Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-02-16

ilar Dlack, tar clay, which Is there
called "gumbo' greasy. sticky, filthy
as the original colored Republican
{ from Guinea) from whom l presume
it takes its name. This ''gumbo" is
not troublesome except when wet, or
damp, and it will then stick to the
feet of the pedestrian or to the wheels
of a wagon in such quantities as to
render progress with ordinary effort
impossible. This soil was formerly
supposed to be unfit for agricultural
uses, but it is now said that in Nebras-
ka the same kind of land has been
cultivated, and makes the most pro-
ductive farms. The whole stretch of
country from the Missouri to Rapid
City-155 miles, and extending north
and south hundreds of miles-is one
vast, treeless expanse, in the main
''plains," but with occasional undula-
tons, and swells, which sometimes
rise abruptly into hills with rocky
SUBMITS and sides, presenting the ap-
pearance of having been at some time
washed by sea waves. This country,
belonging to the Sioux, is still inhabit
ed by buffalo and antelope. Some of
the latter were grazing in sight of US
as we rode along. From the Chey-
enne to the vicinity of Rapid City
there are occasional evidences of set
Element by white men, but occasional
only. From Rapid City to this place
the road is up and along the side of
mountains, down abruptly into deep
wales, or gulches; but as this part of
the journey was made in the night,
the ascents and descents, and the mar
row track travelled along the mountain
side, were only apparent to us from
the constantly changing positions of
the coach, and the aid of the light of
the lamp which was carried fastened
to the side Of the front of the coach
for the use of the driver and his team.
Making steep assents, of course we
moved slowly; descending, we went
with horses upon the keen run in
order to keep out of the way of the
coach; and as we were permitted by
the aid of the single lamp at times to
look over the edge of what seemed to
be yawning precipice, the brink but
foot or two away, and listened to the
dull, rumbling sound produced by
the coach wheels as they rolled along
over the rocky road bed, and the re-
verberation as it came back from the
deep gulches below and around US, dis,
turbed and restless in their midnight
slumbers, it seemed like the roaring
flood of returning waters, Fastening
to replace an ocean of ages gone.
Well through the second night without
sleep, L was nervously apprehensive Of
danger, perhaps; but l was never
more truly thankful than when, just
as the dawn began to appear. the coach
entered the suburbs of this wonderful
place. The saloons, as we'll as some
other places of attraction here, remain
open all night. Passing some of these
still Illuminated places on the way to a
Hotel, [ discovered the familiar names
TON and jerry friends I had
just left behind in Wisconsin, as
supposed, but who had, as [ for a
moment imagined, in some way passed
and preceded me hither. But neither
came out to greet me, and | proceeded
directly to Hotel and saught the
rest | had been so long denied. But
before [ reached bed daylight open
ed its brief reign and presented to my
wearied vision a city built in a narrow
gulch between and upon the sides of
two almost perpendicular mountains.
The snow upon their sides and in the
air made the prospect uninviting in
the extreme.
The "Black Hills' are a collection
of mountains from thirty to forty miles
in width, east and west, and near or
quite one hundred miles in length,
north and south They are Cor were)
covered with kind of pine or spruce,
the boughs of which are of very
dark color, and when seen from a
great distance, as they may be from
any direction, they seem black--and
hence their name. They are composed
mainly of rock and gravel, and were
evidently thrown up by an upheaval
at some time in the career of mother
earth, farther back than her written
history dates. This is the judgment
of many scientific men who have
traversed them in search of wisdom,
as we'll as riches, within the past few
wears. That they abound liz the nre-