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 Alerie 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 men 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 bas 

 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 : &quot; 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.&quot; 

 &quot; 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.&quot; 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. 



