52G FROM BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FLATIIEAD LAKE AND KOOTENAY RIVER. 



us and our shore of destination, and two miles from the point whence we started. We fired our 

 pistols to let the remainder of the party know that we were still alive, who having already become 

 alarmed for our safety, had ridden many miles down the stream in quest of us, but could not find 

 us. Here Mr. Adams swam the stream, and, naked and barefooted as he was, made his way 

 through bushes, briars, and fallen timber to our camp, a mile distant. In two hours, with the aid of 

 horses, we were relieved from our most unenviable situation, but succeeded in having everything 

 that was saved thoroughly wet. We were rejoiced at finding the whole party thus saved from 

 an untimely end, and with one accord were willing to remember the crossing of the Hell Gate 

 river. 



Early on the morning of the fifth of May we resumed our march for the Cantonment, where 

 we arrived during the evening, thus completing a short but eventful trip. 



Taking now a retrospective view of the country travelled over towards the north, from the 

 Flathead lake, we see that, with but few spots, the country is an immense, dense pine forest, soil 

 exceedingly poor ; nothing growing, save a small running vine called &quot; scole-say.&quot; This charac 

 terizes the country to the summit of the -ridge of mountains dividing the waters of the Clark s 

 fork from those of the Kootenay river. Here the character of the Kootenay is materially changed; 

 the timber that is found being much larger, consequently is more scattered, and the section 

 immediately bordering the river being a rolling prairie, soil fertile, and an abundance of rich and 

 nutritious grass being found. 



Returning from the Kootenay river by a more western route, our road lay over a succession of 

 mountain chains, which formed belts, or girdles, with small patches of prairie intervening. Being 

 by nature thus formed, there is no possibility of any large tributary to either the Kootenay river 

 or the Clark s fork flowing from them ; but, on the contrary, the waters from the numerous springs, 

 and the melting of the snows, are all received in small lakes at their bases. The soil in these 

 prairies is very excellent, and they alone afford sufficient grass for the animals that travel over 

 this secluded and little frequented region. These lakes abound in fish, and large flocks of water 

 fowl of every kind are here found. In the mountains are found game, and many roots, upon 

 which the Indians subsist, so that this section has some redeeming characteristics, nevertheless. 

 The mountains are all pine-clad, and many of the higher peaks are covered with snow throughout 

 every season. Supposing for a moment that there existed a practicable pass through the mount 

 ains to the east of Clark s fork, the natural formation here found would preclude the possibility of 

 a road to the Pacific ; for, from the Clark s fork north of the Flathead lake, as far as I examined 

 westward, the country is formed of one immense belt of mountains extending many miles in 

 either direction, compelling a detour to be made along the Clark s fork. A detour from the route 

 along the high table-land north of the Missouri is, therefore, inevitable; but the section already 

 examined to the east of the main chain of the Rocky mountains is by far more feasible, by far 

 more practicable, than that to the west of the mountains along the Clark s fork. This is only on 

 the supposition that a practicable route exists across the range of mountains to the east of Clark s 

 fork; but this chain having already been examined by one of the civil engineers of the expedition, 

 and pronounced impracticable, loses all of its worth. 



Having now examined the mountains from the 43d to the 49th parallel of latitude, extending 

 from Fort Hall to our northern boundary, I can most unhesitatingly affirm, that the Hell Gate 

 defile is the only one in this section that leads to the passes in the main chain of the mountains 

 that are practicable either for a railroad or wagon route. This defile leads to six passes in the 

 mountains; four of which have already been examined by your parties, and the remaining two yet 

 remain to be examined one with a view to shorten a route already known to be practicable, and 

 the second the solving of a new problem of a route the eastern portions of which must necessarily 

 lie more to the south than that already known to exist, from the head of steam navigation on the 

 Mississippi to this defile. The connecting links to either one of these chains, westward, must, 



