248 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 



After leaving this we entered upon a dry desert tract, but sparsely 

 covered with stunted artemisia. The sand in some i^laces was very deep, 

 and caused the wagons to drag heavily. This continued until we reached 

 Kaoias Creek, and even there the sand is often deep, and in some places 

 cast up in long, low, rolling ridges. A few cotton- woods remain on the 

 bank of this stream, but the bordering country has the most barren as- 

 spect of any that we have seen. From this point to the mountains, 

 some twenty-five miles distant, which form the dividing line between 

 Idaho and Montana, the character of the country was much the same as 

 that just described. 



As we come near the foot of the range, the land begins to rise graduallj'', 

 and is much better grassed than that we had passed over during the 

 two previous days, and the occasional little streams that flow down will 

 afford a means of irrigating small areas. Bat I think the climate is 

 quite severe, and that only the hardiest cereals and vegetables can be 

 grown ; but as there are no settlements here, no experiments in this 

 direction have been made. 



CHAPTER lY. 



MONTANA TEREITORT.* 



Montana, with the exception of Alaska, is the most recently organized 

 Territory of the United States. Embracing that region lying between the 

 forty-fifth and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude and one hundred and 

 fourth and one hundred and sixteenth meridians of west longitude, it 

 contains an area of 143,776 square miles or 92,016,640 acres, extending 

 from east to west about five hundred and fifty miles, and from north 

 to south about two hundred and eighty miles. It is separated into two 

 very unequal areas by the dividing range of the Eocky Mountains, 

 which forms the southwestern boundary from the west line of Wyoming 

 to the intersection of 45^" 40' north latitude and the one hundred and 

 fourteenth meridian. Here it suddenly bends eastward for some dis- 

 tance, and then runs north about twenty degrees west to the northern 

 boundary of the Territory. About one-fifth of the entire area belongs 

 to the Pacific slope, being drained by the head-waters of the Columbia, 

 and four-fifths to the Atlantic slope, being drained by the Missouri and 

 its tributaries. Extending from the mouth of the Yellowstone to the 

 summit of the Bitter-Eoot Eauge, about two-fifths belong to the mount- 

 ain region, three-filths consisting of broad, open plains lying east of the 

 Eocky Mountain Eange. The mountain belt, which forms a broad mar- 

 gin along the western end, has probably an average width (direct meas- 

 urement from the summit of the Bitter-Eoot Eange to the east flank of 

 the Eocky Mountains) of one hundred and seventy-five miles, running 

 northwest j)arallel to the western boundary. Besides these two leading 

 ranges and their interlocking spurs on the western slope, there are some 

 minor ranges on the eastern side, which though comparatively small in 

 extent are important in respect to the influence they have upon the 

 course of the water-drainage and the form and direction of the prin- 

 cipal valleys. In the northwest corner of Wyoming, near the point 

 where the dividing range makes the western bend and passes out of 

 this Territory, is what appears to be the great mountain nucleus of this 



* The substance of this chapter has been furnished the Agricultural Department, 

 and "will appear in the Report of that Department for 1871. 



