1867. J 323 [Ilayden. 



seem to present one of the most important fields of enterprise in the 

 West. 



All of Dakota is most excellent for g;razing and much of it for 

 agricultural purposes, but its great deficiency is its want of a proper 

 supply of timber for fuel and for building purposes. It therefore 

 becomes a question of absorbing interest to the settlers how this de- 

 fect can be remedied. I will attempt to explain this point as clearly 

 as possible, and the facts which I present have been obtained by 

 years of exploration in these Western regions before Dakota was or- 

 ganized as a territory. If any one will examine my report and sci- 

 entific papers, published from time to time since 1850, he will find 

 that 1 have always earnestly advocated the industrial interests of the 

 great Northwest, though my attention was so absorbed in the grand 

 scientific results tliat I could never foresee the marvellous progress 

 which has already been made. 



The Black Hills form the most eastern outlier of the main chain 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and would appear to be an independent 

 elevation were it not for a low anticlinal which extends across the 

 plain country southward, connecting them with the Laramie range. 

 Very little was known of those hills until they were explored in the 

 summer of 18.57 by a United States Expedition, under the command 

 of General G. K, Warren, U. S. A., to which expedition I had the 

 honor of being attached, as geologist and naturalist. A preliminary 

 report of the results of this exploration was presented to the War 

 Department by General Warren in 1859, and published by Congress 

 under the title of "Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota, in the 

 years 185.5-6 and 7." 



The Black Hills lie between the 4.3d and 45th degrees of latitude, 

 and the 10.3d and 105th meridians of longitude, and occupy an area 

 about one hundred miles in length, and about sixty in breadth, or 

 about six thousand square miles. The shape of the mass is ellipti- 

 cal, and the major axis tends about 20° west of north. The base of 

 these hills is about two thousand five hundred to three thousand feet, 

 and the highest peaks six thousand seven hundred feet above the 

 ocean. The whole range is clasped, as it were, by the north and 

 south forks of the Big Sheyenne River, the most important stream 

 in this region. The north branch passes along the north side of the 

 range, receiving very many of its tributaries, and most of its waters 

 from it, but takes its rise far to the westward of the range near the 

 sources of Powder River, in the divide between the waters of the 

 Yellowstone and those of the Missouri. 



