52 IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 



route, far up toward the Rocky Mountains, give us ocular 

 demonstration of the fact that the desert has been made to 

 blossom as the rose. And not only has it been found possi- 

 ble to build a railroad and till the soil in this latitude, but the 

 Canadian government is building a trans-continental road on 

 a line two to three hundred miles north of this, that promises 

 equally favorable results. 



We arrived at Bismarck at six o'clock in the evening, and 

 stopped over night. 



Mr. John Leasure, an intimate friend of former days, 

 whom I met here, entertained me very pleasantly during the 

 evening with an account of a hunt in which he participated, 

 in the Musselshell country, a few years ago. The party killed 

 a number of grizzly and cinnamon bears, elk, mountain 

 sheep, deer, etc. He says it is one of the best localities in 

 the West for game of this class. He is a frontiersman of 

 several years' experience, and a skillful and successful hunter. 



We left Bismarck at six o'clock the next morning for 

 Glendive, the then terminus of the road ; passed through a 

 beautiful series of valleys, including the Hart, the Curlew, 

 the Knife, the Cannonball and others, through each of which 

 flow streams of water, varying in size as well as quality 

 some of them being pure and others tinctured with alkali. 

 But there is plenty of sweet water for agricultural purposes, 

 and the land is as finely situated for farming or stock growing 

 as any one could desire. 



We passed through the world-famous Bad Lands, border- 

 ing the Little Missouri, during the afternoon. These have 

 been described so often by various writers that I will not here 

 detain the reader by adding anything to what has already 

 been said, and besides no one, though he may read volumes 

 of descriptions of this marvellous region, can form any con- 

 ception of what these Bad Lands are like. They must be 



