i RUM eee eS Sea ae ee, 
ee oe Dh Rae Mee 
Pe ESSE ie Sea oan Oe ont, 
ij 
Kinnie kinnic, (Cornus i es) several species of Salix, one of “> 
‘Tare, pric 
t 
THE MISSOURI AND PLATTE RIVERS, ETC. 69 
soft maple, several species of oak, coffee bean, hackberry, basswood, 
Sree &c. The principal under shrubs are cherry, prickly ash, 
uma vc. The cottonwood is found everywhere on the bottoms, 
and atteit covers the island to the exclusion of other trees. At Floyd’s 
Bluff the well known and useful bullberry shrub first makes it appear- , 
ance, and continues from thence to the sources of the Missouri. About 
thirty miles: above Council Blufis the last Sycamore | Platanus Occk 
dentalis] is seen in ascending the river, and from its size marks con- 
spicuously the limits of its growth 
Extending along the river, through the States of Missouri and 
Iowa, is a prominent series of hills, to which Professor Swallow of 
Rie Missouri, has applied the geological term of the ‘‘ Bluff fo rmation? 
They are composed of a yellow siliceous marl of considerable fertility, 
and their deposition is comparatively recent, and is indicated by the 
fact that numerous land and fresh water shells are found in them, spe- 
cifically identical with those existing in the same region at the present 
time. These hills are by far the most finely developed on the left side 
of the Missouri between Council Bluffs and Floyd’s Bluff, and seem 
to enclose the vast bottom prairie as with a gigantic wall. Many of 
the hills rise to'a height of 150 to 200 feet, and so steep are their sides 
that vegetation can scarcely sustain itself. An excellent farmer on 
the Little Sioux has commenced the culture of the vine amon 
hills, and is confident of success. This formation open Ow the 
Big Sioux, though not so prominent to the mouth of Running Water, 
where it eradually dies out, though traces of it are seen throughout 
the Upper Missouri country, and may be distinguished gyn by a4 
wear a richer growth of vegetation. 
mouth of the Big Sioux is an extensive tract of fine tithber, 
and rate anxious eyes are fixed on it ready to seize it, as soon as the 
Indian claim is extinguished. There are many islands in the river of 
considerable extent, which must eventually be of much interest to the 
settlers. They are e usually covered. with a dense growth of cotton- 
wood, which, in the absence of other —— of timber, will be of ton 
thaple, and so 6 indes shr aay ‘and 
find along the ane and skirting yh Bites Aaltbiicien ie, 
ash, bo x-elder, occasionally a few oaks, and the cottonwood i is seldom 
absent in the bottoms. In man laces the red cedar is seen, and in 
the vicinity of the mountains the i hathets roe are covered with pines. 
Along the streams a few shrubs appear, as Cornus Sericea, 
willow, the inner bark of which is much used a the Sioux for their 
grows to a large size, sometimes two feet in diameter ; mully 
oe oer ash, &e. rs uo ee 
3 ‘Dorion’ ills, tS called froma Canadian who fo y : ig 
