oor of an ancient lake, where turtles lie imbedded by hundreds, and
some weighing a ton. This wonderful place looks like the city of the
dead; and as nothing grows there, and there is no water for animals, no
living thing is found there, not even a bird. General Sully made a
forced march through it with cavalry a few years ago, and had to carry
water for the men and horses. The Indians never go there, unless driven
in by some tribe attacking in superior numbers. The fossils which have
been brought from the Mauvaises Terres belong to a species that became
extinct before the period when the Mastodon inhabited this country. The
strata in which these animals are imbedded indicate that the water was
fresh or brackish. It is the most desolate and barren prospect one
could lay his eyes on; and if the place for bad people is like this,
when they come to die, may no boy have to go there and be frightened
all his life-long for his wicked and cruel deeds to others, or to
animals either; for the sight of these skeletons is enough to make any
boy afraid of disobeying his mother, or to go to sleep any night
without being sorry for his sins.

Gold is said to be deposited there, and may yet be found in large
quantities, if the Indians can be induced to let the whites prospect
there. A while since, an Indian brought into a fort some gold-dust and
a large nugget. The post-trader looked at it and pretended it was iron,
saying to the Indian, "No good." He threw it out of the window and gave
the Indian a glass of whisky. When he went out, the trader picked it
up, and it was worth thirty dollars. The Indian having refused to tell
where he got it, was made quite drunk, and then he said it came from
the Bad Lands; but if the chief found out he had told of it, he would
kill him.

NATURAL HISTORY--ANIMALS ON THE PLAINS.

The animals which are found west of the Missouri River, especially in
the Rocky Mountains, and far beyond them, are the buffalo, elk, deer,
cimarron bear, mountain sheep, antelope, coyote, prairie-dog, etc.

The buffalo, which affords good beef to the Indian hunters, and has fed
many thousand toilers over the plains to Salt Lake and California, is
mainly known to boys in the comfortable buffalo robes, which every one
knows the use of in sleigh-riding. But to us officers and soldiers on
the plains they are life-preservers almost, in our sleeping out nights
on the ground, far away from home and good beds and blankets.