Note 204 — Chapter XXIV · DESCRIPTION OF FORT CLARKE AND THE ENVIRONS

Maximilian appears to distinguish between La Côte Noire and the Black Hills. The term Côtes Noires was, however, applied by the early voyageurs to the entire body of the highlands in Nebraska, and in South and North Dakota. The limitation of the term Black Hills to the particular chain now thus named in South Dakota, is of recent use. Maximilian makes a curious error in thinking that these hills form part of either the Mississippi or the Arkansas watershed. Taken in the wider sense they form the dividing ridge between the Platte, Yellowstone, and Missouri systems.—Ed.