 
der for days and in the voicelessl 
and motionless solitude, under thel 
scorching rays poured down from 1 
above and reflected from the white 1 
soil and walls, destitute of tree or j 
shrub to shelter him,and naught to || 
quench the thirst which overpowers 
him, finally mingle his bones with 
the titanic remains of primeval 1| 
monsters. 
Those clayey walls are built up 
mostly with the fragmentary re- | 
mains of the animal life of the Ter- ■ 
tiary period. The Bad Lands are, 
in fact, a literal Goizotta. At every 
step we tread upon the remains of ; 
former ages ; at every blow of the 
pickaxe the bones of unknown 
species are revealed. Hundreds 
of fossil turtles lay about on every 
side, single specimens often weigh¬ 
ing over a ton. 
Entering this valley of dry bones 
and calling comparative anatomy 
to our aid, we again unite the bro¬ 
ken skeletons and erect once more 
the frame work of an animal organ¬ 
ism. Now imagine the skin once 
more to cover this frame and life 
to invigorate this system, and lo ! 
we are in an ante-diluvian museum. 
There stands the gigantic masto¬ 
don ; here is an animal resembling 
the modern tapir, but its head is 
surmounted with a pair of horns 
and it is eight feet high. This 
strange animal is called the Uta- 
nothere. Next we come to the 
dinoceras, an animal rivaling in ' 
