71 
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 
formation. Generally the coal beds are thin or variable in thickness; 
but in places they thicken, as between mileposts 92 and 93, where 
four beds are visible from the train. Two or three of these beds are 
thick enough to work and some day may be mined, although the coal 
is not of very high quality. It is much better, however, than the 
lignite of North Dakota or that around Glendive and is classed as 
subbituminous—a grade between lignite and ordinary bituminous 
coal. 
A similar change in the character of the coal or lignite can be found 
in almost all the fields of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. 
In every field the coal improves in quality toward the mountains, 
in places ranging from lignite to subbituminous coal or from sub- 
bituminous coal to anthracite within the limits of a single field. 
Such changes are doubtless due to greater stresses in the rocky crust 
of the earth in the mountains than in the plains, and as the coal is 
the weakest member of the rocks forming that crust it was most 
compressed and changed. 
The chief interest in the trip from Miles City to Rosebud lies in 
the fact that the railroad was constructed along the same route as 
that followed by Custer in his approach to the great battle that 
terminated his career." 
' In the spring of 1876 the Sioux Indians | ter proceeded from the mouth of Tongue 
exhibited signs of unrest, and some of the | River (Miles City) June 19, supposing the 
more adventurous spirits among them de- | Indian force to be a small one which he 
serted their reservations and b 
could overcome in a single daring charge. 
assemble a force which the Government 
feared might at any time take the war- 
path and cause pillage and slaughter | 
along the frontier. Sitting Bull was the 
leader of the insurrection. Gen. Crook 
with 1,000 men at Fort Fetterman (near 
Douglas), on North Platte River, Wyo.; 
Gen. Terry with another 1,000 at Fort 
Abraham Lincoln, near Mandan, N. Dak.; 
and Gen. Gibbon with 450 men at Fort 
Ellis, near Bozeman, Mont., were ordered 
to force the Sioux back to their reserva- 
The command of Gen. Crook, the great- 
est Indian fighter of his time, was de- 
feated by the Indians in a battle on the 
headwaters of Rosebud River June 17, 
before he could effect a junction with the 
other parts of the expedition. He tried 
to notify Terry and Custer of his defeat 
and to warn them of the great number of 
Indians engaged in the campaign, but 
his scouts failed to reach them, and Cus- 
Custer had just returned from Washing- 
ton, where he had had difficulty with his 
superior officers, and, doubtless smarting 
under the charges made against him and 
the indignity of a threatened court-mar- 
tial, he was in the ea ERIE SI 
the chance of i te and 
brilliant victory. Maj. Bent; of be com- 
mand, had been on a scou into 
the Rosebud Valley, where fv found 
abundant indications peer ott mama 
Abavuywee 
the Little Bighorn 
On June 21 Chistes? 3 command camped 
