THE GREAT PLAINS OF THE NORTH. 



GENERAL SKETCH. 



By Arnold Hague. 



From Jamestown to tin- base, of the Rocky Mountains the route 

 crosses the Great Plains and affords an excellent opportunity to see 

 this characteristic physical feature of the continent, which extends 

 from British America to the southern boundary of the Tinted States. 

 The country traversed is singularly uniform in its general aspect, and 

 to most travelers appears monotonous and dreary. It is gently undu- 

 lating, and. save along the great drainage channels, presents but few 

 rock exposures. With the exception of a few favored localities shel- 

 tered from the wind, the Great Plains arc destitute of trees, but for the 

 most part covered by a luxuriant growth of nutritious grasses. 



One interesting feature of the route followed during the day is the 

 gradual emergence of erosion topography from the distinctive drift 

 topography which characterizes the ride across Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota. 



West of .Jamestown the railway gradually ascends the .Missouri 

 coteau, a, line of broad, but low. gently sloping lulls of rounded ridges, 

 extending along the east side of the Missouri River all the way from 

 Bismarck southward to Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. Immedi- 

 ately bordering the Missouri the hills present a series of precipitous 

 bin lis facing the valley. Taken together these undulating ridges form 

 an elevated mass separating the broad, deep valley of the Missouri from 

 the shallow parallel valley of the James. 



The drift which near James Valley more or less completely masks the 

 underlying sandstone ridges gradually thins out westward. It may be 

 recognized by low lines of gravel stretching across the plains, resting 

 unconformably upon the underlying sandstones. Frequently it takes 

 on a morainal aspect in the form of wide belts of north and south trend. 

 Beyond the Missouri River the drift expresses itself only in a thin. 

 irregular mantle, from a few feet to a few inches in thickness, accom- 

 panied by quartz boulders. The drift finally disappears beyond Sims 

 Station, and erosion topography characterizes the whole region, finding 

 its most characteristic expressionin the Bad Lands, or MauvaisesTerres, 

 so called by the early Canadian fur-trappers" on account of the obstruc- 

 tions they Offered to the traveler who attempted to cross them. The 



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