332 FROM BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FORT HALL. 



and not high enough to be called mountains,&quot; and which occur, as a general thing, in a prairie 

 country. The Tetons, on the contrary, occur in a mountainous country in travelling to the south. 

 The Tetons form a very prominent land-mark in the Snake River valley ; the Teton to the north 

 being the highest of the three, the one to the south being of an equal height. The mountains in 

 which these Tetons occur have a direction of north and south, and have never yet been ascended. 

 They are represented as being formed of rock from their base as far as they can be seen towards 

 the summit; and the tops are covered at all seasons with snow to an unknown depth. We were 

 told by the guide that there is a beautiful cascade in the mountains where the Tetons occur, hav 

 ing a fall of sixty feet over a vertical wall or precipice. Our trail crossing the Medicine Lodge 

 creek led through an immense sage prairie, extending about twenty miles to the north, to the 

 Snake river on the south, and to the Tetons in the east. Our course at the time was due mag 

 netic east. The Medicine Lodge creek, from where we crossed it, bends to the south, where, at 

 a distance of twelve miles, it forms a lake in connexion with a second stream coming from the 

 Salmon River mountain, a few miles farther to the south, and called John Day s river. This lake 

 is called the Medicine Lodge lake. The soil of the prairie up to, and after crossing the Medicine 

 Lodge creek, for a distance of eight miles, is of a grayish yellow-colored clay, mingled with 

 much gravel, affording, however, a very excellent road. The character of the soil of the 

 remaining portion of the road was completely changed. There it formed an immense sandy 

 desert, which was covered with nothing save the artemisia, which, with its dark, black tops, gave 

 a sombre and gloomy aspect to the whole valley. In places we found the sage desert covered 

 with immense beds of black lava, presenting a scoriated surface, and at times occurring in broken 

 fragments along the road. This rock we found to be very compact ; where it occurs in bedsit 

 presents a uniform surface, but in fragments a. honey-comb vessicular surface, the whole showing 

 the action of fire. This same rock, with the addition of trap-rock, formed the geological character 

 of our journey of this day. Large bands of antelope, many hundreds, were seen to-day feeding 

 along our pathway; but when an attempt was made to approach them they would fly across the 

 sage desert with the fleetness of arrows, preventing all possibility of capture. Many sage hens 

 were seen during the day. Those, in addition to a few ducks, constituted the game of to-day. 

 After leaving the Medicine Lodge creek, our journey for sixteen miles still continued through the 

 sage desert, till we struck a second creek, coming from the range of mountains on our left, and 

 known as the Kamas Prairie creek, a name given it from the fact of the root of the kamas being 

 found and collected in great abundance near its headwaters by the Snake and other Indians. 

 This stream is wooded with willows and a few scattered cotton-wood trees. I took several 

 bearings to the Buttes from the north, and also to the Tetons from the west, these fixing their 

 positions definitely. Mr. Adams has sketched the Tetons as we saw them when first corning in 

 sight of them, and as perceived from the west. This day has been mild, though the sky was 

 overcast during the whole time. The thermometer at sunset stood at 36, about 7 p. m., when 

 snow commenced falling heavily ; the thermometer at 9 p. m. being at 32. I take the following 

 description of the kamas root, and the manner of preparing it, from the Oregon Missions of 

 Father De Smet : &quot;It is a small white, vapid onion when removed from the earth, but becomes 

 black and sweet when prepared for food. The women arm themselves with long crooked sticks 

 to go in search of the camash. After having procured a certain quantity of these roots, by dint 

 of long and painful labor, they make an excavation in the earth, from twelve to fifteen inches 

 deep, and of proportional diameter, to contain the roots. They cover the bottom with a closely 

 cemented bottom, which they make red-hot. After having carefully withdrawn all the coals, 

 they cover the stones with grass or wet hay, then place a layer of camash, another of wet hay, a 

 third of bark, overlaid with mould, whereon is kept a glowing fire for fifty, sixty, and sometimes 

 seventy hours. The camash thus acquires a consistency equal to that of the jujube. It is some 

 times made into loaves of various dimensions. It is excellent, especially when boiled with meat. 

 If kept dry, it can be preserved a long time.&quot; 



