CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 83 



thoroughly. From the Smoky Hill, in about latitude 

 39° north to latitude 44° the country is very much like 

 that immediately around the Union Pacific Railroad, 

 with which you and the travelling public are familiar. 

 The character of all this country is rolling prairie, very 

 well watered, and abounding in good grasses to such an 

 extent that the assertion may be safely made that the 

 supply of grazing is unlimited. All the streams in this 

 range furnish some timber, and many of the tributaries 

 of the Republican, Powder, Tongue, Big Horn, and 

 other rivers are covered with forests of hard- and soft- 

 wood. All of the bottom-lands on the streams flowing 

 from the mountains are what would be called in the 

 East good, reliable farming-lands, fit to produce any 

 of the regular crops, except perhaps corn. The only 

 danger to the corn-crop would be, I suppose, the short- 

 ness of the season and the frequency of frosts conse- 

 quent on the extreme altitude of this section. North 

 of latitude 44° the country changes materially for the 

 better. It is better watered, having an abundance of 

 pure, clear mountain streams. The soil is richer, and 

 the grasses are heavier and stronger, and the climate 

 very much milder than that for several degrees south. 

 I think the valleys of Tongue River, Little Horn, Big 

 Horn, and the Yellowstone will produce corn, and good 

 corn, too. About the other crops, barley, wheat, pota- 

 toes, etc., there is no question. This, I take it, shows 

 about the maximum of soil and climate, for there is no 

 question about the value of a country that embraces 

 hundreds of millions of acres that will produce good 

 crops of cereals and grasses." 



