LETTER TO MR. DOTY. 65 



Pass, and the voyageurs Monroe and Dauphin are assigned to your party. Mr. Doty and Lieu 

 tenant Mullan will be directed to afford you every assistance in their power, particularly in 

 giving you good animals. Lieutenant Mullan will furnish a Nez Perces guide, and additional 

 instructions will await you at Wallah- Wallah. 



Your labors will be arduous, and will contribute greatly to the value and interests of the 

 expedition, and you enter upon them with my entire confidence as to their successful accom 

 plishment. 



Yours, &c., 



ISAAC I. STEVENS. 



Mr. TINKHAM. 



No. 6. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD EXPLORATION AND SURVEY, 



St. Mary s Valley, October 3, 1853. 



MY DEAR SIR : I send you by Mr. Monroe a sketch of the several routes already examined 

 from Fort Benton to this point, to which Mr. Tinkham will add, on his arrival at Fort Benton, 

 the routes examined by him. 



1st. A route from the Blackfeet fork to the Jocko river; and, 2d, a route by the Marias Pass, 

 from this point to Fort Benton. I have requested Mr. Tinkham to make known to you the 

 character of these several examinations, and to confer with you in relation to the best direction to 

 be given to your work from Fort Benton. Should it be deemed by you practicable, or compatible 

 with your other duties, you will accompany Mr. Tinkham to this point to confer with Mr. 

 Mullan, and then return to Fort Benton. My object is to bring the operations, by way of con 

 ference between the two parties, and the communicability of information, into connexion, so 

 that the best results may be accomplished. I earnestly desire this to be done, and I am 

 satisfied it is entirely practicable. The Flatheads pass the mountains all through the fall, and 

 till after new year s. All this is, however, left to your own judgment and discretion, in which 

 I place entire confidence. It will be necessary that the animals be kept in the best possible 

 condition oxen, horses, and mules. The operations of the winter will be more extensive than 

 was anticipated, and it is of the greatest consequence that every animal be in condition for 

 service. You may expect Mr. Tinkham by the 20th instant, and it is important that he should 

 have an effective train to return. The two ponies which I left with you must not be put to the 

 hard work of crossing the mountains, but the remaining animals may be brought into requisition. 

 At this point we leave nearly eighty animals, sixty of which will be effective in the course of 

 this month, and will be sufficient for Mr. Tinkham s route to the Pacific from this point, to 

 provide for your return to Fort Benton, and for the operations of Mr. Mullan, who has with 

 him fifteen men. 



Our operations to this point have been very successful. The principal party under Lieuten 

 ant Donelson moved yesterday. I move to-day to visit Colville, and thence make the best of 

 my way to the sound. 



Yours truly, 



Mr. DOTY. ISAAC L 



CAMP ON ST. MARY S RIVER, 



Thirty-three Miles below St. Mary s Village, October 7, 1853. 

 Mr. Tinkham got in last evening, and starts on his examination this morning. 

 Since writing the above I have met Victor, the chief of the Flatheads, and nine lodges of 

 Flathead Indians. He starts in two days across the mountains on a buffalo hunt, and will 

 return in November. His people will remain till after Christmas : so much for these horrible 

 mountains. 



V 



