518 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
abrupt, steep slopes or bluffs of varying height. In the term bottom- 
lands are included the numerous islands found in the principal streams, 
These bottoms vary much from year to year, being (especially on the © 
Missouri) washed away at one point to be deposited at another. Islands 
form continually in those portions of the river which are bordered by 
the low alluvial lands, and the island once formed it is, in the course of 
a short time, covered with a growth of willows and afterward of cotton- 
wood. It is almost exclusively in these lands and in the coulisse or 
ravines running down to them from the plateaus that the cottonwood — 
is to be found. All of the streams are more or less fringed with it, but 
it is seldom that the fringe is more than a few hundred yards in width. 
For a large portion of Montana and a still larger portion of Dakota 
cottonwood is the only timber, and it is, as stated above, found only in 
the bottom-iands and ravines. Occasionally a few other varieties of 
trees are found, but they are invariably of small growth. The cotton- 
wood is hardy, and will grow on almost any soil, provided there be a— 
sufficiency of moisture and it be protected in its infancy from strong 
winds. It is of very rapid growth, and varies greatly in size. The 
largest varieties which I have seen are about eighty feet in height, with 
a trunk about three feet in diameter. F 
During the winter the Indian ponies subsist on the bark of the young 
trees, and I understand that the more hardy class of our cavalry horses 
can “get through” the winter on it. The wood is tough and strong, 
with a good grain, but full of sap, and it warps readily and quickly when - 
converted into boards. I understand, also, that in dwellings constructed 
of it bed-bugs make their appearance in great numbers at an early date. 
These defects could probably be remedied by a good and thorough pro- 
cess of seasoning. Still, it is doubtful if the cottonwood will ever to any 
extent be used for timber. It must, probably, be content to serve its 
purposes as fuel, for shade, and to furnish material for the log houses of 
the military and civil pioneers. 
The valley of the Red River of the North and most of the lakes have 
their growth of hard-wood trees, oak, hickory, birch, beech, maple, &e. 
The timber of the river grows only in the alternate bends, and the fringes 
around the lakes are not of great width. 
The high winds and fires which prevail on the plateaus have caused 
these latter to remain treeless. Itis only in the bottoms or ravines that 
a sufficiency of moisture and protection from fires and winds attains, and 
_ consequently only there are the trees found. But in the mountainous 
or hilly regions it is different. Here the streams running between high, 
abrupt blufis have no timber, while the hills, as a rule, are covered with 
a comparatively thick growth of pine, cedar, spruce, and fir. The Black 
Hills and the smaller ranges, such as Slim Buttes, Short Pine Hills, &c., 
have all a growth of the above-mentioned trees, and that of the Black 
Hills and neighborhood is very fine. 
Passing into Montana, the hills occur in greater frequency and of - 
greater extent. 
Mr. George Clendennin, jr., who has traveled over the greater portion 
of Montana, estimates that from 110° to 112° longitude the mountainous 
area is about one-third, and west of 112° it was fully one-half. This moun- 
tainous region is thickly covered with pine, spruce, fir, &c. The pine, 
which is of the straight, resinous, yellow variety, ranges as high as two 
and a half feet in diameter, but is suitable, generally, fer common lum- 
ber only. 
Along the Muscleshell, from the Big Bend to the Missouri, belts of 
good, straight cottonwood about three hundred yards in width are 
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