330 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Iii Wyoming the Sweetwater, a tributary of the North Platte, and in 

 Colorado the South Platte, rise within a few miles of streams which 

 are tributary to the Colorado of the West. 



The headwaters of these various tributary streams are 8,000 to 

 14,000 feet above sea level. Gallatin, Mont., where the Jefferson, Mad- 

 ison, and Gallatin rivers unite to form the Missouri proper, is 4,132 feet 

 in altitude; the sources of the Madison River are over 8,300 feet above 

 the sea, while Two-Ocean Pass is about 8,200 feet. 



The mouth of the Missouri River is about 400 feet above sea level ; 

 the total fall of this river is therefore over 7,000 feet, or 3,732 feet 

 between Gallatin and the Mississippi. The length of the Missouri 

 proper is given as 3,000 miles; add to this the length of Madison River 

 and we have 3,230 miles, which may properly be regarded as the total 

 length of the Missouri. Among the important tributaries may be 

 named Milk River; Jefferson Fork, 140 miles; Gallatin Fork, 170 miles; 

 Yellowstone River, 1,100 miles; Platte River, 1,250 miles (including 

 the North Platte); and the Kansas River, 900 miles (including the 

 Smoky Hill Fork). The area drained by this great river is given as 

 518,000 square miles. This includes the entire State of Nebraska, 

 all of South Dakota except a few square miles in the northeast corner, 

 nearly all of Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, about half of Kan- 

 sas, more than half of Missouri, and large parts of Iowa and Colorado. 



In the mountains at the headwaters of the various tributary streams 

 there is an abundance of rainfall in summer and snow in winter. As 

 a rule, the mountains were naturally heavily timbered, and the moisture 

 was therefore conserved and fed out slowly during the season of drought. 

 This is still true in general, but the reckless destruction of the forests 

 in many places is having its effect upon the streams. 



After leaving the mountains the tributaries of the Missouri, with 

 scarcely an exception, enter a broad plain almost entirely devoid of 

 trees except along the water-courses. This plain extends over eastern 

 Montana, the two Dakotas, easteru Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and 

 Iowa. The western portion is barren, in some places even desolate. 

 This is particularly trueof the Bad Lauds, or Mauvaises Terres, of South 

 Dakota, and parts of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. 

 These are Miocene beds of great thickness. The White River Tertiary 

 beds of parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota are several 

 hundred feet thick, full of alkali, and in most places easily eroded. 



The eastern part of South Dakota, nearly all of Nebraska and Kan- 

 sas, and those parts of Colorado and Iowa in the Missouri basin con- 

 stitute a more or less gently undulating prairie country, becoming dry, 

 almost arid to the westward, but receiving an abundance of moisture 

 and being very rich and productive in the eastern parts. In the State 

 of Missouri there is more timber and plenty of moisture. The Missouri 

 basin as a whole, however, is a country whose soils erode with unusual 

 ease, and after getting out of the mountains and upon the plains few 

 of the streams are ever really clear. The Missouri River always carries 



