` EXPLORATION FROM A. D. 1852 TO A. D. 1857. 11 
coom. His course was easterly to the Stkamish river; thence along that stream to the Nachess 
Pass; thence along Nachess river. 
A ien map of the Cascade range, north of the Columbia, was prepared by Lieutenant Duncan 
on a scale of 1 to 400,000. 
In 1853 Mr. George Gibbs made a partial examination of the country lying between Shoal- 
water bay and Puget Sound. On the 17th of December, with a small party, he proceeded up 
the Willopah river about fifteen miles in a canoe, and then started on foot to explore the route 
connecting Shoalwater bay with the interior. After three days travel (15 miles) the attempt 
was abandoned. 
On the 10th of October, 1853, Mr. Tinkham left the main train on Jocko river to examine 
the Maria's Pass. He travelled northerly down the Jocko river to its mouth, and thence 
followed up the valley of Flat Head river, and along the western shore of the Flat Head lake. 
He crossed the dividing range through Maria's Pass, and thence his route lay in a southeast 
direction, crossing the tributaries of Maria's and Teton rivers to Fort Benton. 
On November 1, Mr. Tinkham left camp opposite Fort Benton, and travelled in a western 
direction along the south side of the Missouri to the ** Gate of the Mountains." Crossing the 
Rocky mountain divide through one of the Hell-Gate Passes, he entered the valley of the 
Little Blackfoot river, followed it down to its junction with the Hell-Gate river; thence down 
this stream to the Bitter Root river; and thence to Lieutenant Mullan's winter — 
at St. Mary's village. 
On the 20th, leaving St. Mary's village, he proceeded up the valley of the St. Mary's river 
to about sixty miles above Hell-Gate, where the Bitter Root river forks to tle southeast and 
southwest. The route pursued was up the western fork through the Bitter Root mountains; 
thence along the valleys of the Kooskoosky and Clearwater rivers to Lewis’ Fork; and thence 
to Walla-Walla, which point was reached on the 30th of December. 
Mr. Tinkham's route through the Bitter Root mountains was nearly the same as that of 
Lieutenant McFeely. 
On the 17th of January Mr. Tinkham, with two Walla-Walla Indians, proceeded up the 
Columbia to the mouth of the Yakima; thence up this stream to its source, in the Cascade 
mountains, passing the summit through the Snoqualme Pass, and thence by the valley of the 
Snoqualme river to Seattle, on Puget sound; arriving there on the 27th of January, 1854. 
On the 22d of September Lieutenant Grover, with a crew of three men, left Fort Benton in 
a flat boat, and proceeded to survey the Missouri river, to ascertain the practicability of steam- 
boat navigation between that point and the mouth of Milk river; on completing this he returned 
to Fort Benton over the route that the main party had travelled. He arrived at the latter 
point on the Tth October. 
Lieutenant Grover, with a dog train, left Fort Benton January 2, 1854, to examine the 
condition of the route in winter from the headwaters of the Missouri to the Dalles of the 
Columbia. He followed nearly the route Lieutenant Donelson had taken, via Fort Owen, 
Clarke's Fork, Fort Walla, and the Columbia river. 
In May, 1854, Mr. James Doty made a survey of the route from Fort Benton, along the 
eastern base of the Rocky mountains, to latitude 49° 30’. His party consisted of three men 
and an Indian boy. He had a compass and odometer, and a sextant and time piece. He 
followed along the course of the Missouri river to the Great Falls. About fifteen miles from 
Great Falls the party struck the Medicine river about eight miles from its mouth, and followed 
