Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-27

the southern end of Rawhide Buttes, they
drove n~orthward to Hot Creek. Continuing
northward, they passed through a bad
land country entirely given over to sheep
raising and where the sheep herders live
In covered wagons, so that houses are sell
dom seen. II one looks at a map he
will see many places marked as towns and
postoffices, but they usually consist of a
single house, part of which serves as a
post office. On the maps many streams
and rivers are indicated, but few of them
were found to contain water, although
there were evidences that in the spring
floods had come down the ravines. The
spring floods had washed out signs Of
wagon tracks, so that the route was fire.
quently without the guidance of even O.
wheel mark across the buttes and through
the canons. Sometimes on reaching a
ranch It would be found that all the men
were away on the roundup and the women
could not give directions as to the best
route to follow, for they were acquainted
with the country for only a few miles from
the ranch.
Route From Newcastle.
Finally Newcastle, a town in the western
edge of the Black Hills, was reached. The
party then turned northwestward, follow
ing the edge OF the sparsely timbered
mountains, while to the left was a grazing
country. Here, about seven miles north
west of Newcastle in Oil Creek canon, a
cave dwelling, breatwork and cave man
picture writings were found.
Continuing, the route led down Wild
Horse Creek. Crossing Powder river by
means of a ford the wagon was finally
pulled into Sheridan. For some days after
seeing the Devils Tower. miles away TO
the north, the snow on the northern side
OF the peaks of the Big Horn mountains
had been seen miles to the west. Then for
a time high ridges had cut off the view.
runtil at Sheridan the party were at the
very base of the mountains.
Going southwestward, the canons OF
Crazy Woman and Muddy we're searched
and In both caves that had been occupied
by cave dwellers were found. In Muddy
Canon the men felt particularly active, but
later found that they had been drinking
water charged with arsenic from the red
rocks OF the canon walls which was not
sufficiently strong to poison them but
caused the peculiar exhilerstion.
Leaving behind the cave dwellings Mr..
Smith pushed on past the Hole in the Wall
country and the red rock region over the
divide TO Casper, where he left the wagon
to return home, and took the train for
New York.
ouary for stone Implements.
Perhaps the most remarkable discovery
made on the trip was a quarry from which
the prehistoric inhabitants secured stone
out OF which 70 chip their arrow points,
spear heads, knives, skin serapers. drills
and other implements. This quarry GOV
cred at least five acres on the southern
end OF the mountain locally known as
Brownell Hin. at a point about a mile
east OF the junction Of Hat creek and Old
Woman creek. in eastern central Wyom-
Ing.
There were numerous pits IN the top Of
the hin going down into strata carrying
seams and nodules of flint-like rock. Scat
tered about these pits were the battered
pebbles which had been used as hammers
In breaking out the rock and smashing
the pieces up into convenient size for chip
ping and talking into implements. Sem