FROM FORT HALL TO HEAD OF HELL GATE RIVER. 347 
mountains. It is the home of the Flathead Indians, where, through the instrumentality and exer- 
tions of the Jesuit priests, they have built up a village, not of lodges, but of houses, where they 
repair every winter; and with this valley, covered with an abundance of rich and nutritious 
grass, affording to their large band of horses grazing and space, they live as contentedly and as 
happily as probably any tribe of Indians either east or west of the Rocky mountains. Its capa- 
bility in other respects aside from grazing has already been referred to in this report, and is ot 
sufficient interest and importance to attract the attention of and hold out inducements to settlers 
and others. All that it at present needs is to have some direct connexion with the east or the 
west, and the advantages that it and the sections in its vicinity possess will be of sufficient im- 
portance to necessarily command attention. The numerous mountein rivulets, tributaries to the 
Bitter Root river, that run through this valley, afford excellent and abundant mill-sites, and the 
land bordering these streams is fertile and productive ; and this has been proved, beyond a cavil 
or doubt, to be well suited to every branch of agriculture. I have seen oats grown in this valley, 
by Mr. John Owen, that are as heavy and as excellent as any I have ever seen in the States; 
and the same gentleman has informed me that he has grown most excellent wheat; and that from 
his experience while in the mountains he hesitates not to say that here might agriculture be car- 
ried on in its numerous branches, and to the exceeding great gain and interest of those engaged 
in it. The valley and mountain-slopes are well timbered with an excellent growth of pine, 
which is equal in every respect to the well-known and noted pine of Oregon. The advantages, 
therefore, possessed by this section, are of great importance, and offer peculiar inducements to 
the settler. Its valley is not only capable of grazing immense bands of stock of every kind, but 
is also capable of supporting a dense population. The mountain-slopes on either side of the 
valley, and the land along the base of the mountains, afford at all seasons, even during the most 
severe winters, grazing ground in abundance, while the mountains are covered with a beautiful 
growth of pine. 
The provisions of nature here are therefore on no small scale, and of no small importance ; 
and let those who have imagined (and some have been so bold as to say it) that there exists only 
one immense bed of mountains from the headwaters of the Missouri to the Cascade range, turn 
their attention to this section, and let them contemplate its advantages and resources, and ask 
themselves, since these things exist, can it be long betore public attention shall be attracted and 
fastened upon this hitherto unknown and neglected region—can it be that we should have so 
near our Pacific coast a section of hundreds of thousands of acres that will remain forever un- 
titled, uncultivated, and totally neglected. It cannot be. But let a connexion, and that the most 
direct, be made between the main chain of the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, (and it can be 
done,) and soon will these advantages necessarily thrust themselves upon public attention, and 
open to the industrious and persevering avenues to wealth and of power. 
Again: this section connects with another of equal if not superior importance—that of the 
Coeur d’Alene country, which again connects directly by a beautiful section with the country at 
and near the Wallah-Wallah; thus showing that from the main chain of the Rocky mountains 
to the mouth of the Columbia we possess a rich, fertile, and productive area, that needs but the 
proper means and measures to be put forth and manfully employed to be turned to public and 
private benefit. 
Let the Cascades and Dalles of the Columbia be removed by an appropriation from the gov- 
ernment, and we shall have, and that direct, steamboat navigation from the mouth of the Colum- 
bia to the mouth of and for some distance up the Snake river, and even to the Kettle falls of the 
Columbia; and that will give to Oregon and Washington Territories the great keys of wealth 
and importance, the influence of which will not and cannot be sectional or local, but be felt by 
all throughout the length and breadth of our land, and that will finally redound to our nation’s 
interest and welfare, to say nothing of the great and paramount advantage to be gained so far 
as regards the problem of national defence. For, by opening an avenue from the Mississippi to 
