brulots. I must add to this harsh music the more fearful and more disagreeable noise of the rattlesnake. These reptiles are frequently met in the region styled MauvaisesTerres or Bad Lands, a very remarkable plateau, of which I will hereafter give a description - and where the Little Missouri [Teton or Bad river], the Mankizita-Watpa or Terreblanche, [White river] and the Niobrara take their rise. Here also are found the many-hued chameleon, the hideous lizard, the horned frog, known by the perhaps more classical name of salamander, and several varieties of small tortoise. I witnessed a singular trait of the instinct of a rattlesnake. The reptile was basking in the sun, surrounded by eight or ten little ones. As soon as she perceived me, she gave the rattle, opened her throat wide, and in an instant the whole brood descended. I withdrew some seconds, and then returned; the young ones had come forth from their living tomb, to which my presence quickly obliged them to seek refuge anew.
The unbroken, arid soil of the Bad Lands, which will ever baffle the most energetic and persevering labor, boasts, however, of several millions of townships, full of life and movement - I mean the villages of the prairie dog - the site of each one of which extends over an area of several square miles of smooth table land, on which the grass is very short and thin. The instincts of this remarkable animal (which bears some resemblance to the squirrel) are at once curious and amusing. The grass which springs up in the neighborhood of their dwellings they tear up by the roots; but their vandalism has its exceptions. They seem to respect and spare certain flowers which generally surround their little abodes, and give them a much more agreeable look. These proved to be the Hedeoma hirta, the Solanom triflorum, the Lupinus pusillus, the Erigeron divaricatum, Dysodia chrysanthemoides, Ellisia nyctagenea, and the Panicum virgatunti.
They pile up the earth around their dwellings about two feet above the surface of the soil, thus protecting them