MISSOURI RIVER FROM GREAT FALLS TO MOUTH OF MILK RIVER. 497 



It would then seem that, up to the 1st of August, there is water enough for navigation by boats 

 of three-feet draught loaded; and up to the 1st of September, for boats of two-feet draught; and 

 later than the 20th of September, for boats not exceeding eighteen inches in draught. 



The velocity of the current upon the swiftest rapids was little less than five miles per hour. 

 When the water is a little higher, however, the rapids are all lost sight of, and the current is 

 nearly uniform, but rapid. What might be found to form a serious obstruction, as the water gets 

 low, are large rolling stones sometimes left on shallow places; but as they rarely, if ever, weigh 

 over a ton, they could easily be removed by grappling- hooks made for the purpose, with which a 

 boat might rapidly hitch on to them and drop down to deeper water. 



The boat required for low-water navigation should combine the following important points, 

 viz: veiy light draught, and great power in comparison to it; great facility in making short turns, 

 and ability to stem a current exceeding five miles per hour. 



Soon after returning to Fort Benton, we visited the falls of Missouri, which lie in nearly a 

 southwestern direction, about seventy-five miles by land from the fort. There are five principal 

 cascades. The first, about three miles below the mouth of the Sun river, falls about twenty-five 

 feet. The second, nearly three miles below the first, is a small crooked cascade of five feet 

 eleven inches pitch. Immediately below is the third. Here, between high banks, a ledge, 

 nearly as straight as if formed by art, runs obliquely across the river, over which the waters fall 

 forty-two feet in one continuous sheet of four hundred and seventy yards in width. At the foot 

 of this cascade, so beautiful for its length and regularity, is a small island, covered with willow, 

 cotton-wood, and wild cherry. Half a mile below this again is the fourth a small irregular fall 

 of about twelve feet descent. There is a small knot of an island near the middle, and between 

 that and the right bank of the river the ledge of the fall is very crooked, and the water reaches 

 the basin below in two pitches. But between the island and the left bank, there is simply a suc 

 cession of rapids ; the stream then hurries on, lashed and churned by numerous rapids, about 

 five miles farther, where it precipitates itself over a precipice of seventy-six feet in height. This 

 is the fifth and &quot;Great Fall&quot; of the Missouri. The banks are high and abrupt on both sides, 

 and above and below, deep ravines, with bare, steep sides, extend out into the prairie from one 

 to two miles. But opposite the fall, on the north side, a narrow tongue of waving prairie runs 

 near to the river, and breaks off in terraces to a small bottom below the cascade. The lower 

 plain, embracing two or three acres, is a rounded point of land, which, with a rock-bound 

 shoulder, half encircles the basin of the cascade, and for a short distance below confines the 

 water-course to half its usual width. Near its head, a broken and disconnected ledge of rocks 

 rises some thirty feet or more above the water ; but lower down there is some soil, and a few 

 scattered cotton-wood, willow, and cherry trees. 



Below the falls there is a continuation of rapids, which become less and less frequent to the 

 mouth of the &quot;Highwood creek.&quot; Steep banks, about two hundred feet high, crowd closely 

 upon the river, and on the north side are so cut up by precipitous ravines that it is almost impos 

 sible to keep near the water-course. From a few miles above &quot; Highwood creek,&quot; however, to 

 Fort Benton, the river-bends are longer, and the receding bluffs often have small intervals be 

 tween them and the stream. These generally occur on the concave side of a bend. A quite 

 extensive bottom of this kind is divided by the &quot; Highwood creek.&quot; Should it ever be found 

 necessary to establish a military post in this vicinity, this position would combine many advan 

 tages of location. The soil is good and grass is plentiful, both on the bottoms and on the adja 

 cent high prairies. The banks of the creek near the river are well supplied with cotton-wood 

 for fuel, while several miles higher up in the Highwood mountains, pine timber, for building pur 

 poses, is of easy access, and can be floated down the stream. This is where the fur traders get 

 their building pine. 



Below the mouth of the Highwood there are no rapids of any consequence to Fort Benton, and 

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