Answer.—The “Bad Lands,” or “Mauvaises Terres,” of the old French fur-traders’ dialect, are an extensive barren tract in Dakota, Wyoming, and Northwestern Nebraska, between the North Fork of the Platte and the South Fork of the Cheyenne River—west, south, and southeast of the Black Hills. It lies mostly between the 103d and 105th degrees of longitude, with an area as yet not perfectly defined, but estimated to cover about 60,000 square miles. There are similar lands in the Green River region of which Fort Bridger is the center, and in southeastern Oregon. The following description applies directly to the district named in the question, so commonly known in the Northwest as the “Bad Lands.” They belong to the Miocene period, geologically speaking. “The surface materials are for the most part white and yellowish indurated clays, sands, marls, and occasional thin beds of lime and sandstone.” It is fitly described as one of the most wonderful regions of the globe. It is held by geologists that during the geological period above named a vast fresh water lake system covered this portion of our continent, when the comparatively soft materials which compose the present surface were deposited. As these lakes drained off, after the subsidence of the plains further east, resulting in the formation of the Missouri Valley, the original lake beds were worn into canyons that wind in every conceivable direction. Here and there abrupt, almost perpendicular portions of the ancient beds remain in all imaginable forms, some resembling the ruins of abandoned cities. “Towers, spires, cathedrals, obelisks, pyramids and monuments” of various shapes appear on every side, as far as the eye can range. Says Dr. Hayden, the earliest explorer of this region, “Not unfrequently the rising or setting sun will light up these grand old ruins with a wild, strange beauty, reminding one of a city illuminated in the night, as seen from some high point. The harder layers project from the sides of the canyons with such regularity that they appear like seats of some vast weird amphitheater.” Through all this country rainfall is very light, the earth absorbs the most of what rain does fall, and water and grass are very scanty. The surface-rock is so soft that it disintegrates rapidly, covering the lower grounds in many places to a depth of several feet with a soft, powdery soil unsuited to vegetation, into which animals sink as in snow, while when wet it becomes a stiff mud of impassable depth. The fitness of the Dakota name for this region, signifying a land hard to travel over, cannot be called in question. These lands are plainly unsuited for agriculture, and with rare exceptions, here and there, are of little value for grazing purposes. But they are one of the most astonishing treasuries of fossil remains to be found anywhere. The soft clayey deposits are in some places literally filled with the bones of extinct species of the horse, rhinoceros, elephant, hog, camel, a deer that strongly resembled a hog, saber-toothed lions, and other marvelous creatures, which have rendered this section of the earth a study of the highest interest to geologists of all lands. Fossil trees and shrubs and fruits abound here. All these petrifactions are the result, in part, of conditions that do not now exist in the same degree, and required no one can tell how long. The soft clays of this region and the climate are still peculiarly conducive to petrifying animal and vegetable substances, but this process requires many years to convert such substances to stone.

GRAIN PRICES AND ENGLISH CORN LAWS.

Listowel, Can.

What was the price of grain in England for a few years preceding and following the repeal of the corn laws?

H. Martinson.

Answer.—From 1835 to 1855 the average prices in England of wheat, barley, and oats, per imperial quarter of eight bushels, were as follows. The corn laws were repealed in 1846.

Wheat,Barley,Oats,
Years.s.d.s.d.s.d.
18353942911220
18364863210231
18375510304231
1838647319225
18397083962511
1840664365258
18416443210225
1842473276193
1843501296184
1844513338207
18455010318226
1846548328238
1847699442288
1848506316206
1849443279176
1850403236165
1851386249187
1852409286191
1853533332210
18547253602711
1855748349275

Reckoning the pound sterling at its present value at the United States Custom House, it appears from the above table that an imperial bushel of wheat was worth $1.18⅓ in England in 1839, $1.51 in 1845 (the year before the corn laws were repealed), $2.10 in 1847, owing to the unusual scarcity in Europe and other special causes; about $1.52 in 1848; that the following year it dropped to $1.22; and that in 1855, owing to the Crimean war and other influences, it rose to $2.25. The price continued to decline after 1855 until it reached $1.33 in 1859. Then the opening of our civil war sent prices up temporarily, but even before it closed they dropped to the lowest point touched since the corn laws were repealed, viz., 40s 2d per quarter, or $1.20 per bushel—still a shade higher than the price in 1839, six years before the repeal. The good effects of that repeal must be looked for in other matters than in the reduction of prices of grain: in the general revival of manufacturing industries, the increase of the volume of trade, better wages, and many other items of prosperity.