"The Valley of the Missouri extends 1200 miles in length, and 700 in width, and embraces 253,000 square miles. The Missouri river rises in the Chippewan mountains, through eight degrees, or nearly 600 miles. The Yellow Stone is its longest branch. The course of the Missouri, after leaving the Rocky mountains, is generally southeast, until it unites with the Mississippi. The principal branches flow from the southwest. They are the Osage, Kansas, Platte, &c. The three most striking features of this Valley are, 1st. The turbid character of its waters. 2d. The very unequal volumes of the right and left confluences. 3d. The immense predominance of the open prairies, over the forests which line the rivers. The western part of this Valley rises to an elevation towards the Chippewan mountains, equal to ten degrees of temperature. Ascending from the lower verge of this widely extended plain, wood becomes more and more scarce, until one naked surface spreads on all sides. Even the ridges and chains of the Chippewan, partake of these traits of desolation. The traveller, who has read the descriptions of central Asia, by Tooke or Pallas, will feel on the higher branches of the Missouri, a resemblance, at once striking and appalling; and he will acknowledge, if near to the Chippewan mountains in winter, that the utmost intensity of frost over Siberia and Mongolia, has its full counterpart in North America, on similar, if not on lower latitudes. There is much fertile land in the Valley of the Missouri, though much of it must be forever the abode of the buffalo and the elk, the wolf and the deer.[2]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Why the names Huron, Mandan, Sioux, Osage, and Ozark have been applied by Darby and other authors, to the extensive regions on the Upper Mississippi, the Upper Missouri, and the Arkansas rivers, I am not able to solve. Osage is a French corruption of Wos-sosh-ee, and Ozark is an awkward, illiterate corruption of Osage. Sioux is another French corruption, the origin of which is not now easily ascertained. Carver and other travellers, call this nation of Indiana Nau-do-wes-sees. Chiefs of this nation have repeatedly disclaimed the name of Sioux, (pronounced Soos.) They sometimes call themselves Da-co-tah.
[2] Darby.