It is a land of birds and flowers; of rock roses, wild sunflowers, golden-rods; of wax-wings, orioles, sparrows, and eagles.

Here roams the stealthy mountain lion.
This region, too, has its delightful legends.
One of these legends will awaken great curiosity as the State of Montana grows, and she seems destined to become the monarch of States.
In 1742 Sieur de la Verendrye, the French Governor of Quebec, sent out an expedition, under his sons and brother, that discovered the Rocky Mountains, which were named _La Montana Roches_.

On the 12th of May, 1744, this expedition visited the upper Missouri, and planted on an eminence, probably in the near region of Great Falls, a leaden plate bearing the arms of France, and raised a monument above it, which the Verendryes named _Beauharnois_.

It is stated that this monument was erected on a river-bluff, between bowlders, and that it was twenty feet in diameter.
There are people who claim to have discovered this monument, but they fail to produce the leaden plate with the arms of France that the explorers buried.

The search for this hidden plate will one day begin, and the subject is likely greatly to interest historical societies in Montana, and to become a very poetic mystery.
Into this wonder-land of waterfalls, sun-dances, and legends, our young explorers came, now paddling in their airy canoe, now bearing the canoe on their backs around the falls.
Mr.Mann's white face was a surprise to the native tribes that they met on the way, but Benjamin's brightness and friendly ways made the journey of both easy.
They came to the Black Eagle Falls.