The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1883-11-21
NOTES FROM THE NEW COUNTRY.
An Interesting Panoramic Pen-Picture
of the Country Traversed by the
Northern Pacific Railroad,
as Seen from a Car
indow

The return Journey with its better OPP
p%ortunities for seeing and learning, con-
firmed first impressions as to the value
and great promise of the country over
which we travelled. 1t is not an Arctic
belt. 1t is not a strip of desert. On the
other hand it is not a continuous Eden
from the lakes to the Pacific ocean.
There is good land, middling land, poor
land for the farmer. But the middling
land for the farmer is often a fine field
for the stock raiser, and regions that are
utterly hopeless in an agricultural way
offer the richest returns to the miner Or
lumberman. 4 great variety Of terri
tory, with widely diversified resources ;
as [ certainly believe, no considerable
region anywhere along the two thousand
miles of steel track which is not habit
able, which has not in store rewards of
some sort for the industrious settler, and
which will not in due time support it's
quota Of the prosperous population ofth
northwest.
Let me try to present the Northern
Pacific in brief; and remember that the
prevailing color in the picture is brown,
not green.
Minnesota: Lakes, forests, farms,
cession of villages toward the western
border the level bottom of the Red river
basin.
Crossing into Dakota at Fargo, the
other slope of the Red river, towns of
yesterday bright at night with the cleo
trio light, miles of gigantic prairie farms
cultivated by armies of men Withstea m
engines; then an undulating prairie,
with smaller farms and fiourishing little
towns, TO Bismarck and the Missouri
river. Across western Dakota to the
Little Nilsson j, a naked, broken, brown
prairie, with buttes few water courses,
no trees, few settlements. Everywhere
bunch grass, which cures into hay as it
stands. Good grazing land, ranches
north and south Of the line. Under the
surface of the prairie an i~nexhaustible
supply of imperfect coal.
AT the Montana border, the so-called
Bad Lands, in which Nature gone crazy
has produced a vast agglomeration of
fantastic hills Of wildly colored ash and
burnt c!ay-a landscape which seems to
the new conner as unearthly as if a piece
of the moon had dropped upon this spot.
Nearly four hundred miles along the
valley of the Yellowstone, close all the
time to the clear river, with its islands
and fringes Of cottonwood, and shut in
on either side by the cliff edges or ter
raced slopes of the uplands beyond. Cat
tie and horses in great herds all along
the line. Here and there infant cities,
which have come to stay. The scenery
of the Yellowstone valley is pleasing in
all respects save that of color; in the
early summer it must be charming. All
of Dakota, as seen from the railroad, is
prairie all of Montana is mountain, val
ley and canyon. The landscape in each
territory is destitute of green. The eye
becomes accustomed to the prevailing
russell, but it does not cease to long for
the living hue.
At Livingston we come to the Belt
range, the first spur of the Rocky Noun
tains. Snow peaks appear ever the foot
hills. The road climbs the range, and
passes the summit at the altitude Of the
top of Mount Washington; then descends
through a, fine canyon into the Gallatin
valley, one of the garden places of the
continent. Up the Yellowstone the gen
eral course of the railroad has been south
of west. After crossing the Belt range.
it makes north latitude fast. With the
Belt range on the right hand and the u
of the main divide on the
left, we RIM up the Missouri valley to
Helena. This valley, too, is charming
in every respect but that Of color. We
cross the Missouri again, 1900 miles,
above the point where we passed it att
Bismarck.
Beyond Helena another climb over
on the whole disappointing. The east :