210 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



the country, in other respects, is unfavorable for set- 

 tlement. 



The scenery upon the Missouri is monotonous un- 

 til the confluence of the Yellowstone is approached. 

 This is owing to the fact that at the river level we 

 are shut in from the magnificent summer landscape 

 of the prairies, of which the eye never wearies; and 

 are confined to the narrow range of the bottom lands 

 and bordering bluffs, which have few attractive feat- 

 ures. One of the most remarkable regions of the 

 earth is thus traversed without being seen. From the 

 old village of the Mandans, and particularly above 

 the Great Bend of the Missouri, the scenery changes 

 and assumes more imposing forms. First there are 

 high banks of indurated clay, seamed with lignite, 

 which rise three hundred feet high and assume gro- 

 tesque architectural forms from the effects of rain and 

 frost. These, with more or less uniformity in appear- 

 ance, border the river for five hundred miles until the 

 Bad Lands are entered, which, commencing about fifty 

 miles above the confluence of Milk River, continue for 

 upwards of three hundred miles. The "Bad Lands" 

 {mauvaises terres), so called, are sterile, rounded mud 

 hills, of a dingy-brown color, thickly studded together, 

 and rising, with deep chasms between, two hundred or 

 more feet high. They are composed of adhesive clay, 

 which, softening to a considerable depth under every 

 rain, are destitute of every species of vegetation ex- 

 cept an occasional sage-tree or dwarf cedar, and a 

 straggling cactus. This assemblage of conical hills 

 presents the most dreary landscape within the limits 

 of our Republic, the deserts of the Colorado Basin not 

 excepted. Silence and desolation reign throughout 



