DENIO] 



THE ASSINIBOIN 407 



times except during spring freshets and when swollen by rain. 

 Neither of these streams is navigable by any craft larger than a 

 wooden canoe except at the high stages of water above referred to, 

 and then navigation would be difficult and dangerous owing to float- 

 ing ice and driftwood. There are no rapids or falls in either of 

 them. 



Several creeks fall into the Missouri below the point on the east 

 side called Big Muddy, Little Muddy, Knife Kiver, etc., all of which 

 contain but little water and are of no consequence. 



White Earth River, the last, is about 100 miles in length and at 

 the mouth a little more than 100 yards wide, contains but little 

 water, always fordable, and not navigable by anything, empties into 

 the Missouri near the commencement of the Great Bend. None of 

 these rivers being navigable except the Missouri, goods are only 

 landed at the following points along that river, viz: Fort Pierre 

 (Sioux), mouth of the Teton River; Fort Clarke (Arikara) at their 

 village: Fort Berthold (Gros Ventres village) ; Fort Union (Assini- 

 boin). mouth of Yellowstone. Steamboats have gone up the Mis- 

 souri as high as the mouth of Milk River, but heretofore goods for 

 Fort Benton (Blackfeet), near the mouth of Maria River, have been 

 transported by keel boats from Fort Union. 



We know of no large navigable lakes in this district, though along 

 the northern boundary there are many small ones, or rather large 

 ponds of water, without any river running through them or visible 

 outlet, being fed by snows, rain, and springs, and diminished by 

 evaporation and saturation. Lakes of this kind are to be met with 

 in many places on the plains and differ in size from 100 yards to 2 

 or 3 miles or even more in circumference, are not wooded, and con- 

 tain tolerably good water. Small springs are also common, most of 

 them having a mineral taste, though none are large enough to afford 

 water power. 



SrnFACE of the Country. — The whole country occupied by the 

 Assiniboin is one great plain, hills and timber only occurring where 

 rivers run. in the valleys of which good land for cultivation is found, 

 but the general feature appears to lie sterile as regards arable land, 

 producing, however, grasses of different kinds, some of which ar-s 

 very nutritious, and particularly adapted to raising horses, cattle. 

 ami sheep. The prairies may be said to be interminable and destitute 

 of the least particle of timber except along the banks of the few 

 streams before mentioned, and even these but thinly wooded. Water, 

 however, can always be found in the small lakes and rivers spoken 

 of. The Assiniboin do not cultivate the soil in any way, though the 

 Gros Ventres and Arikara raise corn and pumpkins to some extent on 

 the Missouri bottoms. By experiments made at or near Fort Union. 



