GANNETT.] THE BANNACK EESEEVATION. 697 



row, affording' passage only for a wagon road and the Utah and ^Northern 

 Eailroad, while a rock standing in the middle of the gap contracts the pas- 

 sage-way still more. The summit of the gap is on a great divide or water- 

 I)artiug — that between the Great Basin and the Columbia Eiver; in other 

 words, the Pacific ; yet here the drainage of these two systems has a 

 water connection, a marsh extending across the pass from Marsh Creek 

 on the one side to Marsh Creek on the other. At its southern end, also, 

 this valley of Marsh Creek is connected with the Malade Valley, in 

 which is a large branch of Bear Eiver, known as Malade, Eeed, or Eoseau 

 Eiver. The pass or divide connecting these valleys is much higher 

 than that of Eed Eock, being 5,090 feet above the sea. 



Marsh Creek Valley has much fine farming land in the broad creek 

 bottoms and at the bases of the ranges which border it on all sides. 

 The supply of water for irrigation, however, is very limited, and will re- 

 strict the farming land to a small area. The whole valley, with the 

 lower slopes of the surrounding mountains, may be classed as grazing 

 land. 



THE BA]>mACK RESERVATION. 



The 'Valley of Marsh Creek and the Lower Portneuf form a part of the 

 reservation for the Bannack Indians. The limits of this reservation are 

 thus defined by executive order of June 17, 1867 : " Commencing on the 

 south bank of Snake Eiver, at the junction of the Portneuf Eiver with, 

 the said Snake Eiver ; thence south 25 miles to the summit of the 

 mountains dividing the waters of the Bear from those of Snake Eiver; 

 thence easterly along the summit of said range of mountains 70 miles to 

 point where Sublette's road crosses said divide ; thence north about 50 

 miles to Blackfoot Eiver ; thence down said stream to its junction with 

 Snake Eiver; thence down Snake Eiver to the place of beginning." 

 Owing to a want of even the most general geograi)hical knowledge re- 

 garding this region, this order contains several impossible conditions. 

 There is no mountain range trending eastward, separating the waters 

 of the Snake from those of the Biear. All the ranges of the region trend 

 north and south, and the divide in question follows no one of them any 

 considerable distance. Moreover, the divide, which crosses valleys and 

 ranges, though as a whole it makes easting, has in different i^laces 

 every course except west, nearly boxing the compass. Still, the mean- 

 ing of the order is apparent, and the surveyor who ran the lines inter- 

 preted it rightly. He ran south from the mouth of the Portneuf to the 

 crest of the divide; then, turning to the left, he followed it across valleys 

 and ranges, through all its ramifications, until it reached Sublette's 

 road, where he turned notth and ran to the Blackfoot, completing it as 

 the order reads. 



DRAINAGE AREA OF BEAR RIVER. 



Bear Eiver heads in the northern slopes of the Uinta Mountains, and 

 from their base flows nearly north. The Union Pacific Eailroad crosses 

 it at Evanston, Wyo., near the western line of the Territory. Prom 

 Evanston it continues in its northerly course for about 65 miles, most of 

 the distance being in a broad valley. It enters the district under con- 

 sideration in this broad valley, flowing nearly on the surface, with little 

 or no bluffs. Its current is very sluggish ; the water consequently deep 

 and the bottom soft and treacherous. Consequently, although it is not 

 a large stream, fording places in this part are rare. On August 24 the 

 stream was gauged in this valley, above the mouth of Smith's Fork, and 

 Ibund to carry but 112 cubic feet of water per second. It had been a 



