OCR Text |
Show I 328 PRODUCTIONS OF THE ENVIRONS-GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. between the hills, there is a stratum of black mould, more than two feet thick, but the excessive drought, in summer and winter, causes many crops to fail. The almost incessant wind dries the ground to such a degree, that it soon absorbs the little moisture proceeding from the rain. The dew, besides, is not sufficiently copious to refresh and support the parched vegetation, as it does in hot countries. When manure was spread upon the prairies, it was immediately converted into dust, and blown away by the wind. The Mandans and Manitaries cultivate very fine maize, without ever manuring the ground ; but their fields are on the low banks of the river, sufficiently sheltered by eminences, where the soil is particularly fruitful. When, after many years, the field is exhausted, they let it lie fallow, and cultivate another spot, since these extensive wildernesses offer them inexhaustible resources. They have been advised to use manure, at which, however, they only laugh. Mr. Kipp intended to make a trial with some exhausted Indian land, and to manure it; for this purpose, he meant to spread earth over the manure, that the wind might not so easily affect it, and in this way he hoped, in the sequel, to convince the Indians, who pertinaciously abide by their old prejudices. They have extremely fine maize of different species. Mr. Kipp has made frequent trials of blue flowering potatoes, which succeeded extremely well; but the Indians were so eager after these incomparable roots, that he could not keep enough for seed. One Indian, however, in Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, had prudently preserved some potatoes in order to plant them; and thus it may be hoped that they will be gradually propagated among these people. It appears, from what has been above stated, that drought and want of wood are the chief impediments to the cultivation and settlement of the Whites in the prairies of the Upper Missouri -an opinion in which most of the persons engaged in the service of the Company agree, though Bradbury thinks differently. With respect to the geological formation of the soil, it appears chiefly to consist of clay, sand, and sand-stone. All the chains of hills which traverse the prairie, and of which there is one along both the banks of the Missouri, consist of clay mixed with sand, and of sand-stone, with many impressions and petrifactions of shell-fish, and the singular baculites, which are found everywhere on the Missouri and its tributaries, and even here and there in the beds of the streams. Fossil bones are frequently found, and, in the calcareous rock further down the Missouri, entire skeletons, twelve, fourteen, or even more, feet in length, of reptiles of the crocodile kind, of which I brought back one, found in the vicinity of the Big Bend, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Major O'Fallan, at St. Louis.* It appears that there are no minerals in this country, and, * A more accurate comparison has shown that this antediluvian animal does not differ from the Mosasaurus, which has been found in many parts of North America ; and Professor Goldfuss, at Bonn, will give us a description of it. I have already mentioned that I am, unfortunately, not able to furnish any particulars of the several specimens of this kind which I had obtained, because I have lost the whole collection by the burning of the Assiniboin steamer in the Missouri. Many of the specimens observed by me are described, with figures, in Dr. S. G. Morton's " Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Groups of the United States. Illustrated by nineteen plates, &c. Philadelphia, 1834." |