3

The north-east portion of Montana, bounded by the Rocky Mountains on the west, the divide between the Missouri and the river system of the British possessions on the north, and by a broken chain of mountains on the south, is drained toward the east by the Missouri River, and is a country essentially different from the grassy and well-wooded regions west of the great range. It constitutes a basin about 400 miles in length and 150 in breadth, the western portion being broken occasionally by mountain spurs, or short, isolated upheavals, such as the Little Rockies, the Bear Paw Mountains, or the Three Buttes, and taken up in the eastern portion partly by the Bad Lands. Its general elevation is much less than that of the basin just described, yet its fertility is in general not equal to the higher region west of the Rocky Mountains. There is a belt of grass-land from ten to twenty miles in width, extending along at the foot of the mountains for a hundred and fifty miles, backed by a belt of forest on the slopes of the higher foothills. The lower plains are for some distance along the Missouri a succession of clay terraces, entirely sterile, or covered with a scanty growth of grass of inferior nutritive quality. Through this clay the rivers have worn cañons several hundred feet in depth, at the bottom of which they have made themselves narrow valleys of fertile soil washed down

In Ingersoll's Knocking around the Rockies, 192-202, there are some bits of description touching Montana's physical features worth reading, though taken together, no very clear notion of the country could be obtained from the book.

The following table shows the relative positions and climatic peculiarities of these two natural divisions of Montana:

Feet.

Summit of Bitterroot range, near the pass.

5,089

Junction of the Missoula and St Regis de Borgia rivers.

2,897

Bitterroot Valley, at Fort Owen...

3,284

Big Blackfoot River, near mouth of Salmon Trout Fork.

3,966

BASINS OF MONTANA.

593

from the mountains, supporting some cottonwood timber and grass. Higher, toward the south, about the heads of the tributaries of the Missouri, there is a region of good agricultural and grazing lands lying on both sides of the Little Belt and Snow Mountains. The scenery of the upper Missouri also presents, for a hundred or more miles, commencing below the mouth of the Jefferson fork, a panorama of grandeur and startling effects, the Gate of the Mountains, a cañon five miles in length and a thousand feet deep, being one of the finest river passes in the world in point of beauty.

South of the vast region of the main Missouri are three separate basins; the first drained to the east by the Jefferson fork of that river, and by its branches, the Bighole and Beaverhead, the latter heading in Horse Prairie, called Shoshone Cove by Lewis and Clarke, who at this place abandoned canoe travel, and purchased horses of the Indians for their journey over the mountains. They were fortunate in their choice of routes, this pass being the lowest in the Rocky range, and very gentle of ascent and descent. The Beaverhead-Bighole basin is about 150 miles by 100 in extent, containing eight valleys of considerable dimensions, all having more or less arable land, with grass and water.

East of this section lies another basin, drained by the Madison and Gallatin forks of the Missouri, and having an extent of 150 miles north and south, and 80 east and west. In it are five valleys, containing altogether a greater amount of agricultural land than

the last named.

Last is the Yellowstone basin. It contains eight principal valleys, and is 400 miles long and 150 miles wide.

The Yellowstone River is navigable for a dis

5 This valley was formerly called by the French Canadian trappers, Le Grand Trou, which literally means big hole, from which the river took its name. The mountain men used this word frequently in reference to these elevated basins, as Jackson's Hole, Pierre's Hole, etc. McClure gives a different origin in his Three Thousand Miles, 309, but he is misinformed.

HIST. WASH.-38

tance of 340 miles; there is a large amount of agricultural and grazing lands along its course, and between it and the Missouri, with which it makes a junction on the eastern boundary of Montana. About the head of this river, named by early voyageurs from the sulphur tint of the rocks which constitute

its banks in many places, cluster a world of the world's wonders. The finger-marks of the great planet-making forces are oftener visible here than elsewhere. Hundreds of ages ago about these mountain peaks rolled an arctic sea, the wild winds sweeping over it, driving the glittering icebergs hither and thither. When the mountains were lifted out of the depths by volcanic forces they bore aloft immense glaciers, which lay for centuries in their folds and crevices, and slid and ground their way down the wrinkled slopes, tracing their history in indelible characters upon the rocks, while they gave rise and direction to the rivers, which in their turn have

YELLOWSTONE VALLEY.

595

scooped out the valleys, and cut the immense cañons which reveal to us the nature of the structure of the earth's foundations.

Volcanic action is everywhere visible, and has been most vigorous. All the stratified rocks, the clays and slates in the Yellowstone range, have been subjected to fire. There are whole mountains of breccia. Great ravines are filled with ashes and scoria. Mountains of obsidian, of soda, and of sulphur, immense overflows of basalt, burnt-out craters filled with water, making lakes of various sizes, everything everywhere points to the fiery origin, or the later volcanic history of the Yellowstone range.

The valley of the Yellowstone where it opens out presents a lovely landscape of bottom-lands dotted with groves, gradually elevated benches well grassed and prettily wooded, reaching to the foothills, and for a background the silver-crested summits of the Yellowstone range. As a whole, Montana presents a beautiful picture, its bad lands, volcanic features, and great altitudes only increasing the effect. In its forests, on its plains, and in its waters is an abundance of game, buffalo, moose, elk, bear, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, rabbits, squirrels, birds, water-fowl, fish," not to mention the many wild creatures which civilized men disdain for food, such as the fox, panther, lynx, ground-hog, prairie-dog, badger, beaver, and marten. The natural history of Montana does not differ from that of the west side of the Rocky Mountains, except in the matter of abundance, the natural parks on the east side of the range containing almost a superfluity

Buffalo used formerly to be numerous on the plains between the South Pass and the British possessions, the Nez Percé 'going to buffalo' through the Flathead and Blackfoot country, and the fur companies wintering on the Yellowstone in preference to farther south, both on account of climate and game. The Montana buffalo is said to have been smaller, less humped, and with finer hair than the southern animal. In 1865 a herd of them were seen on the head waters of Hellgate River for the first time in many years. Idaho World, Aug. 28, 1865. The reader of Lewis and Clarke's journal will remember their frequent encounters with the huge grizzly. See also the adventures of the fur-hunters with these animals in Victor's River of the West. Besides the grizzly, black, brown, and cinnamon bears were abundant.

of animal life-a feature of the country which, taken in connection with the hardy and warlike indigenous tribes, promises well for the prosperity of the white race which unfolds therein.

As to the climate, despite the general elevation of the territory, it is not unpleasant. The winter camps of the fur companies were more often in the Yellowstone Valley than at the South Pass or Green River. Here, although the snow should fall to a considerable depth, their horses could subsist on the sweet cottonwood, of which they were fond. But the snow seldom fell to cover the grass for any length of time, or if it fell, the Chinook wind soon carried it off; and it is a remarkable trait of the country, that stock remains fat all winter, having no food or shelter other than that furnished by the plains and woods. Occasional 'cold waves' affect the climate of Montana, along with the whole region east of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes accompanied with high winds and driving snow. But the animals, both wild and tame, being well fed and intelligent, take care to escape the brief fury of the elements, and seldom perish.” This for the surface, beneath which, could the beholder

8

"The yearly mean temperature of Deer Lodge City, the elevation being nearly 5,000 feet, is 40° 7', and the mean of the seasons as follows: Spring 41° 6', summer 69° 7′, autumn 43° 1′, winter 19° 9'. This temperature is much lower than that of the principal agricultural areas. The total yearly rainfall is 17 inches, and for the growing season, April to July, 9.15 inches. Norton's Wonder-Land, 89. Observations made at Fort Benton from 1872 to 1877 gave a mean annual temperature of 40°, and an average of 291 clear days each year. The average temperature for 1866 at Helena, which is 1,000 feet higher than many of the valleys of Montana, was 44° 5'. The snowfall varies from 4 inches to 41. The report of the U. S. signal officer at Virginia City gives the lowest temperature in 6 years, with one exception, at 19° below zero, and the highest at 94° above. Observations taken in the lower valleys of Montana for a number of years show the mean annual temperature to be 48°. Navigation opens on the Missouri a month earlier near Helena than at Omaha. The rainy season usually occurs in June. Omaha New West, Jan. 1879; Schott's Distribution and Variations, 48-9; Montana Scraps, 54, 69-71.

8 These storms, which are indeed fearful on the elevated plateaux and mountains, are expressively termed 'blizzards' in the nomenclature of the frontier. The winter of 1831-2 is mentioned as one of the most severe known, before or since.

Shoup, in his Idaho, MS., 4, speaking of stock-raising, says: 'Cattle of all kinds thrive in the hardest winters without stall-feeding, and we lost none through cold or snow. My loss in the hardest winter in 5,000 head was not more than one per cent.'