168 TOPOGRAPHY OF ROUTE FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COLUMBIA. 
Gate river, where the first small branch or spur-ranges extend in a broken, irregular manner, 
towards the bend of the Missouri, where this river comes down from the south and turns east- 
ward, about forty miles above the Great Falls; thence, the ridge sweeps round to the southwest 
to the Big Hole Mountain pass, some thirty miles south of the 46th parallel, in longitude about 
114°, an air-line distance of near 130 miles. From near this point a great branch-range occurs, 
running northwest about 150 miles or more to the Coeur d’Alene country, and dividing the waters 
of the Bitter Root river from those of the Snake, or Lewis’s fork. This arrangement of the great 
summit ranges is something like the letter U, or the form of the ancient lyre, with the open end 
to the northwest, in which direction the main channel of Clark’s fork tends, until it meets the 
Columbia coming from the north, almost exactly on the 49th parallel. Including the spurs depend- 
ing from the arms of the figure indicated, there is a general breadth of over 200 miles of mount- 
ain country, or about four and a half degrees of longitude. Towards the centre of this great fea- 
ture, the streams flow from all sides like the radii of a circle—the Flathead river, and smaller 
streams, from the north; the Blackfoot fork and Hell Gate river from the east; the Bitter Root 
from the south, and the Lou-Lou fork and a small river, leading to a pass in the Coeur d’ Alene 
mountains, from the west; the latter flowing in a parallel but opposite direction to the main chan- 
nel, which receives them all. With the exception of certain valleys and prairies to be mentioned, 
the whole mountain country is thickly covered with pine forest; cotton-wood and some other 
kinds appearing occasionally on the islands and banks of the rivers, which generally flow in deep 
and narrow valleys. The mountains are embellished by lakes of various extent; some too small 
to show on a general map; others, as the Flathead and Pend d’Oreille lakes, of considerable 
size, are studded with small islands, and, hemmed in as they are by tall mountains on every side, 
they present scenery of much wild beauty and magnificence. These two lakes have been 
sketched with tolerable accuracy. Other lakes have been reported, but have not hitherto been 
visited by the parties of the exploration. All the waters of the mountains abound in fish, par- 
ticularly salmon and salmon-trout, and are frequented by varieties of water-fowl, as swans, geese, 
ducks, &c. The mountains also embrace numerous level, or comparatively level, and open 
prairies of various extent, which afford fine pasture for the Indian cattle, and are most welcome 
halting and recruiting places for the flagging energies of mer and horses, when exhausted by 
mountain travel. But the fine valleys, enclosed by the great ranges, are the most important of 
the topographical featuies ; the principal is that of the St. Mary’s or Bitter Root river, tending 
north by east from the sources of the river, near the Big Hole mountain, between seventy and 
eighty miles to near the confluence of this river with the Hell Gate and Blackfoot forks. It has 
a level, open bottom, from four to seven or eight miles wide, through which the river flows in a 
gently winding course, fringed with cotton-wood and pine. On the west side the mountains rise 
sharply from the general level to a height of certainly not less than two thousand five hundred 
feet along the whole length of the valley, heavily timbered and crowned with rugged peaks of 
naked rock; on the east side, however, the slopes are gradual and very free from timber, having 
grass growing almost to the summits. The area of this valley has been variously estimated. 
Captain Clark* says: ** The valley is from ten to fifteen miles in width, tolerably level, and par- 
tially covered with the long-leafed and the pitch pine, with some cotton-wood, birch, and sweet 
willow on the borders of the streams. Among the herbage are two species of clover: one the 
white clover, common to the western parts of the United States; the other much smaller, both in 
its leaf and blossom, than either the red or white clover, and particularly relished by the horses.” 
“The valley became more beautiful as we proceeded, and was diversified by a number of small 
open plains abounding with grass and a variety of sweet-scented plants, and watered by numer- 
ous streams, which rush from the western mountains with considerable velocity.” This valley is 
the favorite winter resort of some of the Selish or Flathead tribes, on account of the pasture 
which it always affords their bands of cattle. Most of the soil is said to be capable of culti- 
* Lewis and Clark’s Travels. 
