The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-09


pale faces, watching every motion of our
boat, as with lightning speed we shot down
over these watery chasms, and then, with the
exclamation, "Thank God, boys, we have
passed that one safely" our boats so filed
with water that we bailed out for dear
life.
The Yellowstone is walled in for many
miles with yellow rocks of huge proportions
that overhang in many places this river, aud
was informed by an old miner that its name
was derived from this fact.
This region is the very home of wild game,
have seen swimming the river, and along
the forests that skirt the shores, whole
banks of elk with horns or antlers five and
six feet. in some cases; then there we're buff
falo, black tail deer, black bears, antelope,
mountain sheep, cayote and gray wolves whose
melancholy bowling at night around our
camps l have q vivid recollection of to the
present Gay. 1t was often q very comical
sight to see perched up away off upon some
rocky crag an old mountain goat, with his
wise-looking beard, benignly gazing upon our
feet as we passed down the river. This
would give an opportunity to some of our
crack rifle-shots to try their skill upon, so,
steadying the boat, one of our men would
quietly rise up and, firmly bracing himself,
bring his favorite old est. Louis Hawkins" to
his shoulder, draw the finest kind of beads
eye, and then touch the hair trigger, a sharp,
quick report, like the crack of a whip, and
then down came the old goat tumbling from
ledge to ledge until finally it rolled down the
shelving beach to our boat where we had
pulled in
Occasionally we would come to open coun-
try along this river, and then we got full
view of the beautiful valley of the Yellow
stone. It seemed SO enticing that some of
our men said they would be almost willing to
stop and go no further but settle down, build
Il rancho, and go to grazing.
A few days before we reached the Missouri
river we passed through portion of what
the French Canadian trappers called the
''Mauvais Terres, or in plain English 'Bad
Lands" Here the scenery was very curious
and fantastic. The whole country looked
like it had been calcined by some terrible
volcano-everything seemed to have been
burned to white cinder, and vegetation was
very scanty indeed.
From this point on the river until we
reached Fort Union, near to its mouth, which
empties into the Missouri, we saw large
strata of coal quite frequently: the veins
looked very thick and broad. 1 have no
doubt it was excellent bituminous coal,
which some of these days, when this beautiful
portion of the United States is built up, may
be mined profitably.
With the exception of about days travel
through these ''Mauvais Terres," the entire
trip was through country filed with as wild
and startling scenery as the most ardent
lover of Nature could have W ished for. The
climate of Montana is most delightful. FIRE.
quently, when we shot more wild game than
we needed we cut it up in long, thin strips
and strung it on long string around our
boat: before night il was almost completely
cured-thus we had excellent meat for days
ahead-it don't spoil in this country. have
noticed wild oats and barley growing sixteen
So n.
many valleys of this splendid territory-fuer
country can nowhere be found for grazing
cattle than in Montana, and especially the
Yellowstone region. The grasses come them
Selves and thus all winter the cattle can wan
der around these valleys and find plenty of
food to live upon.
The small clumps of bright, green, tender
grass, called by the mountaineers "bunch
grass" has the most astonishing effect in
fattening stock. 1 recollect last summer in
my trip across the plains, after coming out of
the "Alkali country our mules and ponies
were badly run down in flesh and looked
wretchedly poor and thin. No sooner had we
struck this nutritious "bunch grass" than
they at once got fat again, and when we
finally reached Virginia City they looked as
sleek and plump as when we bought them at
Omaha, on the Missouri river, in the spring
A well-known butcher at Virginia City in
formed me that they always selected the
| leanest cattle to slaughter there. l have seen
plenty of bullocks out in Montana that they
would be proud to exhibit as prize-cattle in
| the Eastern States.
The trail we followed after leaving Fort
Reno, on Powder river, was "Boseman' s
Cutoff" a much shorter route to Virginia
City, Montana, than crossing Shinns Ferry,
way down on the South Platte river in Ne
braska, and going by the way of Salt Lake.
| This portion of the country from Powder
river, Clear Fork and Tongue rivers, and
along the Yellowstone, is in the very heart of
the Indian hunting ground, and might justly
be called the garden spot" of Montana
Sometimes in the early morning we would
start ahead of our wagon train several miles,
and in these truly beautiful valleys whole
herds of wild antelopes, buffaloes, and jack
rabbits could be seen in large numbers. Oar
| boys would get tremendously excited some
times at seeing SO much wild game, aud l
own myself that 1 was similarly affected in
seeing the living reality of what before had
only read about. The inducements in this
section for grazing cattle are indeed magnii-
cent.
The Gallatin valley is the best settled por-
ton of Montana, and contains numerous
ranches This, indeed, is a fine, noble val
ley, some thirty miles wide, with ranges of
high mountains either side, and one feels in
truth as though he we're indeed in mature 8
free domains" when he enters it. Wheat
grows and ripens to perfection here, the
grains being unusually large and sound, The
crops yield heavily to the ranchmen. Occa-
sioDally, however, in certain seasons the
grasshoppeTs are very destructive. l saw two
splendid dairies in full operation in this val
ley; the butter, which l ate of freely on warm
biscuit 0he first square meal since 1 left