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Show 146 BURNING MOUNTAIN-----BLACK STRATA OF BITUMINOUS COAL. JS, their nest. A couple of ravens likewise flew about them. The red-eyed finch, the beautiful Sylvia cestiva, the Sylvia striata, and the wren, flew around me, the latter singing .very prettily. If I passed beyond the prairie hills, I found the ground, on the long-extended ridge, covered with the blue flowers of the Oxitropis Lamberti (Pursh.), which grew in tufts about a foot high. There, too, I saw dens of the foxes and wolves. I saw a fine bird which we had not before met with,'namely, the prairie hen ( Tetrao phasianellus), a pair of which rose before me, and of which I first shot the cock. These birds are found in considerable numbers from this place up to the Rocky Mountains. In the daytime we suffered great heat in these excursions, while there was also a high wind, and the ground was hard and dry; the soles of our shoes became so polished on this ground and the hard dry grass, that it was difficult and fatiguing to walk on the slopes. We were forced to remain here many days, because the water was very shallow, and, during this time, we had several violent thunder-storms. It is a peculiarity of this part of the country that, in spring, rain, storms, and tempests prevail, while the summer and autumn are, in general, very dry. All the small streams in the extensive prairies then dry up, and there is a general want of water, except in the vicinity of the large rivers. On the 21st of May it was so cool that we were obliged to have fires in the cabins ; the river had risen a little, and we endeavoured to proceed. Captain Pratte, of the Assiniboin, came on board with a man named May, a beaver hunter, who had left Fort Union, on the Yellow Stone, in March. He confirmed the account of the murder of the three men by the Arikkaras, and added the still more alarming intelligence, that thirteen of the Company's engages had been killed by the Blackfoot Indians. He said that the herds of buffaloes had left the Missouri, and had been followed by the Sioux Indians, so that we must expect to see only a few of them on the river. The keel-boat of the Assiniboin had taken part of our cargo on board on the 22nd, and, as there was rather more depth of water, the Yellow Stone had been got afloat, after a delay of five days in this shallow place. We happened to be on the hills when the bell summoned us on board, and hastened as quickly as possible to the bank, but came too late, and were compelled to follow the vessel for a couple of hours, clambering over fragments of stone, pieces of rock, to creep through thickets full of thorns and burs, or to wade through morasses ; and not till eleven o'clock did we get on board. The hills on both sides of the river were of singular forms; some of them were crowned with rocks resembling ancient towers and ruins. The eminences had some dark spots, caused by black shining strata of coal. Many of these strata had been on fire, and one of them was extinguished only last year, after having burnt more than three years. Such a thick stratum of bituminous coal ran in a well-defined stripe on both sides of the river, at an equal elevation, along all the hills, as far as the eye could reach; and it is not difficult to follow this stratum for many hundred miles; it is only interrupted, at intervals, by ravines. Some lofty hills, hereabouts, are called Bijoux Hills, after a person of that name, who resided here many years. I f- |
