Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-12-26
PYRAMID PARK.
Continued From Fourth Page.


Continued From Fourth Page
quite wide, and from two to four feet
deep. The railroad crosses it at Medic
IA. From this paint as a center, the
traveller Or student can radiate either
UP or down the fine wooded valley Of
the river. or extend his Investigations
away from it. Good ranches are found
at frequent intervals, and camping
spots anywhere. Back from the vicin-
ity of the railroad, deer, and especially
antelope. are still found in large num-
bers, and prairie chickens are plentiful.
The eastern portion Of North Dakota
is in its general characteristics the
counterpart Of Western Minnesota. OF
an average elevation of from 1000 to
l,5OO feet, as you progress westward
to the Missouri river it is an undu-
lating, elevated plain, not plentiful of
timber, but Of a pleasing appearance,
and a good grazing and crop growing
section.
We then enter a region possessing
Scattered through the West, both in
oOuIASAA anu AOl tuclu ldUlCtlucS, are
found stretches Of country which, from
their peculiar configuration and struc-
ture, are known to biologists and ex-
plorers as the 'Mauvaises Terres" or
bad Lands" A we'll known author
ity says of them: "These are dreary
wastes, naked hills, with rounded or
conical forms, composed of sand, sandy
clays, or fine fragments Of shay rocks,
with Sfopn c1onoc. ~; ~
pressure Of the foot, they are climbed
only by the greatest toll. :" The
-sna! aspect of .hese Bad Lands IS
indeed that Of "dreary waste" The
writer has ridden through them on
horseback, where it seemed as if it
were very desolation itself, where the
dull, clayey slopes and eroded buttes
might well have been thought the huge
ash piles of ancient cities persisted
from the earth.
West Of Dickinson, the Northern Pa
cifc railroad traverses a portion of
these Mauvaises Terres, which not only
constitutes possibly the most spec
tacular piece of landscape along the
whole length Of road, as seen from the
car windows, but may with equal truth
be pronounced the most glowing and
dramatic representation Of it's kind vet
discovered. 1t is a perfect symphony
in form and color.
Such delicacy Of tint and perfection
of form, coupled at times with the
most astounding sculptural effects, and
figures the most grotesque, cannot, I
venture to affirm, be duplicated else
where.
The horizon fairly teens with the
Duties, cliffs and bluffs Of this weird
land. Thicker and more complex they
become, and from them, springing aloft
In endless array and multiform shapes,
are pinnacles, spires, domes and tur-
rets. In the far distance, wrapped
about in a mysterious veil Of haze
that soft, beautiful, unreal, yet strange
~ real thing of Western landscape,
Like the indistinct golden and yapor-
GUS fleece
Which surrounded and hid the celes-
tails in Greece
these cliffs become strange creatures Of
the imagination. Anything that fancy
painted them, that they were. Old
medieval ruins, cities gone to decay.
castles and watch-towers tumbled into
picturesque confusion, walled towns
along the border, remnants of confla-
grafton most disastrous and all
they could be in turn, and in each nat
ural. The region is one where fire and
water has each played it's part. It
seems well settled that the climate
was at one time tropical one, where
vegetation fourished to a remarkable
degree
Once the train is well within the
Bad Lands, the view becomes circum-
scribed. Now the detail Of form is
greater. The road winds about, dodg-
ing knobs, edging away from ravines
occasionally going straight through a
nil when 1t cannot do otherwise; all
the time seeking a way out of this
labyrinthian scene, and affording many
sided views Of the wonderful forms.
Cone-shaped hills, perfect in shane.
connected with geometric bluffs, bring
to mind military Notifications. We
roll past rounded hill, crowned with
perfect nipple Of pink scoria. Then
comes procession Of stone men, al
ways In marching order, but never
moving. Fluted slopes, finely chased
mounds, fretted cliffs, hills exquisite
IN their symmetry. and banded or dash
ed with vivid Indian red and naler
terra Gotta. whirl rapidly past. Occa-
sionally long, narrow ribbon OF black
Ignite can be traced on the hillside.
perhaps still smoking from the smOlder.
Ing fire within. A strange Intermin.
Cling of the grotesque and symmetric
-War-like bastiOn and fort, ruined tow.
ers. IMPLIED peaks, flowing ridges, mot.
tied hills-tbis.
%. d Wheeler.