8 



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The ascent was on a very easy grade, almost good enough for a fair ^ 



wagon road, if the timber at places were cut out of the trail. In making 



the march to the summit, we passed through open glades and beautiful 



parks along the side of the mountain range, some of them several miles 



in length and all covered with splendid bunch and gama grasses and 



wild flowers. On the summit level were a series of open grassy i>arks 



and here and there small lakes. We encamped in a pretty place near 



the summit, having marched 15 miles. Altitude, 0,200 feet. This pass 



was unknown to white men, and seemed to have been used in the past r 



only by Indians. It is much better than the Union Pass, to the south 



of it, or than the pass to the north of it, traversed by Captain Kellogg's 



command last year. It was named Lincoln Pass, after the Hon. Robert 



T. Lincoln, Secretary of War, whose expedition this really was, but the 



non-adjournment of Congress and official duties prevented him, at the 



last moment, from being at its head. 



Next morning, August 13, we resumed our march at the usual hour 

 across the summit, and commenced the descent through open glades, but 

 by and by we encountered more timber, sideling places, and occasionally 

 short, steep pitches. The descent was not so favorable a grade for a wag- 

 on road as the ascent, but it was by no means Had, and a small amount 

 of money would suffice to make a good wagon-road through Lincoln 

 Pass. It is by for the best pass I have ever seen over the Continental 

 Divide. About one o'clock, after a long march, we found ourselves in 

 the valley of the Gros Ventre River, just below the forks, and in an open 

 bottom on the edge of a beautiful, clear river, tilled with two and three 

 pound trout. We here went into camp, naming it Camp Benkard, in 

 honor of Mr. Benkard, president of the Long Island Trout Club. Dis- 

 tance inarched, 18 miles ; altitude, 7,650 feet. The hills bordering the 

 valley of the Gros Ventre are covered with bunch and other nutritious 



, There is a trail over from this valley, via headwaters of Green 

 River, to the new railroad from Granger Station, Wyo., to Portland, 

 Greg., on which trail wagons have passed. 



On August 14, the march was resumed at the usual hour and con- 

 tinued down the valley of the Gros Ventre, crossing the west fork and 

 its beautiful valley, and also the main river, just below, until the east- 

 ern edge of the valley of Snake River was soon after reached, where 

 camp was pitched on the Gros Ventre River, and named Camp Stager, 

 after General Anson Stager, so well known at th<- War Office in Wash- 

 ington during the war of the rebellion, and since that time as vice- 

 president and superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany. Distance marched, 19 miles; altitude of camp, 7,000 feet. The 

 country passed over on this day's march was mostly in the foot hills 

 along the valley of the Gros Ventre, and was covered with good grass 

 and beautiful wild flowers. Just before going into camp we crossed a 

 little divide, from the summit of which the broad extensive vallev of 

 Snake River, with the Teton Range of mountains as its background, 



