The Benton record. [volume] (Benton, M.T. [Mont.]) 1875-1879, 1876-08-04

ment itself. 1t IS the first appropriation
of the character for the Upper Missouri,
and shall be very glad to have the con
currence Of my good friend near me, Mr..
ingalls,, who has voted against me, |
believe, during the entire time We. have
considered this bill.
/ Mr.. INGALLS,. Having lived on the
shores of the Missouri River for nearly
twenty years I can sincerely say that
know of no stream on the habitable globe
that stands more in need of improvement.
1t is a little too thick for q beverage and
little too thin for cultivation. The dis
tance above the mouth of the Yellowstone
is something like thousand miles. There
is not an acre of surveyed land in that dis
tance there is not a habitation of civilized
man. During six months Of the year the
stream is entirely closed by ice, and for
three months of the remainder there is not
water enough in it to float an ordinary
fiat-boat.
Mr. BOGY. I am astonished at the
statement made By the Senator from Kan
sas, and it cannot be sustained by what !
know to be the fact. There is an abun-
dance of water there, and the river is never
closed beyond three months. 1t is not
closed two weeks longer than it is at the
point where the gentleman resides.
Mr.. INGALLS,. I live two thousand or
twenty-five hundred miles by the river be-
low the mouth Of the YelloTstone and for
three or four months in the year, even at
+6at
affluents anl tributaries, aside from the
period when the river is not closed by ice,
it is not navigable for an ordinary scow.
Mr.. BOGY. The navigation Of the Mis-
souri,, it is a notorious fact, is generally
better higher up than it is below The
Senator astonishes me.
Mr.. INGALLS,. | am therefore amaz-
ed-as | believe is the favorite and popu-
lar term upon the discussion Of this bill
that the committee should recommend an
appropriation Of this magnitude that can
certainly be Of no conceivable use to any
interest upon this continent, either private
or governmental.
Mr.. ALLISON. | only want to correct
one statement made by my friend. The
climate at Fort Benton above the Yellow
stone is milder than it is where the Sena-
tor from Kansas or myself lives, and the
river is not frozen up as long at Fort Ben
ton as it is at Sioux City, fifteen hundred
or two thousand miles below,
MrINGALLS. The meteorological rec
ords of that region will show the river IS
closed at that point from November to
April in eight years out of ten.
WTNnaN eIo,n +L,o
from Missouri in the astonishment which
he has expressed at the remarks just made
by the Senator from Kansas, and confess
that am unable to understand them nm
less it be that he has been IN his early
youth too near the muddy waters Of the
Missouri. 1t seems to me that those mud
dy waters are so strangely mixed with fact
and misrepresentation Of fact that there
must be good deal of mud in them.
Now, to state that there is no business
on the Upper Missouri is to contradict the
known facts which are reported daily in
the papers of that wholeregion. We know,
toe, that there is no place in the new por
tions of the country where the Government
itself is more interested in the improve
ment than there We have these recon
mendations from the Department urging
the appropriation because Of its necessity
in the transportation Of government freight,
and I myself know that large amounts OF
government freights are transported up
the Missouri River and around to Fort
Benton. We have a fort there. We yes
terday passed bill authorizing the con-
struction of two more forts in that neigh
borhood, and [ know, furthermore, that
very large portion of the trade of Montana
will come over that route, and that very
considerable portion of it does go that
way now; and to state that there is no
trade there is certainly to make q most re-
markable statement in view Of the facts.
Mr. President, we have passed a great
many appropriations here to-day that were
valuable and some that were not so much
so; but to stop at this moment and refuse
to appropriate for what is really national
work it seems to me would be adding g
fitting climax to the action of the Senate
thus far on this bill.
Mr. INGALLS,. There arc not ten boats
a year leaving St. Louis for the Upper
Missouri River When the Senator talks
about commerce, | certainly ought to be
able to speak with some degree of inteli-
gence on that subject, and the only con
ceivable interest that | can conceive that
any corporation should have in this would
be the Northern Pacific Railroad thatruns
through the State of Minnesota, and might
possibly desire to have a continuation from
Bismarck up to the Territory Of Montana
to some point on the Upper Missouri.
Mr.. WINDOW. | am informed that
there are forty boats on the Upper Mis-
souri, River.
Mr.. BOGY. Certainly there are.
Mr.. WINDOW. [ think the Senator
from Kansas would do well to look into
the commercial statistics of that region of
country.
Mr. BOGY. cannot permit the re-
marks made by the Senator from Kansas
to go; but [ am inclined to think that he
has been speaking in a jocular way. To
state here that there are not ten boats leaY-
ing St. Louis year to GO to the mouth Of
the 7 Yellowstone is a most singular state
ment. There are sometimes ten boats a
week that start to go up the Missouri Riv-
er. They go up from the month Of May
until September or October, and they get
there because there is an abundance o.
water at one season of the year for large
boats and at another season for smaller
4 T l.