68 LIFEINTHEFARWEST. 



. i 



was every where luxuriantly green, and gaudy flowers dotted the 

 surface of the prairie. This term, hoM^ever, should hardly be ap- 

 plied to the beautiful undulating scenery of this park-like country. 

 Unlike the flat monotony of the Grand Plains, here well-wooded 

 uplands, clothed with forest trees of every species, and picturesque 

 dells, through which run clear bubbling streams belted with gay- 

 blossomed shrubs, every where present themselves ; while on the 

 level meadow-land, topes of trees with spreading foliage aflbrd a 

 shelter to the game and cattle, and well-timbered knolls rise at in- 

 tervals from the plain. 



Many clear streams, dashing over their pebbly beds, intersect 

 the country, from which, in the noonday's heat, the red-deer jump, 

 shaking their wet sides, as the noise of approaching man disturbs 

 them ; and booming grouse rise from the tall luxuriant herbage at 

 every step. Where the deep escarpments of the river banks ex- 

 hibit the section of the earth, a rich alluvial soil of surpassing 

 depth courts the cultivation of ciAdUzed man ; and in every feature 

 it is evident that here nature has worked with kindliest and most 

 bountiful hand. 



For hundreds of miles along the western or right bank of the 

 Missouri does a country extend, with which, for fertility and 

 natural resources, no part of Europe can stand comparison. 

 Sufficiently large to contain -fan enormous population, it has, be- 

 sides, every advantage of position, and all the natural capabilities 

 which should make it the happy abode of civilized man. Through 

 this unpeopled country the United States pours her greedy thou- 

 sands, to seize upon the barren territories of her feeble neighbor. 



Camping the first night on " Black Jack," our mountaineers 

 here cut each man a spare hickory wiping-stick for his rifle ; and 

 La Bonte, who was the only greenhorn of the party, witnessed a 

 savage ebullition of rage on the part of one of his companions, 

 exhibiting the perfect unrestraint which these men impose upon 

 their passions, and the barbarous anger which the slightest opposi- 



