Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/162

 the first hundred miles, no timber is found on the upland except it be pine or cedar. The rest of the country is made up of open plains of immense extent, chequered with waving ridges which enable the traveller to see his journey of several days before him. Yet a great proportion of the soil would bear cultivation, the river bottoms, being generally fine, and many spots truly {228} beautiful: there are other places, however, barren in the extreme, producing nothing but hyssop and prickly pears. The same description will suit the rest of the country to the Rocky mountains; except that it is more mountainous, badly watered, and a great proportion entirely barren.[58] In the two last divisions the bodies of land fit for settlements, are so distant from each other, that there is scarcely any probability of any being formed for centuries, if ever.

A great proportion of the country watered by the Missouri and its tributary streams, appears to have undergone some wonderful change, from causes not easy to ascertain; the influence of fire is however evident. I have seen in places, banks of clay burnt almost to the consistence of brick; of this kind, there is above the Poncas village what is called the tower, a steep hill one hundred and fifty feet in height, and four or five hundred in circumference: it is so hard as not to be affected by {229} the washing of the rains. Large masses of pumice are seen near these places, and frequently in the high bluffs of the river banks. These appearances were formerly attributed to the existence of volcanoes on the Missouri, but they are now generally supposed to be the effects of coal banks continuing a long time on fire. I am well satisfied that this fossil abounds in every part of the great valley of the Mississippi. Many of the river hills