TttE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 233 



313. Bad Axe, battle ground where Black -Hawk was defeated by General At- 

 kinson above Prairie du Chien ; Indians making defense and swimming 

 the river in 1832. Painted in 1832. (No plate.) 



There is no more beautiful prairie country in the world than that which is to be 

 seen in this vicinity. In looking back from this bluff, towards the west, there is, to 

 au almost boundless extent, one of the most beautiful scenes imaginable. The sur- 

 face of the country is gracefully and slightly undulating, like the swells of the retir- 

 ing ocean after a heavy storm, and everywhere covered with a beautiful green turf 

 and with occasional patches and clusters of trees. The soil in this region is also rich, 

 and capable of making one of the most beautiful and productive countries in the 

 world. 



Ba'tiste and Bogard used their rifles to some effect during the day that we loitered 

 here, and also gathered great quantities of delicious grapes. From this lovely spot 

 we embarked the next morning, and glided through constantly changing scenes of 

 beauty, until we landed our canoe at the base of a beautiful series of grass-covered 

 bluffs, which, like thousands and thousands of others on the banks of this river, are 

 designated by no name that I know of. 



My canoe was landed at noon, at the base of these picturesque hills, and there rested 

 till the next morning. As soon as we were ashore, I scrambled to their summits, took 

 my easel and canvas and brushes to the top of the bluff, and painted two views from 

 the same spot [No. 3121 the one looking up and the other down the river. The reader^ 

 by imagining these hills to be five or six hundred feet high, and every foot of them, 

 as far as they can be discovered in distance, covered with a vivid green turf, whilst 

 the sun is gilding one side and throwing a cool shadow on the other, will be enabled 

 to form something like an adequate idea of the shores of the Missouri. From this en- 

 chanting spot there was nothing to arrest the eye from ranging over its waters for 

 the distance of twenty or thirty miles, where it quietly glides between its barriers, 

 formed of thousands of green and gracefully sloping hills, with its rich and alluvial 

 meadows and woodlands, and its hundred islands, covered with stately cottonwoods. 

 In these two views the reader has a fair account of the general character of the Upper 

 Missouri, and by turning back to Plate No. 39, vol. 1, No. 390, which I have already de- 

 scribed, he will at once see the process by which this wonderful formation has been 

 produced. In that plate will be seen the manner in which the rains are wearing down 

 the clay bluffs, cutting gullies or sluices behind them, and leaving them at last to 

 stand out in relief, in these rounded and graceful forms, until in time they get seeded 

 over, and nourish a growth of green grass on their sides, which forms a turf and pro- 

 tects their surface, preserving them for centuries, in the forms that are here seen. 

 The tops of the highest of these bluffs rise nearly up to the summit level of the prai- 

 ries, which is found as soon as one travels a mile or so from the river, amougst these 

 picturesque groups, and comes out at their top ; from whence the country goes off to 

 the East and the West, with an almost perfectly level surface. 



These two views were taken about thirty miles above the village of the Punchas, 

 and five miles above "the Tower,'' the name given by the travelers through the 

 country to a high and remarkable clay bluff, rising to the height of some hundreds of 

 feet from the water, and having in distance the castellated appearance of a fortifica- 

 cation. 



My canoe was not unmoored from the shores of this lovely spot for two days, except 

 for the purpose of crossing the river, which I several times did, to ascend and examine 

 the hills on the opposite side. I had Ba'tiste and Bogard with me on the tops of these 

 green-carpeted bluffs, and tried in vain to make them see the beauty of scenes that 

 were about us. They dropped asleep, and I strolled and contemplated alone, clam- 

 bering " up one hill " and sliding or running " down another," with no other living being 

 in sight, save now and then a bri stling wolf, which, from my approach, was reluct- 

 antly retreating from his shady lair, or sneakiug behind me and smelling on my track. 

 —Pages 8, 9, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



