The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-12-02
TURRETED

A~fN'~t-A -A~
T HE Black Hills OF South Da.
kota and Wyoming, which are
in fact mountains rising from
the great plains to an eleva-
tion of 1000 or more feet above sea
level, were millions of years ago, a
small, low island, surrounded by a
vast shallow sea. This sea extended
as far west as the Rocky mountains,
which were mere highlands rising
above it, writes Guy E. Mitchell in the
Utica Saturday Globe.
The average traveller today, much
less the bandits and Indians who have
In recent years infested this elevated
region, would probably, according to
their various nationalities, smile
grimly or laugh to scorn the statement
that this portion of the country, now
80 arid and barren, was once the
ocean, and later a vast tropical
swamp, among whose rank and luxu-
rant vegetation lurked strange and
huge reptiles, and on the shores of
which roamed giant herbivorous ami
mails, which were in turn preyed upon
by the terrible fesh-eating monsters of
the early world Such, however, is the
fact as attested by the vast quantities
of fossilized bones which have been
found imbedded in the rocks and many
OF which are now mounted in lifelike
attitudes in various museums Of the
country.
Following this age of sea and swamp
the whole region was uplifted thou.
sands of feet by the dynamic forces
from within the earth; the hills be-
came mountains and the bed of the
ancient sea, long since turned to
stone, became lofty plateau. Then
the rivers began their slow work of
cutting, carving and dissecting this
tableland. The result today is that
wonderful region of several hundred
square miles east of the Black Hills,
known as "The Big Bad Lands" where
nature has chiseled the soft rocks
into thousands of strange of curious
shapes. The cloudbursts of spring and
summer which visit the Bad Lands cre-
ate innumerable rivers, from small
rills to raging torrents, whose rushing
waters cut deep into the old ocean
bed-layers of hardened sand and clay
carrying it into most startling shapes
and forms. There is a bewildering
variety, a Kaleidoscope change from
every different viewpoint. The Bad
Lands are not, as might be supposed
from the name, somber and desolate
in appearance. Bad they are for the
unwary travellers comfort, even in
deed his safety, since the watering
places are few and far between.
Chaos of Rugged Shapes.
Different from the titanic carvings
of nature, such as the great canyon of
the Colorado, which has been cut
largely by single river running cease
lessly through the endless centuries,
the Bad Lands present fine network
of comparatively minute sculpturing,
in hundreds rather than thousands of
feet, the result of intermittent erosion.
3NOlLhOA OOOo LAO eye ESSL
on any forests, glittering lakes, or
green meadows. Instead, there is
veritable chaos of rugged and gro
tesque shapes fashioned by the rains
and the winds out of the crumbly
rocks, softly tinted with many hues.
The bright western sun reflects the
light from thousands of glittering
pyramids, towers, galleries, and ca
thedral spires, all bare of vegetation,
but casting back in subdued shades
every color of the rainbow.
No land of fable could picture
greater variety of fairy castles, with
watch towers, battlements and tur-
rets, impregnable strongholds built on
lofty cliffs, commanding the country
around, until the domain of the next
lofty castle or nesting chateau is
reached. The fact that many of these
fantastic structures appear to be fall
ing into ruin in no way detracts from
the romantic charm of the scene; such
indeed seems in harmony with the 81
lent, deserted aspect of the region.
Fortress after fortress and em.
battlement after embattlement meet
the eye from different positions
as the traveller wanders here and
there through the Bad Lands, some
sadly in need of repair-long aban-
doned in the imagination-other
standing out bold and sharp against
the clear blue Dakota sky. Hardly can