Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1862-07-24
Gr,a6eIIny sktttbes.
THE FAR WEST,


! IL q = a. Es
THE FAR WEST.
A TRIP To THE HEAD WATERS OF THE MISSOURI
| The. Emily, q side wheel steamer
drawing 81 feet of water, has just al
rived from TT. Benton, having taken
up s5 cabin and 53 deck passengers
on their way to the Oregon and Wash
Iington Gold Mines. The Missouri
Democrat has some interesting Incl
dents of the long voyage g, 500 niles
from which we make the following
extracts :t5 .#& .a5 aea @.4T .s#sa
| The Missouri is, undoubtedly, the
muddiest, and crookedest, and swift
est, and snaggiest river on the globe.
The clayey banks are constantly fall
ing in, and mingling, with the water,
render it as .impervious to human
vision as mush and molasses. Some
of the bends form peninsulas, not
more than four miles across the, 18th
mus or neck, while it is tliirty-fve by
the river. Several of the passengers
at different times varied the monotony
of the voyage by shouldering their
rifles and taking these short cuts,
On one occasion some thirty of them,
after completing their march, were
compelled to spend the night on a
bleak bluff, supperess and unblanket-
ed, IN violent thunder storm, the
boat failing to reach them in conse-
quenee OF getting a, stalled" on a
sand-bar. We. observed that these
adrentnrers the next morning ate
tlieir fried bacon and corn bread with
unusual relish and in fabulous quanti-
/ w. 81 a.na#sta .rr.#s.gs's1 a.f sae
f The swiftness of the current, comp
led with. opposing snags. and sand
bars, and the necessity Of stopping
to chop, our own wood for the engine
more tsan half the way, prevented us
from making much more than ninety
miles per day, SO that. the voyage up
occupied us nearly thirty-four days
time sufficient for three voyages
across the Atlantic. We reached
home, after remaining two days at
Fort Benton, July %, the thirteenth
day from starting. The whole trip,
therefore, making no deduction for
delays at trading posts and for invol-
nntary detentions from accidents, was
Just seven weeks long. We lay more
than day on one sand bar some
where in the region of Fort Pierre,
and spent at least half day in mend
ing rivet hole in the boiler. We
tied up every night. On our re-
turn we came at railroad, speed, some
days making three hundred miles.
The scenery along the river is not
unworthy of notice. The banks in
Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska
and Tor considerable distance in the
immense Territory of Dacotah, are
not very grand, but they are exceed
lngly green. Everything indicates
a region. of unsurpassed fertility, wait.
ing IN its. primeyaig selitudes for the
industrious hand of the white man.
From this point to a point some two
or three hundred miles above the Yel-
iowstone, a distance Of more than
thoasand miles. the river banks are
high and ,precipitous bluffs, bold and
barren, looking down upon the royageur
morning, noon and night, in dull and
everlasting monotony. There may be
productive sands beyond them, but
We infer from the epithet, maurais
ferres applied by the French explorers
to q large portion OF this region. that
1t is comparatively worthless for cul-
tivation.a Throughout the last five
hundred miles of our trip the scenery
is grand and striking, beyond descrip-
ton. Nature seems to have wrought
with human art. I Red sandstone urns
of various sizes, apparently as perfect
inform as il chiseled under the eye of
Powers OF Story, crown. the apex of
fconical hills on each side of the river.
tGastellated turretsi and frownings bat
Elements, partially crumbled, beguile
Ayou for the moment. into the belief
that youi are travelling amidst tins
ruins of dilapidated fortresses and
castles in the old world. The river,
in two or three instances, seems, in
some remote period, to have broken
throug ghi remarkable stone walls, run
ming across the river at right angles,
and extending indefinitely over the,
bluffs into the prsirie.ss These walls
are ab0at three feet flick, with smooth
tparallel faces, as il ahammcrcd, and
sometimes reaching hight of TWEEN
ity or thirty feet. Whether nature, in
some masonic freak. or man in the
times beyond the flood, built these
Fwallss we can only say that the mas
ter builder, whoever be- was, broke
joints land did his work well The
fbottom lands are frequently covered
with the inevitable cottonwood, a spe-
cies of poplar. filled at maturity with
little green bolls, which open in June
and whiten the air with their thistle
like down. A sort Of red willow far
up the river supplies the Indians with
a tobacco which they call "kinpiki-
nick" Prickiy pear abounds in in
finite varieties, to the great disgust
Eof the Indians, whose moccasins are. a
poor defence against their terrible
/ spikes. We observed on the banks,
among. other flowers, modest noun
/ tain lilies and the snowy porcupinc
plant !, but We learned little, of the
geology of the country, and still less
4of its fIora.i .veEs LafsBFm g'3lst
OF the fauna Of the country, we saw
specimens of almost every variety
known in North America. We shot