Hills. There is nothing observable, either in the color of the soil of these mountains or in that of the rocks, that can have given them this name; they owe it to the sombre verdure of the little cedars and pines that shade their sides. The vegetable soil along the rivers and in the valleys is rather good; the uplands are very sterile and almost entirely covered with blocks of granite, quartz, marcasite1s and other kinds of rock commingled, showing clearly that at some remote time there have been great subterranean convulsions in this region.
From la Ramee [Laramie] a range of the Rocky Mountains forty miles away is visible. It stands 5,000 feet above the plain. Every day the thermometer rose to 8o° and go' in the valleys of these mountains; while their summits were covered with snow. I was often deceived in regard to distances; sometimes I wished to examine more closely a big rock or an odd-looking hill; I started for it expecting to reach it in an hour; and it took me at least two or three hours. This must be due to the great purity of the atmosphere it the prairies of this high region. Absinthe [artemisia; sage-brush] is a spontaneous product of this country; it grows to a height of eight to ten feet, and in so great abundance that it makes traveling in carts quite inconvenient. Wild cherries, gooseberries and service berries (an excellent little black fruit) are also very plentiful. The elder grows in ravines. Two kinds of cottonwood are common in the bottoms. On the banks of rivers and the slopes of mountains, groves of pines and cedars are seen.
On the 14th, [June, 1840] we camped at the foot of the Red Butte. This is a very lofty hill, of a red ochre color, composed of clay in a petrified state, and is a central point for the savages, who pass and repass it on their travels westward and northward. The northern branch of the Platte, which we had been following thus far, here takes
15 Native bisulphide of iron; prismatic iron pyrites.