Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-08-16
UNEMPLOYED AMERICA.

to the New York Herald, written by q
correspondent now in the Indian coun-
try of the far West:
The second night spent on the west
ern side and near the crest of the
mountains was very cool, although the
temperature was higher than might
have been supposed, in consideration
OF the proximity Of the everlasting
snow. We rose about three o'clock in
the morning and had eaten with gusto
a breakfast of big ham, buffalo, elk,
and deer meat, when the sun
timidly peeped over the main granite
ridge, first making the topmost drifts
family blush like maiden who is con-
sclous of secret pleasure; then the
light fell through the gap on the right
upon the little pools in the canyon;
then it burst upon us in all it's splen-
dor, with dazzling reflections in every
nook that was glazed with ice or snow
A silvery texture of frost glistened on
every thing, but the beauty of the pic
ture was cold and inhospitable. The
verdure of pines and turf was sombre
the gray cliffs and towers of granite
were unrelentingly stern in aspect, the
snow upon their foreheads badge of
gloomy, frowning old age, which had
witnessed the lapse Of geological cycles;
their grizzled mien like that of an un-
gracious Magog, giowering and un-
humbled in the spell which bound them
to motionless silence. Westward of
our bivouac ground the mountains
seemed to have been fattened into
graduated steps or plateaus, leading
down to the great valley Of the Big
Horn from the wide but lofty pass on
the right. A faint trail was discern
ible, which is probably one of the high
ways of the Sioux in entering the coun-
try of the Soshonees when bent upon
war. 1t probably was originally
marked by the migration of the elk
from the lower to the upper SUBMITS
of the mountains, whittier they are
driven in midsummer by the mos
quitOes and the heat. The mules had
luxuriated during the night upon the
short, rich grass of the Al pine valley
and were very willing for the start
Having slept ut an elevation Of about
II 800 feet, the ascent to the top of the
pass, which is more than 1900 feet
above the level of the sea, was soon ac-
complished. 1t cannot be more than a
few hundred feet inferior in altitude
to Cloud Peak. We seemed to survey the
world The plain below us looked dim
little more defined in features than a
stratum OF cloud. The red apices of
the ridges and knobs, where the erosion
of the elements has left bare the burned
sandstone, looked like the roseate
upper borders of vapory masses tinged
| by the sun. The distance from the
pass to the eastern base of the noun
tain chain, although in reality twenty
miles, seemed but span, nearly ignor-
ing which the eye dwelt upon the hazy
sea of plain which, as if rolling in dim
surges, stretched north, east and south,
seemingly too vast for conception, and
melting into the shadowy infnity of
distance. The soft tints and faint bill
lOwy forms blended with the murky
midsummer blue, as if We were gazing
through the strange glamour and glow
Of tropical sky. The faintest sugges-
ton of dark waving lines in the east,
springing from nothing and again
swallowed up in it, were the contour of
the Black Hills, $50 miles away. A
| dark belt, sweeping from the northern
extremity of the mountain range to-
| ward the northeast, indicated the
course of the Big Horn River after
reaching the plain. Beyond it,
| fainter streak of color, might have
been the shaded banks of the Yellow
stone. The Rosebud Mountains looked
ant hills. Spiral columns of smoke were
lazily rising in the southeast, near the
| Powder River, from burning beds of
Ignite In that vicinity there are
great fields of smouldering Ere. Flames
leap out through assures Of the baked
mari, and crackle sepulchrally as if a
cremation of all the dead in Hades
were in progress. The ground is too
hot to walk on. Many former sites of
these beds, where the fire has long been
extinct from exhaustion of the fuel, are
scattered over the country through
| which the expedition has marched, but
in my letters [ have heretofore forgot
ton to mention them. They Indicate,
probably, the same imm ensity of coal
deposits in the northern portion of
Wyoming as has been developed in
that more fully explored.
CLOUD PEAK.
Cloud Peak seemed 70 have taken
strides toward us since our last glimpse
of it. Even since it first came in view
we have had no certainty of its identity,
many of the neighboring SUBMITS be-
ing apparently Of the same altitude.
We were then probably nearer it than
any white man had ever been before
us. Travellers have agreed that it is
the highest mass of the Big Horn
Mountains, but they never have de-
scribed its peculiar outlines. We, for
the first time, realize its great superior
ity of height and abruptness and gro
tesqueness Of the contour of the top
most c1ag. This is the feature by which
Cloud Peak should hereafter be known.
Its sister peaks aremore symetrical; no
other in the whole range is so-ragged
and broken in form. From the indica-
tons apparent from an examination
made through telescope it might be
concluded that, after its upheaval, it
had cracked and fallen assunder, leav-
ing wide gap between the two frag-
ments whose edges have been dulleI