With Verdure Clad
It was a "pleasent and fair" day, on June 3, 1805, when the captains admired the countryside around the confluence of the Marias and Missouri Rivers.
Capt. C & myself stroled out to the top of the hights in the fork of these rivers from whence we had an extensive and most enchanting view; the country in every derection around us was one vast plain in which unnumerable herds of Buffalow were seen attended by their shepperds the wolves; the solatary antelope which now had their young were distribued over it's face; some herds of elk were also seen; the verdure perfectly cloathed the ground, to the South we saw a range of lofty mountains; . . . these were partially covered with snow.
More than two hundred years later the view is still enchanting, although most days the air isn't nearly as clear as it once was, the verdure is a cash crop, and if there are any bovidae to be seen, they belong to the domestic variety.
Those mountains are now known as the Highwoods, a small island range in central Montana that is nearly 100 miles east of the Rockies.