260 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 



Where the three streams, Big Hole, Beaver Head, and Stinking Water, 

 unite to form the Jefferson, there is a broad, level area, the greater part 

 of which may be irrigated and make good farming land. And this 

 point must become one of considerable importance as the Territory in- 

 creases in population, on account of the advantages of its position; for 

 here must always be the junction of the roads up Beaver Head and Stink- 

 ing Water, down the Jefferson and over Beer Lodge Pass. No matter 

 how much the general direction of traffic and travel may change, these 

 must ever remain lines of travel so long as there is any passing north 

 and south in this section. And although not possessed of so favorable 

 climate as some other parts of the Territory, yet I think it will become, 

 though limited in its extent, a very important agricultural area. Com- 

 ing down from Deer Lodge Pass I was struck with the beauty of the 

 valley, which looked like one vast meadow ; and reaching the banks of 

 the Big Hole and Beaver Head, which are here in close proximity, rush- 

 ing down with heavy volumes of pure limpid water, I felt satisfied there 

 would be no difficulty in forming a net- work of ditches filled with water 

 over the entire area. 



The valley of the Jefferson for twenty-eight or thirty miles below this 

 point will average, exclusive of the table-lands which flank it, from 

 three to five miles wide. The supply of water is ample, not only to ir- 

 rigate the bottoms or valley proper, but also a large portion of the table- 

 lands, which at some i3oiuts expand to a width of eight or ten miles, but 

 in other places form but mere strips. The stream, which is probably 

 120 to 150 feet wide and 2 feet deep, is fringed by a growth of cotton- 

 wood and willow, the former often of quite large size. The bordering 

 mountains are clothed with a heavy growth of dark pines from their 

 summits down to the sloping foot-hills ; from this dark-green border the 

 pale, smooth meadow sweeps down in a graceful curve on each side, 

 giving to the valley a soft, attractive beauty seldom seen. As we rode 

 rapidly along the margin of the stream we could imagine the delight of 

 Lewis and Clark as they traversed the same valley, then doubtless 

 teeming with game. More than sixty years have passed since they 

 were here. What a change ! A nation has sprung into existence on 

 that which was then only the home of the red man, buffalo, and elk. 

 And in all probability ere another half decade has closed the shrill 

 whistle of the locomotive will be heard reverberating among these 

 ridges and echoing along these valleys. Much of this valley yet remains 

 unoccupied, probably because to irrigate the larger bodies of bottom- 

 land would require the construction of somewhat lengthy ditches to 

 draw off water from the river; the points which are settled being sup- 

 plied, as a general thing, with water from the little tributaries that flow 

 down from the mountain, as at Silver Star, &c. 



Madison Eiver, rising in the region of hot springs and geysers, near 

 Yellowstone Lake, runs a northern direction to Gallatin City, where it 

 unites its waters with those of the Jefferson and Gallatin to form the 

 Missouri. It is worthy of remark that from the Beaver Head to the 

 Yellowstone there appears to be a succession of short mountain ranges, 

 or high ridges, running north and south, with intervening valleys of 

 greater or less width, one of which is traversed by the Stinking Water, 

 another by the Madison, and a third by the Gallatin. 



The valley of the Madison is separated into two parts by a short canon 

 east of Virginia City. Above this it extends about twenty miles, vary- 

 ing in width from two to five miles, and is flanked by a succession of 

 beautiful terraces almost perfectly horizontal, and which extend for 

 miles along the valley, leading gently down from the mountains to the 



