At other places the banks were banded with great veins of iron ore, laid
bare by the abrasion of the river. At one place the course of the river
was nearly in a straight line for about fifteen miles. The banks sloped
gently to its margin, without a single tree, but bordered with grass and
herbage of a vivid green. Along each bank, for the whole fifteen miles,
extended a stripe, one hundred yards in breadth, of a deep rusty brown,
indicating an inexhaustible bed of iron, through the center of which the
Missouri had worn its way. Indications of the continuance of this bed
were afterwards observed higher up the river. It is, in fact, one of the
mineral magazines which nature has provided in the heart of this vast
realm of fertility, and which, in connection with the immense beds of
coal on the same river, seem garnered up as the elements of the future
wealth and power of the mighty West.
The sight of these mineral treasures greatly excited the curiosity
of Mr. Bradbury, and it was tantalizing to him to be checked in his
scientific researches, and obliged to forego his usual rambles on shore;
but they were now entering the fated country of the Sioux Tetons, in
which it was dangerous to wander about unguarded.
This country extends for some days' journey along the river, and
consists of vast prairies, here and there diversified by swelling hills,
and cut up by ravines, the channels of turbid streams in the rainy
seasons, but almost destitute of water during the heats of summer.
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