Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-25

appeared to grow better; and finally,
when they approached a game country,
they all stopped and offered sacrifices, and
then only did the earth cease to rumble
and the air begin to be pure. But the In
dians never after could remain in that
country.
Thus, for the sins of a portion of a ma
ton, was whole people made to suffer,
and country, which before was a para
disc, became desert" This at least was
the Indian belief.
This legend belief contains more
truth than fiction, for have travelled all
over this land and have marked its peculiar
characteristics. After leaving Bismarck
On the one side, or Sidney and Cheyenne
and Grand Forks on the other,great plains
stretch out before the eye, broken only by
immense masses of rock, which are lifted
high up in the air, and then the vision is
again uninterrupted for miles and miles.
How these huge piles of stones came upon
these vast plains, isolated as it were
without cause, is accounted for only on
the ground that at some period in the past
great volcanic eruption took place in the
northeast, and passing along southwest
broke through he thinnest crust of
the earth and left these heavy
deposits of rock. In confederation
OF this theory note the fact
that all these buttes come along in a
straight line from the northeast to the
| southwest; that is-here would be large
upllft, some three or four hundred feet
high, while several miles southwest would
be another, and so on, for miles and miles
| across these great plains. These uplifts,
at distance, present the appearance of
houses and barns, but as you approach
them the illusion disappears.
Then again, we find mounds, beneath
which is rock, the volcanic force not hav-
ing been strong enough to throw the
stone to the surface. Following these
buttes to the Missouri river, on the east
| side, we discover where the volcanic fires
have spent their fury on the edge of the
river, where great peaks or mountains ap-
pearing, upon the tops of which 1 found
black, scarifed rock, mixed with
sulphar, mica and iron Stag, very clearly
indicating that the volcanic wave from the
northeast was arrested in its progress by
the river, and hence left its mark. No
| doubt, at the time this eruption took
place, the sun was darkened, the earth
shook and rumbled, and the air was full of
| sulphur and falling stones, and it was
probably at or about this period that this
legend originated, based upon fact in
| stead of fiction. So, too, I may say of the
country and its surroundings, its game, Its
foliage, its animals. The remains of some
| of the largest turtles ever known have
been found in this region, also of defunct
wild beasts of gigantic size, elephants
tusks, etc, and trunks of great trees have
| been discovered in the bowels of the earth
Petrified wood is obtained here
in great abundance. the soil is
| very rich, all going to show that
at one period, in the history of this coun-
try, it was paradise, the loved home of
the Indian; but that suddenly its beauty
was destroyed; its animals killed; its con-
tour changed its game burned; its pure
water turned to alkaii; its flowers and
shrubbery obliterated. not by an act of the
Great Spirit, as is believed by the Indians,
but by law of nature producing just
what the exterior surface of the earth
demonstrates has been produced by nat
ural causes. No one who has travelled this
country and knows anything of its hlsto-
ry can arrive at any other conclusion; so
that this legand is especially interesting as
opening up new train of thought of vast
Importance for further researches in the
great northwest, and especially interesting
as to the origin of DEVILS Lake.