deur, beauty and interest well worthy of remark. They commence nine miles below the mouth of Sun river, and reach for sixteen miles, in very rapid currents, falls and cascades, making a total descent of 38o feet. The last fall is the highest; the water drops a height of eighty-four feet. The river is 48o yards in width. One-half falls in a mass over a perpendicular rock, and the other half rolls its tumultuous water through a series of cataracts, falls and capricious cascades, into the basin at the foot. From an elevated point which commands the river from the north, there is a ravishing view. The water, the rocks slightly covered with a veil of foam, the lofty cliffs which frame it all, that succession of rapid currents, the deafening noise of the fall and the cataract, spreading into the distance, the column of vapor rising and presenting to the sun all the vivid colors of the rainbow, make a scene very beautiful and very wild at the same time. The Falls of the Missouri are among the most important in North America; they are 3,Ioo miles above its mouth.
Leaving the falls, we pass the Belt river and some minor water-courses, and arrive at Fort Benton, the highest post of the St. Louis Fur Company, 3,ooo miles above the mouth of the river, a distance which has been reached by steamboats, under the conduct of the excellent and brave Captain Charles Chouteau. Thanks to the discovery of gold in the Territories of Idaho and Montana, Benton has become a great centre of commerce east of the Rocky Mountains.
Farther down, the Missouri receives the pretty Marias river, with its pure water, and the little rivers called Island Thirty-four, Sandy and Eagle. Here we are at the entrance of the " Bad Lands " of the Missouri, or rather let us say of its marvels.
At a distance of some fifty miles, we pass within sight of some scenes as fantastic as they are wonderful; nature seems to have produced them for her diversion, and to have exerted herself to vary them. There are evident indications that this passage through this sterile volcanic region has