Rocky Mountains. 411 



sunk sixty-five feet without finding water. This well passes 

 through several strata of loam, clay, and sand, then through 

 a narrow horizontal bed, of that peculiar substance, called 

 chalk, by Mr. Schoolcraft;* which is here intermixed with 

 numerous angular fragments of flints, and terminates at the 

 surface of a stratum of blue compact limestone, abounding 

 in organic remains. We were informed, that among other 

 things brought up from this well, were masses of carbonized 

 wood, bearing the marks of the axe. But as these could not 

 be found, we thought it reasonable to attribute some part of 

 the account to the active imagination of the narrator. 



From the divide at the sources of the Cuivre, we over- 

 looked an extensive tract of undulating meadow, and could 

 distinguish on the distant horizon, the wide valley, and the 

 extensive forests of Loutre lick. 



This stream is the first deserving notice, which enters the 

 Missouri from the north. Its sources are several miles to 

 the northwest of those of the Cuivre. In its valley the rocky 

 substrata of the plain are exposed, for an extent of many 

 miles. Near Van Babber's, where we arrived a little before 

 sunset on the 6th, there is, in the middle of the creek, a large 

 brine spring. Over this has been placed a section of the hol- 

 low trunk of a tree, to prevent the intermixture of the fresh 

 water of the creek. 



The sandstone, from which this spring issues, is granulated 

 and glimmering, like that about the old lead mines of St. 

 Michael. Like that, it is in horizontal strata, and exhibits 

 sufficient evidence of being a continuation of the same stra- 

 tum. Perceiving the same indications of fossil coal, lead, 

 and other minerals here, as were known to exist in the same 

 range of country on the other side of the Missouri, we 

 listened with a credulity which seemed rather to disappoint 

 and surprise our host, to his account of the phenomena, that 

 had appeared from time to time in his neighbourhood. The 



* Views of the Lead Mines, pp. 130, 227. 



