THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 

 THE NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT. 



The vast territory of the North- West, comprising the rich 

 region formally included in the Great Desert, but which is now 

 overflowing with wheat, and teeming with herds and flocks ; 

 and including the territories of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, 

 and Idaho, furnish innumerable locations for profitable sheep 

 herding. The completion of the railroad which now stretches 

 across the great plains, and penetrates the gorges and valleys 

 of the mountains, furnishes an inlet for the settlers who are 

 crowding into the country, and an outlet for their products. 

 Of this region, the mountain country and the broken foot-hills 

 are the best adapted for sheep. Moreover these rougher lands 

 are not so well suited for cattle, and the shepherd is not an- 

 noyed by the persecutions of the herdsmen, who always man- 

 age to drive the sheep off from the grazing grounds, upon 

 which they cast an envious eye. But there is room enough 

 here for all, and when the plains break into hills and canyons, 

 and these rise into mountains and gorges, among which are in- 

 numerable grassy tracts, well watered and sheltered, with 

 abundant herbage on their flanks, the sheep are beyond the 

 range of the cattlemen, and m.ay find locations where they 

 may not be disturbed. 



The general features of the country after leaving the plains 

 in all the three territories Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana 

 may be described as a succession of mountain and valley, with 

 high, dry table-lands. The mountains are generally timbered ; 

 the valleys consist of arable land, with abundance of grass, 

 and the table-lands are covered with sage brush, and a sparse 

 vegetation of bunch grass, upon which, however, sheep subsist 

 comfortably and thrive. The climate is exceedingly change- 

 able, but remarkably healthful ; entirely free from malaria of 

 all kinds ; the summer days are hot, and the nights frosty ; and 

 occasional severe storms blow for two or three hours at a time, 

 and carrying sand and gravel with great velocity, make things 

 extremely uncomfortable for the time being. The miners and 

 prospectors have penetrated all through the country, and their 

 trails furnish the only roads. Streams are forded or crossed 

 by ferries at the principal points, and already there is a large 

 immigration of stock mostly cattle from Eastern Oregon 

 and Washington Territory into this region. At one point, 

 fourteen herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep were ferried 

 over the Snake River into Idaho from Oregon in one day, while 



