APPENDIX Q Q. 1697 



causing many tedious delays to the train. This valley is nol very extensive ; several 

 hundred yard- in width, and covered with a loose gravel mixing with the sou, it can 

 scarcely be called fertile, for there is nothing in the surrounding earth that vegetation 

 can absorb Into Lts tissues for nourishment. The grass over the line of to-day's march 

 is poor in quality and of little variety, bunch and bottom grass predominating. The 

 water in the creek, dark in color and highly alkaline, now lies quiescenl in pools, form- 

 strange contrast to its appearance in the spring months, when deriving strength 

 and volume from The melting snow, it sweeps through the valley with the force of a 

 mountain torrent, and at that time is not fordable. The cottonwood which grows 

 along the hanks is not continuous bul in isolated groves, ami at a distance gives to the 

 stream an appearance of being well timbered. The distance marched dining the day 

 is 17.61 miles 



September 19. — At 5.15 a. m. we continue our march up the valley of Sunday Creek 

 and experience no little difficulty in guiding the train around or across the numerous 

 coulees that cut our road at short intervals. The country on either side of as, which 

 hAarly morning was broken, now develops itself into the genuine mauvaisea terres. As 

 we approach the headwaters of this* branch of the creek the wood entirely disappears, 

 and nothing but the sterile, varicolored, cone-like hills of the bad-lands can he seen. 

 On every side of us is the evidence of some vast igneous action. From mechanical 

 causes many of the huge masses of unstratined rock have become disintegrated and 

 lie broken at the foot of the low hills. Feldspathic, trappean, and volcanic rocks are 

 seen scattered about with trachytic and dark-colored basaltic lava, with the porous 

 pumice-stone or the glass-like obsidian. During the rainy season our trail of to-day 

 would be quite impracticable, for the soft alkaline earth would yield too easily under 

 the pressure of a heavily-laden army-wagon. Having marched 16.93 miles, we en- 

 camped on a small dry fork of Sunday Creek, and by sinking several wells in its bed 

 secured a little water, very alkaline. No wood could he obtained, and buffalo chips 

 were used as a substitute. A few antelope, buffalo, and black-tailed deer were secured. 

 In camp, gumma and buffalo grass are in sufficient quantity for the stock. 



September - ^U. — Starting at 5.15 a. m.. our trail crosses several small forks of Sunday 

 Creek, in which a little rain-water in pools is found, and at 7 a. m. we emerge in a 

 line valley 2 miles in width, through which courses the main branch of Sunday Creek. 

 The grass here does not grow with that lavish luxuriance that the dark loamy appear- 

 ance of the soil would indicate, and cottonwood some 8 miles below is seen thinly 

 scattered along the stream, which at tins point has low-cut hanks and is free from 

 water, even in pools. From the time of entering the valley our road is greatly im- 

 proved and continues good as we pass over the gently-sloping foot-hills of the great 

 Yellowstone and Missouri divide, growing in abundance rich and nutritious buffalo 

 and bunch grass. Large game-trails cross the country in every direction, and buffalo 

 and antelope in great numbers are quietly grazing on each side. At 9.10 a. m. we came 

 to the main divide, from which is obtained a most perfect view of the varied and 

 extensive scenery of the surrounding country. To the easr. the gently-sloping hills of 

 the divide are lost in the far distance : to the south and west can lie seen that ma-- of 

 bad-land which, hemmed in by Custer and Sunday Creeks, stretches north from Yel- 

 low stone 60 or 70 miles; to the west and south of our trail some 8 miles is Sunday 

 Butte, whose dark truncated head towers far above the surrounding hills: in our 

 front, toward the north, the divide falls precipitously in alternate broken and bad- 

 land. Passing through this dreary waste, free from water, wood, and good grass, we 

 go into cam]) at 7 p. m. on a small fork of the southern branch of the Big Dry. where 

 we obtain drift-wood sufficient for our tires, and for our animals buffalo and bunch 

 grass, though not in abundance. This stream has cut banks and the water found in 

 pools is strongly alkaline. The distance marched to-day is 30.90 miles. 



September 21. — Soon after breaking camp we came to the first running-water stream 

 since leaving the Yellowstone, the southern branch of the Big Dry. with line gravelly 

 bed, clear running water, slightly alkaline, but no driftwood or timber in sight. At 

 the point of crossing it is about 40 feet in width, and the country adjacent is some- 

 what broken and cut by arroyos. Our course leads us over the high divide that sepa- 

 rates the waters of the southern from those of the eastern branch of the Big Dry, where 

 timber is wanting and the impure alkaline water stagnates through evaporation. An 

 hour later we make cam]) on the eastern branch of the Big Dry, in the midst of a broken 

 country, with soil that affords nutriment only to the sage-brush and cactus, that 

 thorny plant of fantastic appearance, with dowers of red, purple, and yellow, so culti- 

 vated in the conservatory, and such a scourge on the prairie, by reason of the pain its 

 spines inflict on the animals that pass through it. After marching 23. 13 miles, through 

 force of necessity, we encamp on a stream 20 feet in width with gravelly bed, the 

 water of which is permanent and slightly alkaline. No wood or timber is found, and 

 the grass, growing in isolated spots, is poor. 



September '22. — Leaving cam)) at 4.45 a. m. we pass through a broken country, and 

 for 15 miles our road winds around and over the barren hills crossing and heading 

 numerous arroyos and ravines, until, at 10.45 a. m.. we reach and pass a well-wooded 



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