60 IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 



After dinner we put up our tent, just as some men lock up 

 their barn after their best horse has been stolen. We went 

 to a hay-stack near camp, and got hay for our animals and 

 for beds, and slept comfortably. 



At noon the next day we reached the Rosebud river, a 

 stream that has been rendered famous by the Indian cam- 

 paigns of Generals Terry, Crook, Custer and Miles. Their 

 trails may still be seen at frequent intervals, leading into or 

 out of the valley, and remains of their old camp-fires may be 

 found on every available camping-ground. The Rosebud is a 

 narrow, deep, clear, swift-running stream, that looks as if it 

 might bear bass, pike and other game fishes, but I am told 

 that the catfish is the only species known to inhabit its waters. 

 The valley is broad, level, fertile, and will eventually all be 

 turned over by the plow and produce good crops. There are 

 no settlements on it yet, with the exception of two or three 

 cattle ranches. Several other ranches have been located, but 

 the "shacks" have not yet been built. The valley is 

 enclosed on either side with a range of hills that are down 

 on the map as the Rosebud mountains, though they are 

 scarcely of sufficient magnitude to entitle them to such dis- 

 tinction. Nearly all the peaks or buttes are capped with red, 

 fire-baked clay, and the stream takes its name from the fancied 

 resemblance these hills bear to rosebuds. The immediate 

 banks of the stream are covered with a light growth of timber, 

 mostly cottonwood. It make good fuel, and this is about the 

 only use that can be made of it, though an inferior quality of 

 fence posts and railroad ties may be manufactured from it. 

 None of the trees are large enough for lumber. The only 

 game found on this stream, now, is deer; and they are scarce, 

 owing to its having been hunted so persistently both by 

 soldiers and Indians. 



At noon on the ist of September we passed a point further 



