IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 51 



expedition to the Upper Missouri in the winter of 1879-80, 

 in which the Sioux chief Gall and his band were captured. 

 This was a movement of great value and importance to the 

 country, for it virtually broke up the hostile element of the 

 Sioux nation. It left them too weak to successfully hold out 

 against the army longer, and the ultimate surrender of Crow 

 King, Log Dog, Sitting Bul^ and the others, followed as a 

 necessary consequence. 



After a night's run from St. Paul, we entered the famous 

 Red river valley, the greatest wheat growing country in the 

 world. The crop this year is bountiful, and is now being 

 threshed and shipped. Steam threshers can be seen at work 

 in every direction, and the grain, in many instances, is being 

 hauled directly to the stations, and loaded into cars. West 

 of Fargo to Bismarck, there are still millions of acres of un- 

 cultivated lands, as rich and as valuable for farming and graz- 

 ing purposes as any of those that are already under cultivation. 

 But they are settling up rapidly. 



Years ago, when this road was first projected, there were 

 those who pronounced its originators insane. It was said that 

 if a road were built across the continent this far north, it 

 could not be operated more than six months in the year, ow- 

 ning to the terrible winters experienced in this latitude ; but 

 in practical contradiction of this theory, the fact is announced 

 that, while so many roads further south were blockaded by snow 

 during a greater portion of that terrible winter of 1879-80, the 

 Northern Pacific was not blockaded a single day. It was said 

 that the region through which the line was to run was a bleak, 

 snowy, inhospitable desert, where nothing in the way of 

 farm or garden products could be made to grow, and where 

 stock, as well as human beings, must inevitably perish from 

 cold. But the hundreds of prosperous farms, the beautiful 

 crops, and the large and successful stock ranches all along the 



