ITINERARY OF THE ROUTE FROM FORT OWEN TO FORT BENTON. 373 



October 19. A short distance from yesterday s camp is a very pretty series of 

 cascades of about one hundred and forty feet fall. 1 



The valley rises rapidly ; the brook is several times broken with cascades, and 

 the night camp is over seventeen hundred feet higher than the camp of yesterday. 

 Trail wooded, but not generally difficult. Grass very scarce. Camp near the 



brook ; wood and water good 13f 



14f 



October 20. The valley suddenly terminates, and we cross the mountain sum 

 mit in a direct line from camp, a little over four miles. A naked, narrow, 

 rocky ridge closes the valley, and the trail passing it is very narrow, and often only 

 sufficient for the feet of the horse 4^ 



Descend precipitously into the valley on the east side, and camp under the 

 dividing ridge, on the edge of a small pond, on whose banks rest the snow-banks 



of the previous winter. Grass, wood, and water good 2 



6| 



At this camp have our first snow. 



October 21. Trail good and easy, descending with a tributary of Marias river, 

 having its source in the small lake on which was yesterday s camp. Seven or 

 eight miles from camp the mountains end, and wood is found only on the borders 

 of streams. The trail ceases here. Prairie extends thence to Fort Benton. Camp 

 on the bank of the tributary of Marias river; grass, water and wood good. Air 

 thick with snow during the day, and several inches of snow on the ground 15 



October 22. Descend Marias river for a short distance, and one of the party 

 becoming too sick to proceed, camp again on the stream ; water, wood, and grass 

 good Air very cold ; morning temperature nearly as low as zero l 



October 23. Leave the tributary of Marias river, by which we descended the 

 mountain, and pass over rolling, smooth prairie, fairly gravel, with not a rich, but 

 a tillable soil. Camp on a second tributary of Marias river as large as the one left 

 in the morning ; a brook thirty to forty feet wide and one foot deep, fringed with 

 cotton-wood, and liberally supplied with drift-wood. This stream issues from the 

 mountain through a wide and promising opening. Morning temperature nearly 

 at zero ; ponds and smooth streams of water frozen over 12 



October 24. Continue on the same high, rolling prairie, sometimes stony at the 

 surface ; crossing two tributaries of Marias river, eight and thirty feet w r ide brooks, 

 and at night camp on a large tributary of Marias river, sixty feet or more broad, 

 well wooded with cotton-wood. Deer and bear were near the camp. The day 

 has been raw and chilly; the air so thick with the falling snow as to shut out of 

 sight all objects not very near; our course, in consequence, deviating and un 

 certain 21 



October 25. Very smooth even prairie throughout the day. After leaving the 

 brook on which we encamped yesterday, no running water was passed; the beds 

 of some small brooks, and of a shallow pond, passed &quot;during the day, were mostly 

 dry. Not a tree was to be seen. Encamp at night under a butte, taken to be the 

 &quot;Knee,&quot; from its resemblance to that elevation, but actually over forty miles west 

 of it. Here we had good water standing in the bed of a brook; no fuel save a few 

 willow-bushes; the grass was good, but cumbered with the snow. Small game, 

 such as antelope and brown bears, were frequently seen. The Trois Buttes first 

 came into sight to-day ^ mm 



October 26. Very extensive and smooth prairie, without wood, and with a scarcity 

 of water reaching to the Teton, on which we camp. No water seen during the 



