[From the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, "Vol. xvii, 

 June, 1874.] 



Notes on the Natural History of Portions of Dakota 

 and Montana Territories, being the Substance of a 

 Keport to the Secretary of War on the Collections 

 made by the north pacific railroad expedition of 

 1873, Gen. D. S. Stanley, Commander. By J. A. Allen, 

 Naturalist of the Expedition. 



I. Introductory. 



The route taken by the Expedition may be briefly indicated as fol- 

 lows : — Starting from Fort Rice, on the Missouri River (a point a 

 little to the north of the geographical centre of Dakota), our course 

 was thence nearly due west to the Yellowstone River, in Montana 

 Territory, which we struck a few miles above the mouth of Glendive 

 Creek. Crossing the Yellowstone at this point, (where a temporary 

 post was established, called Camp Thorne), we followed up its left 

 bank to Pompey's Pillar, a distance of one hundred and ninety miles. 

 We kept mainly to the bottom lands, but the high bluff's being cut by 

 the river at frequent intervals, we were forced occasionally to the 

 adjoining highlands. Leaving the Yellowstone at Pompey's Pillar, 

 we crossed over to the Musselshell, which we struck near the 109th 

 meridian. From this point the Expedition descended the valley of 

 the Musselshell, as far as the " Big Bend," — a distance of about sev- 

 enty miles — where we left it, and by a southeasterly course reached 

 the Yellowstone again at the mouth of Little Porcupine Creek. 

 Thence down the Yellowstone, and eastward to Fort Abraham Lin- 

 coln, on the Missouri, our course was essentially the same as that 

 pursued on our way out. The route of the Expedition hence lay 



