The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1882-08-11

vegetable farms in the valleys and cattl
ranges on the hills.
After dinner In the embryonic town
= Dickinson, on Green Rivera hotel and thre
houses-you have time to smoke cigar q
Two before the train climbs a sharp grad,
runs through deep cut, aud rushes dow
Into the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri
The change in the scene Is so startling, ant
: the appearance Of the landscape SO who'll
novel and so singularly grotesque, that yo
rub your eyes to make sure you are no
dreaming of some ancient geological epoch
when the rude unfinished earth was tn
sport Of Titanic forces, or fancying yoursel
transported to another planet. Enormou
masses OF ccnglomerste-red, gray, black
brown, and blue, in towers, pyramids, peaks
ridges, domes, castellated hcights-occup.
the face Of the country. In the spaces be
tween are grassy, lawn-like expenses, dottet
with the petri6ed stumps Of huge trees. TIL,
finest effect of color Is produced by the darl
red rock-not rock in fact, but actual terri
Gotta, baked by the heat of underlying layer.
OF Ignite. At some points the coal is still
on fire, and The process of Transforming
mountains of blue clay into mountains OF
pottery may be observed from day to day.
II has been going on for countless ages, no
doubt. To bake one of these colossal mass
es may have required ten thousand years of
smoldering heat. l despair of giving any
adequate idea of the fantastic forms of the
buttes or Of the wonderful effects of color
they offer. The pen and brush of skillful
artist would alone be competent for the task
The photographer, be he never so def
with his camera and chemicals, only belittles
these marvellous views. He catches only
bare outlines, without color, and color is the
chief thing in the picture. He cannot get
the true effect of distance, and his negatives
show only staring blacks and whites In place
of the infinite variations of light and shadow
effects in valleys and gorges and hollows,
and up crags and pinnacles. Look, If you
can, by the feeble aid of written words upon
single butte, and see how impossible 1t is
to photograph IL satisfactorily. 1t rises from
carpet Of green grass. Its base has blu
ish hue, and appears to be clay solicited by
enormous pressure. 1t Is girdled by bands
OF light gray stone and black Ignite coal.
Its upper portion is Of the rich red color of
old Egyptian pottery. Crumbled fragments
strew Its sides. Its summit, rising three
hundred feet above the plain, has been
carved by the elements into turrets, battle
ments, sharp spires, grotesque gargoyles, and
huge projecting buttresses-an amazing jum-
BILE of weird architectural effects, that startle
the eye with suggestions of intelligent de-
sign. Above, the sky is wonderfully clear
and blue, the rays of the setting sun spread
rosy tint over the crest, and just above It's
highest tower floats little, fame .colored
cloud like banner. When say there are
thousands of these buttes, and that you ride
on fast train for more than an hour In the
midst Of them, the reader will perceive that
the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri is a re.
gion Of extraordinary interest to the tourist
and artist. BY another year there will no
doubt be summer hotel in Pyramid Park,
as the section lying near the railroad is
called. This summer visitors will have 10
take their own camp equipage. The term
Bad Lands does not apply to the quality of
the soil. The Indian name is accurately
rendered by the early French voyageurs as
Adurdtses 1erres pour trdrerser-bad lands
to cross. The ground between the buttes is
fertile, and the whole region is an excellent
cattle range, the rock formations affordng
the best possible winter protection. Cattle
come out of the Bad Lands in the spring as
fat as though they had been stall-fed all win
ter.
Beyond these Mauvaises Terres Is a stretch |
of fine prairie country so inviting in Its ap-
pearance that 1t seems to say "Come, pillow, |
sow, and reap these broad, fertile, sunny |
acres" Toward evening the Yellowstone
Valley bursts into view. The train has run |
two hundred and nineteen miles nearly due |
west from the Missouri river, and has |
reached Glendive, an ambitious little town
Of years growth, that has been overmuch
doomed. The visitor is disappointed at its
size, and, after night spent in an execrable
inn, is apt to 60 away with grudge against
The place. Nevertheless, Glendive has good
Across the country is all rich,
arabic prairie, clear through to the Missouri,
and the Yellowstone Valley is fertile and
virgin soil down to its mouth, and for three
hundred and fifty miles above Glendiye. At
east hundred miles of the Valley will be
tributary to Glendive, besides the prairie re-
yions north and east of It,. Travellers new to
frontier life laugh at these droll and dirty
Of shanties and "shacks," which
make figure as cities upon the railroad
maps, forgetting that all the great towns of
he older west have gone through the same
primary stage Of growth. They, too, wal
owed in mud and were redolent of bad
Whisky. The dance house, gambling den,
nd vile variety show, were once the most
features of Omaha and Kansas
lily, as they are now of raw Montana settle
nents. .--a
About three hours Is consumed in running
rom Glendive up the valley to Miles City.
instead Of the terra Gotta buttes, the hills
hat thrust their shoulders into the water on
ne side or the other of the stream are of
treaky clay, and melt under rain like so
,any cakes of soap. Nature seems to have
,rmed them In the rough and forgotten to
arden them. Back of these mud buttes
everything in the way of hill, rock, noun
ain, or clay-heap is called q butte in Mon
ana) are immense stretches of grazing coun-
ry, and in the narrow valley, usually from
wo to three miles wide, the bottom lands
10 In such excellent form for tillage, that
ne often forgets that he is In country re-
eemed from the Sioux only five years ago,
nd involuntarily looks for neat farm houses
nd church spires In landscapes so pleasing
0 the eye and so civilized in appearance, If
he word can be applied to country almost
estitute Of population. The Yellowstone
'allcy has been settled. where 1t Is settled
Z Nil. from the West and its Iowa. half hae |