TOPOGRAPHY OP ROUTE FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COLUMBIA. 171 



mountain waste. At this great elevation there is probably always more or less high wind, 

 which, \vith the tremendous view on every side, might well fill the untutored mind of the roam 

 ing savage with the idea that here must be the abode of the spirits of storm and destruction. 



The Blackfoot fork of the Bitter Root river, which has one of its sources here, flows southwest 

 by west for twenty miles through a narrow valley, which gradually opens to a width of four 

 miles at its lower end, where there is considerable timber in the bottom ; the trail, however, keeps 

 the open prairie, which is unobstructed, except by the small affluents of the main stream. The 

 valley suddenly closes to a narrow gorge, into which the waters, now swollen to the dignity or 

 a river, rush with some force. Here was a considerable beaver swamp, and a complete dam 

 across the river forcing the pent up waters into a side channel ; this was the only specimen of the 

 labors of that industrious animal which was seen upon this route. The trail follows the river 

 through the gorge, crossing it several times, and, after twelve miles of the most difficult mountain 

 paths sometimes through thick and tangled brush, sometimes along steep and dangerous side- 

 hill, then through a gigantic net-work of fallen timber, and often through the swift and deepening 

 current emerges at last upon one of the largest and finest of the mountain prairies. Enclosed 

 all round by high mountains, as this and all the other prairies are, they appear to be of much 

 smaller extent than they really are. Its greatest length nearly north and south is about twenty 

 miles, by an average width of seven; thus containing certainly over one hundred square miles 

 of good grazing land, with a gently undulating surface and numbers of small ponds, the river 

 meandering through it, with timber and brush at intervals. 



Geology must determine whether, as it occurs to. almost every one, such prairies have been 

 formerly the beds of mountain lakes ; while a reflective mind takes pleasure in anticipating 

 the time when the wild and exuberant beauties of such scenes shall receive the chastening touch 

 of art, and be animated by the labors of a civilized and industrious community. 



Crossing this prairie a point or two north of west, the route, and the river generally, continue 

 in the same course for ten miles along the base of high and steep mountains on the south, 

 and a considerable extent of prairie hills on the north (&quot;Prairie of the Knobs,&quot; of Lewis and 

 Clark;) thence through a small level prairie of a few miles in extent, surrounded, of course, by 

 high mountains ; thence, for thirty miles, a few points south of west in a deep, narrow valley, 

 following the river where it can be followed, and meeting with every variety and difficulty 

 of mountain path narrow, level intervals, jutting rocks, thick-growing and obstructive timber, 

 steep ascents, and rocky and dangerous side-hill. It would be a tedious if not a hopeless task 

 to attempt to give in detail the striking and ever-changing scenery of so great an expanse of 

 mountains; it is the happy privilege of the painter, only, to present at a glance the varied ele 

 ments of the picturesque and sublime, which would soon grow tiresome in description, even if 

 exact and vivid description were possible to such an extent. 



After the last distance stated, a small stony prairie occurs where the Blackfoot fork joins the 

 Hell Gate river, which then flows through a narrow opening on the west called Hell Gate, and 

 debouches on the open valley of the Bitter Root, which, seven miles farther west, receives by 

 two mouths the collected waters from the eastern ranges. The Blackfoot fork is the &quot; Cockala- 

 hishkit or River of the Road to Buffalo&quot; of Lewis and Clark; but why it should be so called is 

 not very clear, for the mountain Indians go to the buffalo plains by several routes, of which the 

 Blackfoot river is believed to be the worst and least used. 



Some twenty-odd miles up the valley of the Bitter Root, which has already been sufficiently 

 noticed, are the Flathead village of St. Mary s and the hospitable mud-walls of Fort Owen, oc 

 cupied by the gentlemen of that name, independent traders with the Indian tribes, and setting a 

 fine example of persevering industry in reclaiming and cultivating the soil, raising crops and cattle. 



From the confluence of the rivers near Hell Gate the main route avoids the difficult part of 

 the Bitter Root valley, turning on a course directly north about twenty miles through a pictu 

 resque defile to an extensive and fertile prairie on Jocko river, where numbers of wild horses 



