FROM FORT IIALL TO HEAD OF HELL GATE RIVER. 347 



mountains. It is the home of the Flathead Indians, where, through the instrumentality and exer 

 tions of the Jesuit priests, they have built up a village, not of lodges, but of houses, where they 

 repair every winter; and with this valley, covered with an abundance of rich and nutritious 

 grass, affording to their large band of horses grazing and space, they live as contentedly and as 

 happily as probably any tribe of Indians either east or west of the Rocky mountains. Its capa 

 bility in other respects aside from grazing has already been referred to in this report, and is 01 

 sufficient interest and importance to attract the attention of and hold out inducements to settlers 

 and others. All that it at present needs is to have some direct connexion with the east or the 

 west, and the advantages that it and the sections in its vicinity possess will be of sufficient im 

 portance to necessarily command attention. The numerous mountain rivulets, tributaries to the 

 Bitter Root river, that run through this valley, afford excellent and abundant mill-sites, and the 

 land bordering these streams is fertile and productive ; and this has been proved, beyond a cavil 

 or doubt, to be well suited to every branch of agriculture. I have seen oats grown in this valley, 

 by Mr. John Owen, that are as heavy and as excellent as any I have ever seen in the States ; 

 and the same gentleman has informed me that he has grown most excellent wheat; and that from 

 his experience \vhile in the mountains he hesitates not to say that here might agriculture be car 

 ried on in its numerous branches, and to the exceeding great gain and interest of those engaged 

 in it. The valley and mountain-slopes are well timbered with an excellent growth of pine, 

 which is equal in every respect to the well-known and noted pine of Oregon. The advantages, 

 therefore, possessed by this section, are of great importance, and offer peculiar inducements to 

 the settler. Its valley is not only capable of grazing immense bands of stock of every kind, but 

 is also . capable of supporting a dense population. The mountain-slopes on either side of the 

 valley, and the land along the base of the mountains, afford at all seasons, even during the most 

 severe winters, grazing ground in abundance, while the mountains are covered with a beautiful 

 growth of pine. 



The provisions of nature here are therefore on no small scale, and of no small importance ; 

 and let those who have imagined (and some have been so bold as to say it) that there exists only 

 one immense bed of mountains from the headwaters of the Missouri to the Cascade range, turn 

 their attention to this section, and let them contemplate its advantages and resources, and ask 

 themselves, since these things exist, can it be long before public attention shall be attracted and 

 fastened upon this hitherto unknown and neglected region can it be that we should have so 

 near our Pacific coast a section of hundreds of thousands of acres that will remain forever un- 

 titled, uncultivated, and totally neglected. It cannot be. But let a connexion, and that the most 

 direct, be made between the main chain of the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, (and it can be 

 done,) and soon will these advantages necessarily thrust themselves upon public attention, and 

 open to the industrious and persevering avenues to wealth and of power. 



Again : this section connects with another of equal if not superior importance that of the 

 Cceur d Alene country, which again connects directly by a beautiful section with the country at 

 and near the Wallah-Wallah; thus showing that from the main chain of the Rocky mountains 

 to the mouth of the Columbia we possess a rich, fertile, and productive area, that needs but the 

 proper means and measures to be put forth and manfully employed to be turned to public and 

 private benefit. 



Let the Cascades and Dalles of the Columbia be removed by an appropriation from the gov 

 ernment, and we shall have, and that direct, steamboat navigation from the mouth of the Colum 

 bia to the mouth of and for some distance up the Snake river, and even to the Kettle falls of the 

 Columbia; and that will give to Oregon and Washington Territories the great keys of wealth 

 and importance, the influence of which will not and cannot be sectional or local, but be felt by 

 all throughout the length and breadth of our land, and that will finally redound to our nation s 

 interest and welfare, to say nothing of the great and paramount advantage to be gained so far 

 as regards the problem of national defence. For, by opening an avenue from the Mississippi to 



