INDUSTKIAL PKOGRESS DURING THE YEAR 187G. evil 



crosses the second prairie steppe, called the Great Coteau, leading 

 to a plateau about 2250 feet above the sea, broken up by ridges and 

 hollows in every direction, but having farther to the westward a 

 chain of salt lakes about fifteen miles long. This is the central water- 

 shed of the continent, the Mouse River emptying into the Red River 

 and Hudson Bay, while the watercourses farther on fall into the 

 Missouri River and Gulf of Mexico. Here the " bad lands " begin, 

 having a clayey and barren soil, with a very rugged and broken 

 country extending more than 300 miles along the boundary. 



At a point 500 miles west of Red River the country changes to an 

 arid plain of sand, with a little soil. Here butfalo were first met with 

 in great herds, and some fresh-water lakes with good pasture were 

 found. 



The arid plain extends from east to west for 150 miles, being 

 crossed by the gorge of the Milk River, 300 feet deep. In the midst 

 of this barren expanse, rising abruptly like a group of islands, is the 

 mountainous cluster called the Sweet Grass Hills, or the Three Buttes, 

 the boundary-line crossing the northern slope. 



The peaks of this group are 6800 feet high, and from them the 

 Rocky Mountain range, 150 miles distant, can be seen distinctly on 

 a clear day. After crossing St. Mary's River, the boundary enters 

 the fertile belt extending for twenty-five miles to the base of the 

 Rocky Mountains, which rise abruptly to peaks 10,000 feet above 

 the sea. The mountain region where the boundary crosses it is 

 about twenty-six miles wide, and upon the summit of the water-shed, 

 at an altitude of 6700 feet, is placed the monument marking the 

 western limit of the work of the Northern Boundary Commission, 

 and also the eastern limit of the boundary survey carried from the 

 Pacific side. 



The maps constructed from the data obtained by both the United 

 States and the British Commission are upon a scale of two miles to the 

 inch, there being twenty-foui sheets in the series. A set of recon- 

 naissance maps, on a scale of eight miles to the inch, will also be pub- 

 lished in seven sheets, six of them showing the general topograph- 

 ical outline from the Rocky Mountains to the Lake of the Woods, 

 and the seventh sheet showing the profile along the boundary. 



Attached to the British part of the Commission as geologist was 

 Mr. George M. Dawson, of Montreal, whose report (published in 1875) 

 contains a full description of the geology, particularly complete in 

 the discussion of the carboniferous deposit which extends from the 

 Pembina Mountains nearly to the Sweet Grass Hills. His discus- 

 sion is very valuable, as filling up the gaj) hitherto untraveled be- 

 tween the line of explorations made by Captain Palliser and Dr. 

 Hector, in 1857, 1858, and 1859, along the Saskatchewan, and those 

 of Professor Hayden and others along the Missouri. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, the well-known naturalist, accompanied the 



