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CHAPTER XXII.
Wilderness of the Far West.--Great American Desert--Parched
Seasons.--Black Hills.--Rocky Mountains.--Wandering and
Predatory Hordes.--Speculations on What May Be the Future
Population.--Apprehended Dangers.-A Plot to Desert.--Rose the
Interpreter.--His Sinister Character--Departure From the
Arickara Village.
WHILE Mr. Hunt was diligently preparing for his arduous journey, some
of his men began to lose heart at the perilous prospect before them; but
before we accuse them of want of spirit, it is proper to consider the
nature of the wilderness into which they were about to adventure. It was
a region almost as vast and trackless as the ocean, and, at the time of
which we treat, but little known, excepting through the vague accounts
of Indian hunters. A part of their route would lay across an immense
tract, stretching north and south for hundreds of miles along the foot
of the Rocky Mountains, and drained by the tributary streams of the
Missouri and the Mississippi. This region, which resembles one of the
immeasurable steppes of Asia, has not inaptly been termed "the great
American desert." It spreads forth into undulating and treeless plains,
and desolate sandy wastes wearisome to the eye from their extent and
monotony, and which are supposed by geologists to have formed the
ancient floor of the ocean, countless ages since, when its primeval
waves beat against the granite bases of the Rocky Mountains.
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