GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1871. 



339 



of June, and proceeded directly toward Fort 

 McPherson, on the line of the Union Pacific 

 Railway, where they obtained an escort of a 

 company of the Fifth United States Cavalry. 

 An exploration was first made along the Loup 

 Fork and Niobrara, where rich collections re- 

 warded their efforts. Returning from this 

 excursion, they proceeded, early in August, 

 to Fort I). A. Russell, near Cheyenne, and 

 from that point made a trip, accompanied by 

 a detachment of the Fifth Cavalry, under Cap- 

 tain Montgomery, into Northern Colorado, and 

 thence to Antelope Station, where extensive 

 collections were made. From this point they 

 moved to the north branch of the Platte River, 

 near Chimney Rock, and again returned to 

 Fort Russell by way of Horse Creek. Con- 

 tinuing their labors, they started westward to 

 Fort Bridget, with an escort from the Thir- 

 teenth Infantry, and examined the eastern Uin- 

 tah Mountains, and the region along the Green 

 and "White Rivers, and other main tributaries 

 of the Colorado, and, after an absence of about 

 eight weeks, returned to Fort Bridger. 



Thence a portion of the party went to Cali- 

 fornia and visited the Yosemite Valley, while 

 others proceeded to Denver in November, and 

 then to Fort Wallace, in Kansas, where their 

 explorations for the season were concluded. 



The results of their exploration, in the col- 

 lection of mineral and geological specimens 

 and fossils, were in the highest degree im- 

 portant and valuable. They examined, more 

 fully than any previous explorers have done, 

 that mysterious and interesting region known 

 as the Mauvaises Terres, or u Bad Lands," and 

 thence obtained many fossils, determined 

 the geological character of the country they 

 traversed, and have added, as will appear 

 from their report, materially to our knowledge 

 of the physical geography and geology of Ne- 

 braska and Northern Colorado, as well as the 

 other regions visited. 



That portion of Dakota Territory known as 

 the Black Hills has long been supposed to be 

 rich in gold ; but, as it was a part of the res- 

 ervation of Spotted Tail's band of Sioux, a 

 friendly tribe of that warlike nation of Indians, 

 the Government has felt itself obliged to drive 

 away all intruders, whether miners, explorers, 

 or prospectors, and has endeavored to do so in 

 good faith, a matter of great difficulty among 

 the reckless and lawless adventurers of the 

 mining regions. In the summer of 1871, how- 

 ever, Spotted Tail and his band were induced 

 by some means to migrate southward to the 

 vicinity of the Upper Platte River, and the 

 wandering miners and adventurers rushed in 

 at once, and reported that they had found gold 

 in paying quantities among the Black Hills. 

 According to the latest reports, however, 

 Spotted Tail had returned from the Upper 

 Platte greatly dissatisfied, and demanded his 

 old reservation ; and the military commander 

 of the district was driving out the lawless 

 roughs who had taken possession of it. 



Major Powell, whose daring exploration of 

 the Colorado, in 1869, excited so much at- 

 tention, fitted out another expedition in the 

 summer of 1871, under the direction of the 

 Government, which was much larger and bet- 

 ter supplied with such materiel as his first ex- 

 pedition had shown to be necessary, his object 

 being to make a thorough exploration of the 

 whole Colorado Valley as well as of the country 

 on both sides of it. The expedition was divided 

 into two parties one travelling along the 

 plateaus and cbmmunicating from time to time 

 with the other, which essayed again the peril- 

 ous passage of the river itself. Each party was 

 required to make full scientific observations. 

 The expedition was expected to be absent 

 about fourteen months. They left Green River 

 City, Wyoming Territory, in August, 1871, and 

 were heard from on the 10th of October, at 

 44 the Crossing of the Fathers," about twenty- 

 two miles below Monument Cafion. At this 

 point Major Powell left the river party, and 

 returned to Salt Lake City with the train, in- 

 tending to return and explore the river more 

 fully from that point. The remainder of the 

 river party, under command of his brother, 

 descended the river to Patona River, forty-five 

 miles below, where they were to make their 

 winter camp, and explore the adjacent country. 



The traveller in these regions is constantly 

 finding new objects of interest, freaks of Na- 

 ture and the elements, which startle and sur- 

 prise him. A very singular phenomenon of 

 this description is a portrait of a cinnamon 

 bear of three years old, depicted on the nearly 

 perpendicular surface of a sandstone cliif on 

 the Purgatoire (or, as the trappers call it, the 

 Picket-wire River), in Colorado. The picture 

 is of life-size, of about the natural color, and 

 ten or twelve feet above the base of the 

 cliff, exceedingly spirited, and represents the 

 animal as raising its foot to step forward, and 

 arrested at that instant by something which 

 terrified it. Scientific men who have examined 

 it have satisfied themselves that it was exe- 

 cuted by no human agency, but that it is a 

 photograph produced by the lightning, which 

 itself was both the cause of the animal's ter- 

 ror and the means of taking his portrait. 



California will never cease to be a land of 

 wonders. Its mountain-ranges, its beautiful 

 valleys, its gigantic trees, its falls, cataracts, 

 and mountain-summits, in the famous Yosemite 

 Valley, its varied climate, from the chill snows 

 of its mountains in the north to the torrid 

 heats of its southern border, its pure mountain- 

 lakes of icy coldness, and its boiling and 

 thermal mineral springs of all foul flavors, and 

 its geysers, which rival those of the Yellow- 

 stone, render it a land of perpetual delights. 

 But it has also its forbidding aspects. At 

 several points, notably in Napa County, in the 

 valley where the Geysers are situated, in 

 Crane Valley, and in the region of Owen's 

 Lake and River, near the confines of Fresno, 

 Tulare, and Inyo Counties, there are volcanic 



