RECONNAISSANCE OF THE THREE BUTTES. 227 



journey, ceased wholly in the distance of twenty miles, and for thirty miles perhaps not a single 

 tree is to be found. The bed of the river, more dry than lower down, is wide and shallow, five 

 or six hundred feet wide, and but a few feet below the intervale. Water is rarely found, and 

 then only in some hole sheltered by the overhanging bank; and the destitution of wood, the 

 naked, barren slopes walling in the intervale, the almost total absence of animal life, the whirl 

 ing, drifting sand of the dry river-bed, give to this portion of Milk River valley, in the chilliness 

 of an autumn day, as we travelled it, the character of desolation and dreariness. The river 

 turns frequently, and more abruptly than lower down, and is not favorable as a railway route, and 

 offers no place so feasible for leaving the valley and gaining the prairie as the one decided on in 

 the vicinity of the camp of September 1. 



At our late camp on the river-bottom, our point of departure from Milk river, when we took a 

 direct course for the Three Buttes, we halted under a clump of cotton-wood trees, the first we 

 had seen for thirty miles, with good wood, luxuriant grass, and sufficient water in the holes of 

 the river-bed. In this vicinity, washed down by the water, detached fragments of lignite were 

 of frequent occurrence. 



On the 5th of September, at night, I reached the east base of the most eastern of the Three 

 Buttes. 



The river, where I left it, I found to be about thirty miles distance from our camp of that night. 

 With the exception of two or three series of coulees, making down into the main valley of Milk 

 river, the route during the day lay over the dry prairie already noticed as lying between Milk and 

 Marias rivers. In these coulees, with their numerous branches cutting the country in deep chan 

 nels, difficult of passage, we noticed the frequency of fossils and of lignite in place. The layers 

 of lignite were sometimes six feet in depth, but most of this was occupied by layers of very 

 inferior quality, only a small portion being black and hard. I had no opportunity to examine 

 anything more than what happened to fall in my way. 



Our camp at the eastern base of the mountain was not gained until night, and the gathering 

 rain obliged us to take such quarters as happened to befall us, without much opportunity for 

 selection. We camped in a gully, worn by water through a light gray sandstone, with the 

 animals above us with good grass. At the bottom of the gully was a spring, whence meandered 

 a small rivulet, whose belt of green marked its course through the browned plains, until it was 

 absorbed and disappeared. Antelope had been tolerably plenty during the day. The wild 

 cherry and black gooseberry were abundant near our camp. The sandstone, a formation of 

 considerable extent, a thick stratum which the water has sometimes cut into a channel seventy- 

 five feet deep, is a light gray, coarse stone, and will answer very well for ordinary masonry, 

 and apparently could be easily worked. 



September 6th was spent in making the ascent of the mountain. The rain fell heavily during 

 the early part of the previous night, and the morning sun discovered the overhanging peaks of 

 the Buttes, glittering with a pure white covering of snow stretching far down their slopes, and 

 contrasting brilliantly with their dark masses of evergreen growth. Occasionally riding, but 

 oftener walking and leading our animals, early in the afternoon we gained as near the top as it 

 was desirable for the whole party to go. Leaving the animals and most of the party to proceed 

 to camp on the western slope, on foot I made my way to the tops of the two principal summits 

 of the eastern of the Trois Buttes. Our ascent had been one of continued excitement and 

 interest. 



For months we had been confined to the monotony of the smooth bleak prairie, and had 

 missed the rocks and trees, the hills, and brooks, to which we were accustomed, and as we again 

 were suddenly thrown among them with all their novelty and pleasant associations, our spirits 

 were strangely exhilarated, and every familiar stone and shrub possessed a rare charm. 



The mountains are perhaps half covered with a small growth, chiefly of pine a small pitch- 

 pine straight, eight inches to two feet through, and spruces of the same. size; and the other half 



