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Show "DAD LANDS" IN MONTANA. Miles on Miles of Rugged Chasms, Fantastically Carved. It seems to mo thit no human being be-ing can stand on thnt spot and vlow that marvelous labyrinth of wild naturo without being thrilled by it. Instantly jour thoughts fly to tho Grand Canyon ot tho Colorado, aa seen from Point Sublime, only this Is in miniature. Tho fact that jou stand on a sharp point, from which tho world drops steeply nway on threo sides, Is not tho thing that is bo profoundly Impressive It Is tho depth, tho breadth and the awful wilderness of tho maze o' bad lands Int which jou look. Uefoio you, and on either hand, (hero stretch miles upon miles of ragged chasms, divided and walled In by a thousand thou-sand fantastic cliffs, and buttresses, and domes of nuked hard pan that stubbornly defy tho forces of erosion, ero-sion, and rcfuso to crumblo down." In several places thoro are masses ot earth architecture that remind one ot tho ruined castles on the Rhino. These baro walls are mostly most-ly of gray earth, not rock, and tho carving ot them has been most Btrangely dono. It Is only when you climb nmong them, and touch them, that tho wonders of erosion are fully rovoaled. Tho hard, dry earth has most stubbornly stub-bornly resisted the disintegrating action of tho water, wind, heat nnd cold, nnd thero nro hundreds of earth cliffs nearly us Bmooth and as perpendicular perpen-dicular as tho brick walls of Harlom. I dlsllko to osUmato tho total drop of theso bad lands from the plateau to tho wators of Snow creek, but I think It Is about S00 foot. After tho tlrst moments of spellbound spell-bound wondor nnd nmazo, you begin to pick out tho geography of what lies beforo you You Bee that tho oxIb of all this wild wasto of carved nnd furrowed earth Is th lovel und very narrow valley of Snow creek, which comes down from tho wt-Bt. You enn easily trace Its course eastward east-ward to tho point whero It bends abruptly northward and runs Into tho Missouri, parallel with tho Inst eight miles of Holl crrek In tlio creek bottom thcio Is a sinuous string of cottonwood trees, aspens and willow brush. Scrlbnor |
