320 PROM CANTONMENT STEVENS TO FORT HALL AND BACK. 



I was compelled to make the best use of the time and means at my disposal that the circumstances 

 under which I was placed would admit of. I succeeded, therefore, in making the connexion 

 between this point and the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. 



I followed up the valley of the Bitter Root river to its headwaters. This valley retains the 

 general character that it possesses at or near the St. Mary s village for a distance of forty- three 

 miles, the width of the valley being from four to seven miles up to this point. The stream is 

 well wooded for the whole distance with the cotton-wood and pine. At the point referred to, 

 fortv-three miles from the St. Mary s village, the river forks in two main branches one coming 

 from the south -southeast, and the second from the south-southwest. My trail lay along the fork 

 coming from the south-southeast. The trail also forks at the point of junction. The trail along 

 the other fork is used by the Ps ez Forces Indians on their road to the buffalo hunt east of the 

 Rocky mountains. This point is known among the Flatheads as the place of &quot;Many Roads,&quot; 

 there being many trails crossing and recrossing each other at this point. From this point the 

 valley of the stream diminishes to its headwaters, a distance of about twenty-one miles, the trail 

 leading over a very excellent road to within six or -eight miles of its source, where the trail leads 

 over a somewhat difficult road for two or three miles, crossing what is termed &quot;Ross s Hole 

 mountain,&quot; leading to a broad open prairie, surrounded on all sides by mountains. This spot is 

 known among the Flatheads and others as &quot;Ross s Hole,&quot; and it is here (which I have from un 

 doubted evidence, as there are men now living at the St. Mary s village who were present at 

 the time) that Messrs. Lewis and Clark first saw the Flatheads as they were encamped on the 

 Bitter Root river. Our road lay over this prairie to the foot of the dividing ridge of the Missouri 

 and Columbia waters, up to which point there is a good wagon road, save the crossing of &quot;Ross s 

 Hole mountain;&quot; which, however, can be avoided by following the bending of the stream through 

 a canon of the mountains. On our return, I, with a portion of the party, came through this canon 

 without any difficulty; and, in order to be made a good wagon-road, it needs only to be cleared 

 of timber and brush- wood. The ascent over the divide is very steep, and near the summit some 

 what difficult. 



The mountain of the divide over which the trail leads is known as the &quot;Big Hole mountain.&quot; 

 I think that empty wagons can ascend it, however, with not much difficulty, though, as yet, none 

 have ever crossed it in going towards the east. The descent, however, on the Missouri side, is 

 very gradual and over a most excellent road, leading to a broad open prairie, through which 

 flows a series of streams, forming the Wisdom river of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. Imme 

 diately upon crossing the divide we fell upon one of these streams, which we followed down to the 

 open prairie, which was about thirty miles in width. The geological character of the country up 

 to this point, from the St. Mary s village, is about one and the same ; the rocks being principally 

 granite and basaltic rocks out of place. Arriving, however, at the range of hills or mountains 

 forming the eastern boundary of this prairie, the rock changes to a conglomerate formation, 

 having no general direction. This conglomerate rock is formed of rounded pebble-stones and 

 broken pieces of rock cemented together by a calcareous cement. This formation also occurs to 

 a very great extent along the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. 



All of the streams forming the Wisdom river are unwooded, save by the willow, except the 

 stream along which our trail lay, which was well wooded with the pine, which, near the summit 

 of the divide, was the spruce arid white, growing small and scrubby ; but the farther we descended 

 the valley of the stream, the larger and better became the timber, till, reaching near the open 

 prairie, the trees became straight, and growing to a height of sixty or seventy feet, the pine then 

 becoming the spruce and yellow-pine ; but little cotton-wood was to be seen along the whole 

 length of the stream. After leaving the &quot;Big Hole&quot; prairie, our trail lay over a very low divide 

 of a gradual ascent and descent to a second prairie, through which flows a second stream tribu 

 tary to the Jefferson fork, along which we followed till we struck the main fork, or main stream 

 of the fork. The greater portion of this stream leads through a sage plain, or at least for half the 



