342 FROM FORT HALL TO HEAD OF HELL GATE RIVER. 



\vho escaped unscathed, and returned to their homes to prepare for defence. The weather during 

 to-day has been very mild and pleasant, though the night was cold. This, however, is the great 

 characteristic of the weather in this region, warm or mild during the day, and exceedingly cold 

 at night. 



December 31, 1853. Commences clear and mild. Every one turned out at an early hour this 

 morning, and having breakfasted before sunrise, we were enabled to make an early start. The 

 river bein? frozen from bank to bank opposite our camp, I measured its width, finding it to be 

 sixty-ei&amp;lt;*ht yards. The ice was twelve inches thick. The river, a short distance above our camp 

 of last nicrht, made a great bend to the west, and passing through a canon for three miles, per 

 fectly impracticable even for pack animals. Our trail tended more to the east, passing over a 

 series of low sand ridges, affording us, however, a very excellent road, practicable for wagons. 

 Crossing one of these low ridges, we fell upon a small rivulet, coming from the east, called the 

 Yellow Clay Bank creek so called from a large formation of yellow clay found on its banks, 

 forming in some places bluffs as high as a hundred feet. The Indians collect this, using it 

 for painting, &c. Travelling a distance of five miles over the ridges referred to, we again fell upon 

 the Wisdom river, which here flowed through a beautiful prairie valley, hemmed in on each 

 side by mountains, in which we found feeding large bands of antelope. The river continued 

 to be wooded with the cotton-wood. The character of the grass and soil of this portion of the 

 valley was the same as that below. Journeying up this valley a distance of three miles, the river 

 made a second large bend to the west, passing through a rough and rugged canon, impracticable 

 even for pack-animals. A trail however, led over the mountains south of the canon, and is the 

 one travelled in going to the &quot; Big Hole prairie.&quot; At this point we left the river entirely, and 

 followed up the valley of a small willow run, which was from a mile to a mile and a half wide, 

 affording an excellent road. We found the valley had been burnt over recently, showing that 

 Indians had preceded us, probably the Nez Perces. The mountains on each side were high, and 

 covered with the pine to about midway of their slopes. Arriving at the head of this willow river, 

 we crossed low clay ridges, the latter of which formed the dividing ridge of the waters of the 

 Wisdom river and those of the Hell Gate fork of the Bitter Root river. This ridge forms no obsta 

 cle whatever to the passage of wagon-trains, as the ascent and descent are both easy and gradual. 

 Arriving on the summit of this divide, we could see to the north a high range of mountains, which 

 the guide pointed out as being the ridge along the right bank of the Hell Gate fork. To our 

 right, lay a second but low ridge, which separated a small tributary of the Hell Gate from the 

 main stream, and ended abruptly in a beautiful prairie valley. This ridge, as also the one in the 

 distance, was clad with the pine. On the dividing ridge we found snow two inches deep, though 

 no snow was to be seen in the valley below ; the only snow besides this being on the higher 

 peaks of the ridges around us. Leaving this divide, we fell upon a small creek, whose waters 

 How into the Hell Gate river. Having travelled fifteen miles, we encamped on a small stream 

 running from the mountains to our left, where we found good grass, wood, and water. We 

 entered to-day the granitic region, as shown by the large detached masses and boulders from the 

 mountains passed along the trail after crossing the dividing ridge. The weather to-day has been 

 exceedingly warm and summer-like. We found the weather much warmer on the waters of the 

 Hell Gate than on those of the Missouri. Thus did the close of the year 1853 find us once 

 more on the waters of the Columbia, which we all greeted with feelings of joy, as we now had no 

 apprehension of danger either from cold or the snow. We had all supposed that our labors on 

 the expedition would have been closed before the end of 1853, but we still found ourselves 

 travelling through the mountains in midwinter, apparently with as little concern as if it had 

 been midsummer. 



January 1, 1854. Commences clear and pleasant. We resumed our march at S a. m., which 

 continued over a series of low rolling ridges, through whose valley flow small mountain streams, 

 all of which when open empty their waters into a creek called the Spear Fish creek, which, eight 



