CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 77 



and this amount being dry and light never lies on a 

 level ; in twenty-four hours from the time of fall the 

 ground is bare." 



Dr.- Charles Alden, formerly post surgeon at Fort 

 D. A. Russell, writes : " During the months of March, 

 April, September, November, and December, 1868, 

 the amount of snowfall was 4.37 inches, the greatest 

 being in March, 1.6 inches. The records of the year 

 1869 are more complete. There fell 13.56 inches of 

 snow during the months of January, February, March, 

 April, October, November, and December. The great- 

 est amount was in March, 3.97 inches; the least in 

 December, .13 of an inch. The snow in this vicinity 

 rapidly disappears after falling, and it is very rare that 

 there is a sufficientquantity or that it remains long enough 

 to give sleighing. During the winter season proper, 

 though the thermometer sometimes sinks to ten or fif- 

 teen degrees below zero, the weather is usually clear and 

 open and the roads good. There are not only the 

 'bunch' and 'gramma' grasses, but a thousand other 

 species. Each valley has its complement of species." 



Dr. Corey writes : " During the summer of 1865 I 

 travelled northwest of Omaha, following up the Loup 

 Fork of the Platte, leaving which we crossed Niobrara, 

 north and south forks of the Big Cheyenne River, 

 thence following along the base of the eastern Black 

 Hills, thence still northwest across the Little Missouri, 

 and then down the Powder River to the Yellowstone. 

 Our route returning was along the base of the Big 

 Horn Mountains and the Black Hills, and down the 

 Platte. The grazing the whole distance of this jour- 



7* 



