222 REPORT ON DEAD COLT HILLOCK LINE. 



D. 



SURVEY FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE BASE OF THE MOUNTAINS. 



10. REPORT UPON THE &quot;DEAD COLT HILLOCK&quot; LINE, BY LIEUT, c. GROVER, u. s. A. 



FORT UNION, August 7, IS/53. 



SIR : On the 25th of June ultimo, I had the honor to receive the following orders from your 

 office, viz : 



&quot; NORTHERN PACIFIC R. R. EXPLORATION, CAMP MARCY, PIKE LAKE, 



June V5, 1853. 



&quot;DEAR SIR: You will, in charge of a detached party consisting of twenty-one picked men, 

 two wagons and thirty-three animals, leave the Red River trail at this point, and crossing the Bois 

 des Sioux near Lake Travers, and proceeding in the general direction of Dead Coll Hillock, con 

 tinue your course to the mouth of the Yellowstone. Make the best survey of the country the 

 means placed at your disposal will furnish. With the Scbmalcalder compass, odometer, and the 

 meteorological instruments, you will be able to get a reliable line and profile of your route. It 

 is desirable, if practicable, to connect your line with Lieutenant Donelson s survey of the Missouri, 

 at some eligible point, as Fort Berthold. Whether, and at what point this shall be done, is left 

 to your own judgment. The great necessity is to reach the Yellowstone, and be in readiness for 

 the work beyond. Your party has been selected with care, to enable you fully to-accomplish its 

 purposes; and I have the most entire confidence in its complete success. I shall continue on a 

 more northern course, and, operating much with detached parties, I hope the labors of the ex 

 pedition will result in a g &amp;gt;od exploration of the country from the Missouri to tlie Miniwakan 

 lake. Lieutenant Donelson has instructions to survey the Missouri to the mouth of Milk river, 

 and the country north of Fort Union, from White Earth river (western boundary of Minnesota) 

 to the Porcupine. I trust you will reach Fort Union before the main party; in which case, 

 assume command of the whole force brought together there, and communicate directly \vith the 

 Secretary of War, should an opportunity to send letters occur. 



&quot; We shall undoubtedly hear of each other frequently on the route, and through Indian runners 

 have the means of communicating with each other. With vigilance and firmness I have no fear 

 of stampedes or disaster; and it is important that great care should be taken as to placing the 

 least reliance upon any rumors of the sort. They will instantly be spread without the least 

 foundation for them. 



&quot; Lieutenant C. GROVER, 



&quot; 4th Artillery, U. S. A.&quot; 



Pursuant to the above order, my detachment having been organized, 1 left Pike lake about 

 eight o clock a. m. on the twenty-fifth day of June, and took up a course of north seventy-eight 

 (7S) west. The general course I kept to a series of lakes known as Moose Island lakes, whence 

 circumstances rendered it advisable to deflect some distance to the south, and follow up the east 

 ern bank of Lake Travers and Bois des Sioux river to the crossing contemplated in my instruc 

 tions. Between Pike lake and the Pom me de Terre river a more sudden declination occurs, 

 leaving a valley from a mile to a mile and a half wide. The currents of these streams are rapid, 

 and their bottoms sandy, with a width of about twenty ( 20) yards in ordinary stages of water. 

 To the west of the last named river, for a few miles, this uneven country continues, gradually 

 falling off to an almost perfectly level prairie, to the Bois des Sioux, with the exception of a slight 

 rise near the Rabbit river. West of the Bois des Siou\, which is a broad, marshy stream, but 

 with a sandy bottom at some few points, a similar level prairie extends to near Dead Colt Hillock, 

 between which and James river on a diiect line the country is high and blufly. But by dehYet- 

 ing to the south, passing between Dead Colt Hillock and Lake Kandiotta, and crossing the 



