St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-26

| beyond these are the "Coteauy," billy
, plateau, slOping off on the west to the
| valley of the Missouri. We cross the
! Red river at Fargo, the James river at
| jamestown, and the Missouri. a mighty
/ and muddy stream, between Bismarck
! and Mandan. Then we run over 100
miles across a picturesque region
| where the plains are diversified by
| Duties and ranges of hills. A handsome
! country this, with many flOurishlng
! farms and successful stock ranches.
/ We are approaching the western Dor
| ders of North Dakota, and here we
enter that fantastic region known as
/ the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri -
/ where fire and water have combined to
| rayage the face of the country, convert
/ ing it into grOtesque buttes and deep
/ rayineS, and strewing it with fossil
stumps and tree trunks. This is also a
fine cattle country, and so is the valley
of Beaver creek beyond.
Into Montana.
Now we come to the Yellowstone in
! Montana. which we follow on one bank
or the other for 400 miles, or about the
distance from st. Paul to Chicago, and
all the way we are in a magnificent cat
tie and sheep country. There is little
| agriculture here and there on irrigated
bottoms along the valleys of the tribu-
tary streams or of the main river itself,
but it Is only small affair in cOmpari-
son with the great interests invested in
tiOcks and herds. The country grows
more broken as we progress westward,
! until at Billings the great shining SNOW
clad SUBMITS of the eastern ranges of
the Rockies stand out against the sky.
A branch line runs off south fifty miles
to the coal fields of Rocky Forks. from
which the largest part of MOntana's
fuel supply is now drawn. At Liv-
( ingSton there begin to be evil
dence that we have entered the
realm of precious metals in the wagon
loads of ore from the Castle mines
hauled here for shipment to the smelt-
erS at Helena. We now cross the belt
range of the Rocky mountains and go
down into a series of fair and fertile val
levS, where farming by irrigation has
made the settlers comparatively rich.
On the mountain slopes that flank these
valleys are seams of precious metals,
and mining operations have made nu-
merOus towns. The cities of Helena
and Butte are almost wholly the prod
uctS of gold and silver mining. Be-
yOnd Helena the main divide of the
Rockies is crossed and the road follows
lumbia, passing through a number of
well-settled farming valleys.
Still further west we enter a region
of dense forests Of pine aud cedar, en-
veloped in which lie the rich treasures
Of the COur d'Alene mines. Then pass
ing Spokane Falls we emerge into the
broad, sunny plains Of Eastern Wash
ington, which contain the most pro-
ductive wheat districts in the United
States, where 100000 bushels of
wheat were raised this year in FIVE
counties. Beyond these prosperous
prairies we descend into the great
basin of the Columbia. an arid
region of sage brush and sparce pastur-
age, into which, however, irrigation
enterprises are making constant in
roads. We follow the valley of the
Yakima, a tributary of the Columbia,
up to the base of the Cascade mountains,
passing through fruitful and welI-set-
tied valleys after the desert is crossed.
Then we climb the great climatic bar
rier of the Western SlOpe-the mountain
wall which separates the moist region
of the Puget sound basin from the dry
country of the upper Columbia BASIN
descending through enormous forests
of fir aud cedar, so dense that a single
acre will give logs enough to run saw
| luilI lOI lnOHlll, anu pdSSiuS through
! long, narrow, picturesque strips of hop
growing valleys. we reach the waters of
the Puget sound at Tacoma From this
brisk. new, handsome seaport city we
can go either northward, by rail, along
the eastern shore of the sound to Seattle,
and then to the British boundary, or
We can turn south, and run through
much attractive farming country to the
Columbia river, and thence to Portland
on the Willamette, the wealthy, we'll
| built metropolis of Oregon.
In North Dakota.
Having glanced thus briefly at the
main typographical features of the
1900 miles of country lying between st.
Paul and the Pacific coast and traversed