
CAPABILITIES WITH REFERENCE TO SETTLEMENT. 293 
_ Country of the Third Prairie Steppe. 
686. A general description of the Missouri Coteau, is introduced more 
appropriately in connection with the drift deposits. ($522 et seg.) The 
strip of broken country embraced under that name, from where it crosses 
the Boundary-line to the Elbow of the South Saskatchewan, has an area 
of about 7,500 square miles; of which the greater part must always remain 
unsuited to agriculture, from its tumultuous and stony character. It would, 
however, be an excellent stock raising district. Though some of the steeper 
hills are butscantly clad with vegetation, a good growth of short nutritious 
grass covers most of the surface ; and swamps and sloughs with excellent 
hay-grass, are scattered everywhere. In its physical features the Coteau 
resembles Turtle Mountain, and like that place would no doubt naturally be’ 
thickly wooded, but for the prairie fires, which here sometimes run 
hundreds of miles in the dry weather of the autumn. As it is, the want 
of wood is one of the most serious drawbacks; and animals fed over these 
hills in summer, would require to be wintered in some of the river vallies 
to the north, or in the wooded ravines of the Tertiary plateau to the 
south. 
687. A sample of the efflorescent saline matter, of one of the ‘ Alka- 
line’ lakes of the Coteau, gave on analysis, the following result :— 
RAE SRTOMER ES oe he aig Gls Win @ 4.0 A ©. ond cian ap etic t 49-06 
ae eT AB eas te eB 47°73 
RENN ie de Oo a wdc ow bcdigcnd 4s, Socal nn 0°75 
ET 27 eden Cee tee ise ebee dash seer bet. ave, “races 
The iron occurs as protoxide, and appears to be protected by organic 
matter present in the mass. A qualitative examination of a similar 
saline incrustation from the Souris Valley, near Wood End, showed the 
presence of magnesic and sodic sulphates, only. A small quantity of this 
saline matter or ‘ alkali’ is not found to be injurious to crops, in the 
Western States, where sufficient moisture exists ; nor does it appear to be 
detrimental to the growth of grass. 
688. South and west of the Coteau, lies the great plateau of the 
Lignite Tertiary, which may be said to begin about the 350 mile point, 
and extend as a well defined table-land, as far as White Mud River—a 
distance of 115 miles—in the vicinity of the Line. Its form is very irre- 
gular, but its area may be about 12,000 square miles. The soil of this 
plateau, appears as a rule to be of a fertile character, but the indications 
are that the rainfall, except in a few favoured spots, is too small for the 
growth of the ordinary crops. Its elevation also, no doubt, renders it 
