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

Q the buffalo hunter, who comes into the tow
In the spring with the spoils Of his winter
4 work, and lives merrily, after his fashion, 81
Q long as the money lasts. But, though rs rude
r barbarian In appearance IS any wearing
J, white skin, be Is rarely boaster or quar-
q reler. His calling exposes him to great dan
J. ger and severe hardship. Often he crawli
for half an hour in the snow, with the mer
7 curry at thirty degrees below zero, to get the
] wind OF . herd and approach near enough to
kill. He must have courage, presence Of
, mind, and sure aim, to escape the charge Of
= wounded bull. Usually he 10 grave and
reticent. In his hideous, greasy garb he
will sit for hours at the gaming table play.
, Ing faro or stud poker, without moving a
muscle Of his face at either gains or losses.
Around Miles City, in the valleys of the
Yellowstone and the Tongue, which there
joins the larger stream, successful farming
has been carried on for five years, without IT.
rigation. The current notion in the East
that the arid belt of Western Txeas, Colo
RADIO, and Wyoming extends as far north as
the Yellowstone is, am convinced, mis-
take. Large crops of wheat, oats, and pota-
toes are raised year after year at hundred
scattered ranches between Miles City and
Coulson, and in the tributary valleys west
Of Coulson the rainfall is not always suffi-
cient. For over three hundred miles the
bottom lands receive ample moisture for
general farming, heavy showers falling as
late as the middle of June. Farming in
these valleys seems as pleasant and profta-
Sixty bushels Of oats, thirty of wheat, and
two or three hundred of potatoes, are raised
to the acre on the smooth, sloping valley
lands, and the hill country is all open as q
stock range. At the rate homesteading is
progressing this summer, in five or six years
the whole Yellowstone country will be set
tied with prosperous farmers.
The scenery IN the Valley Is unique and
striking, because Of the sharp contrast be-
tween the smooth, grassy expanse of the
bottoms, fringed on the waters edge with
cottonwood and dotted here and there with
clumps of the same timber, resembling old
New England orchards, and the rugged, saw
age wall of the line of buttes that bound the
horizon. Sometimes there is a mantle of
green on the heads of the buttes; often they
are bare, and carved by the elements into an
infinite variety of shapes. The rock is
sandstone Of gray color, which sometimes
varies to sage green or an indursted clay
of bluish-black hue, frequently banded |
with broad belts of Ignite. The |
bottom lands occur now on one side of the |
river, now on the other, rarely on both, and |
slope up gently to the cliffs, at the foot Of |
which there are often living springs. The
tawny river winds about, spreading ont In |
broad pools or contracting into swift, narrow |
and angry rapids, very much In fashion of |
its bigger brother, the Missouri. 1t is only
navigable for two or three months of the |
year.
Shacks are the common dwellings of the |
Valley. A shack is a one-story house built |
Of cottonwood logs, driven in the ground like
piles, or laid one upon another. The roof is
sticks and twigs covered with dirt, and II
there Is no woman to insist on tidiness the
floor will be Of pounded earth. Below the
shack In social rank is the dug-eut-a square
cut in bank, with dirt roof and door.
In one of these kennels five or six men will
frequently house. Above the shack Is the
shanty, board dwelling containing one or
two rooms. Iu the whole Valley outside of
Glendive, Miles City, and Billings, and half
a dozen smaller villages, there is no striict-
ure that deserves the name Of house.
know Of no equal extent Of country in the
United States so favored by nature in regard
to soil and climate where the processes of
civilization can be observed In so rudimen-
tary stage OF development. One can see
the building Of a new State begun at the
very bottom-in the mud.
The chief tributaries Of the Yellowstone
the Powder, the Tongue, the Rosebud and
the Big Horn-all run through fertile val
legs resembling that of the longer stream in
their general features, and the whole region
favors in striking degree combination Of
the two industries of tlllage and herding.
Cattle subsist on the dried grasses, without
shelter, all winter. Sheep raising begins to
attract attention. The winters are cold and
dry, and there is not much snow; the springs
are rainy, the summers hot, and the autumns
delightful. Some mysterious quality In the
air has a champagne effect on the blood and
brain. One thinks fast, moves fast, cannot
keep still, awakens at four o'clock in the
early northern dawn and cannot sleep again,
and feels delightful sense of exhilaration
all the time. Do people wear out quick as .
for this vigor and elasticity
The Territory has not been settled long
enough for an answer to be given to this
question.
One bright, warm day in mid-May, jour-
neyIng westward with good team of bays
and stout spring wagon, we climbed up
from the valley to high plateau near the
mouth Of the Big Horn river and saw on the
horizon a sight that was well
coined with spontaneous shout Of enthus-
astic delight. There were the mountains!
snow clai mountains, too-a high ridge
with bands and patches Of white fecking
heir slopes, and one great dazzling field of
'uow. They were the Big Horn Mountains
n Wyoming. Beyond them . sharp pyra-
mid pierced the blue keavens-Clouds Peak,
,ne hundred and fifty miles distant. Below
Is lay the smiling valley dotted with cosy,
og farmhouses, where we had just passed
ields of oats and men planting potatoes in
he dark, mellow loan. Yonder the snow
lad peaks; here the farms. There Is then
| belt of habtable country fitted for agricul-
ure extending all the way from the fruitful |
,rairies of Dakota to the very base of the
utter bulwxrk Of the Rocky Mountain sys- :
EN-. No break need exist between the Mis- :
ouri and the mountains in the chain of set
dement's now fast being formed link by link. t
Even the worst of the Bad Lands are excel !
emit for pasturagc, and the whole of the yell
nucfcuo Ucllav q ~dyufrahlv .lactal |