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. Here
and there on the sides of the hills, or along the alluvial borders and
bottoms of the ravines, are groves and skirts of forest: but for the
most part the country presented to the eye a boundless waste, covered
with herbage, but without trees.

The soil of this immense region is strongly impregnated with sulphur,
copperas, alum, and glauber salts; its various earths impart a deep
tinge to the streams which drain it, and these, with the crumbling of
the banks along the Missouri, give to the waters of that river much of
the coloring matter with which they are clouded.

Over this vast tract the roving bands of the Sioux Tetons hold their
vagrant sway, subsisting by the chase of the buffalo, the elk, the
deer, and the antelope, and waging ruthless warfare with other wandering
tribes.

As the boats made their way up the stream bordered by this land of
danger, many of the Canadian voyageurs, whose fears had been awakened,
would regard with a distrustful eye the boundless waste extending on
each side. All, however, was silent, and apparently untenanted by
a human being. Now and then a herd of deer would be seen feeding
tranquilly among the flowery herbage, or a line of buffaloes, like a
caravan on its march, moving across the distant profile of the prairie.
The Canadians, however, began to apprehend an ambush in every thicket,
and to regard the broad, tranquil plain as a sailor eyes some shallow
and perfidious sea, which, though smooth and safe to the eye, conceals
the lurking rock or treacherous shoal. The very name of a Sioux became
a watchword of terror. Not an elk, a wolf, or any other animal, could
appear on the hills, but the boats resounded with exclamations from stem
to stern, "voila les Sioux! voila les Sioux!" (there are the Sioux! there
are the Sioux!) Whenever it was practicable,