WESTERN DISTRICT. 



377 



in the river-valleys ; but even these are often wholly destitute of trees, and in general nothing 

 but wide, grassy expanses, or bare plains of sand and shingle, meet the eye. In approaching 

 the mountains, the forest again makes its appearance. Much of this tract belongs to the Great 

 Desert, and is scantily supplied with water and herbage of any kind, and portions of it are too 

 rugged for cultivation. 



2. Mountains. The first mountain-masses met with in ascending the Nebraska and the 

 Missouri, have received the name of the Black Hills, from the dark hue imparted to them by 

 the stunted cedars, with which their flanks are covered. They extend from the Missouri be- 

 low the Yellowstone to the Arkansas, forcing the former to make a long northerly sweep before 

 it takes its southeastei'ly course toward the Mississippi. Of the height and width of this range 

 we know nothing. On the western border tower up the lofty granitic peaks of the Rocky 

 jyiountains, in whose eastern valleys the numerous heads of the Missouri and Nebraska take 

 their rise. These ridges are covered with perpetual snow, indicating an elevation of at least 

 10,000 feet, but in many places they rise much higher ; the Wind J\'[ountains are believed to be 

 nearly 18,000 feet high ; no accurate measurements, however, have been made in these wild 

 regions. The Black Hills consist of gneiss, mica-slate, greenstone, amygdaloid, and other ig- 

 neous rocks, and the Rocky Mountains, as far as is known, are composed of granite, sienite, 

 basalt, &c.; pumice is found in the Missouri, but it is uncertain whence it is derived, as 

 no recent volcanic production has been found east of the mountains. 



3. Rivers. The Missouri is the most remarkable natural feature of this region nearly the 

 whole of which is drained by its numerous branches. The source of this great stream was 

 reached by Captain Lewis and his party, on the 12th of August, 1805, about 3,100 miles by its 

 meanders above its junction with the Mississippi, in about lat. 43° 30'. " They had now," says 

 the journahst of the expedition, "reached the hidden sources of that river which had never yet 

 been seen by civilized man, and as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which 

 fielded its distant and modest tribute, they felt themselves rewarded for all their labors and all 

 their difficulties." Within three quarters of a mile of this interesting spot, the party tasted 

 the waters of Columbia River. The constituent streams of the Missouri received from these 

 travelers the names of Jefferson, Gallatin, and Jlfadison, after having gathered up the waters 

 of these mountain-valleys, the river breaks forth from the mountains, through a lofty barrier of 

 rocks, which rise in mural precipices to the height of 1 ,200 feet above the water. " Nothing can 

 be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks, which project over 

 the river, and menace us with destruction. The river, of 150 yards in width, seems to have 

 forced its channel down this solid mass ; but so reluctantly has it given way, that during the 

 whole distance the water is very deep at the edges, and, for the first 3 miles, there is not a 

 spot, except one of a few yards, in which a man could stand between the water and the tower- 

 ing perpendicular of the mountain ; the convulsion of the passage must have been terrible, 

 since at its outlet there are vast columns of rock torn from the mountain, which are strewed 

 on both sides of the river, the trophies, as it were, of the victory ; " the length of this chasm, 

 which the travelers called the Gates of the Rocky Mountains, is 5 miles. Some distance be- 

 low this point, occurs a succession of falls and rapids, where the river descends 350 feet in a 

 distance of about 15 miles, whence it continues its course, 2,575 miles, to the Mississippi. 

 Its channel is extremely crooked, and at the Great Bend it makes a circuit of 30 miles, in ad- 

 vancing only 2,000 yards in a direct distance. The Yellowstone is its greatest tributary in the 

 upper part of its course ; its sources are in the eastern valleys of the mountains, the Bighorn, 

 or southern branch rising near the heads of the .lYebraska and the Colorado of the West, and 

 i|ts northern or main branch issuing from the immediate vicinity of the sources of the Mis- 

 souri and Lewises River. Soon after breaking through the mountain barriers, these branches 

 become navigable, and below their junction there are few impediments to navigation ; steam- 

 boats have ascended the Yellowstone about 300 miles. Tongue and Powder Rivers are its 

 principal tributaries. The Little Missouri, Wetarhoo, Sanmriamme, Shienne, Cheyenne, or 

 Chayenne, the While River, and the Quicourt or Running River, are the most important 

 tributaries of the Missoiu'i, from the right, between the Yellowstone and the Nebraska. They 

 appear to be in general rapid, shallow streams, much impeded by sand-banks, and liable to sud- 

 den rise and fall of their waters ; they flow mostly through prairies or unwooded tracts, and 

 some of them wander through the desolate skirts of the Great Desert. From the north come 

 in Marians River, the J^'^orth Mountain, Milk, White Earth, and other considerable streams. 

 The Nebraska or Platte, the bounding river on the south, has been previouslv described ; its 



48 



