The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-07-12
A TRIP TO THE HEAD WATERS OF
THE MISSOURI.

The Emely. side wheel steamer drawing 81
feet of water, hiss Just returned from Fl. Benton,
having taken up IS cabin and ffty-three deck
passengers on their way to the Oregon and
Washington Gold Mines The Missouri Demo.
crat has some interesting Incidents of the long
voyage $500 miles) from which we make the
extracts:
h, undoubtedly, the muddiest. and crookedest,
and swiftest, and snsggiest river on the globe.
The clayey banks are const ntly falling in. and
mingling with the water, render it as impervious
to human vision as mush and molssses Some
of the bends form peninsulas, not more than five
milee. across the isthmus or neck, while it is
thirty. Eve BY the river. Several Of the passen-
gers 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 bleak bluff,
eupperless and unblauketed. in violent thunder
storm, the boat failing to reach them in conse.
observed that these Adventures the next morn.
ing ate their fried bacon and corn bread with
unusual relish and in fabulous quantity.
The swiftness Of the current, coupled with CD
posing snsgs and sand bars, and the necessity Of
stopping to chop our own wood for the engine
more than half the way, prevented US from max.
ing mach more than ninety miles per day, 90
that the voyage up occupied US nearly thirty.
four days-a time sufficient for three voyages
across the Atlantic. We reached home, afte,
remaining two days at Fort Benton, July I'd, the
thirteenth day from starting. The whole trip
therefore, making no deduction for delays al
trading posts and for involuntary detentions
from accidents, was just seven weeks long. W.
lay more than day on one sand bar some where
in the region of Fort Pierre, and spent at leas
half day in mending rivet hole in the boiler
We cited up" every night. On our return w
came at railroad speed, some days making three
hundred miles.
along the rivery is not unworthy Of notice.
The banks in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebrask.
and for considerable distance in the immense
Territory of Dacotah, are not very grand, but
they are exceedingly green. Everything indi
Gates region of unsurpassed fertility, waiting
in it's primeval solitudes for the industrious hanC
of the white man. From this point to . point
some two or three hundred miles above thu
mouth of the Yellowstone, a distance of more
than thousand miles, the river banks are higt
and precipitous bluffs, bold and barren, looking
down upon the voyaoeur morning, moor
and night, in dull and everlasting monotony,-
There may be productive lands beyond then, bu,
we infer from the epithet naauuaisc terres applied
by the French explorers to large portion o.
this region, that it is comparatively worthless
for cultivation. Throughout the last five hind
red miles of our trip, the scenery is grand and
striking beyond description. Nature seems t.
have wrought with human hands, and with tht
implements Of human art Red sandstone urn
Of various sizes, apparently - perfect in foru
q il chiseled under the eye Of Powers or Story
crown the apex of conical hills on each side o
tho river. Castsllatsd tarrets and fro WniDl