APPENDIX. 



411 



the conditions of climate and soil which prevail there. The 

 progress of settlement must necessarily be up the Valley of 

 the Mississippi, on the immediate banks of the Missouri, and 

 through the Valley of the Red Eiver of the north, to the 

 cultivable areas in the basin of Lake Winnipeg. The explora- 

 tion for the Pacific Eailroad and the meteorological investi- 

 gations carried on under the direction of the Surgeon-General 

 of the XL S. army, show conclusively that no settlement of 

 any importance can be established over a vast extent of country, 

 many hundred miles broad, on the eastern flank of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and south of the Great Bend of the Missouri. 

 Owing to the absence of rain, the apparently great rivers, the 

 Platte, the Canadian, the Arkansas, &c, are often converted 

 into long detached reaches or ponds during the summer months, 

 and forbid extensive settlements even on their immediate banks. 

 This great and important physical fact is contrary to popular 

 opinion, which is mainly based upon an inspection of a map, 

 and guided by the glowing but utterly erroneous descriptions 

 which are periodically circulated respecting the wonderful fer- 

 tility of the Far West, and its capability of sustaining a dense 

 population. 



The arid districts of the Upper Missouri are barren tracts, 

 wholly uncultivable, from various causes.* The arid plains 

 between the Platte and Canadian rivers are in great part 

 sand-deserts. The " Sage-plains," or dry districts, with little 

 vegetable growth except varieties of Artemisia, begin on the 

 western border of the plains of the eastern Rocky Mountain 

 slope, and cover much the larger portion of the whole country 

 westward, f The sterile region on the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains begins about 500 or 600 miles west of the 

 Mississippi, and its breadth varies from 200 to 400 miles; 

 and it is then succeeded by the Rocky Mountain range, which, 

 rising from an altitude of 5200 in feet lat. 32°, reaches 10,000 

 feet in lat, 38°, and declines to 7490 feet in lat. 42° 24', and 



* Page 684, Army Meteorological Eegister, U. S. 

 f Ibid. 



