163 (eke 
Except that there isa gener quantity of wood used in its construction, Fort 
Hall very much resembles the other trading posts which have been already 
described to you, and would be another excellent post of relief for the emi- 
gration. It isin the low, rich bottom of a valley, apparently 20 miles long, 
formed by the confluence of Portneuf river with Lewis’s fork of the Colum. 
‘bia, which itenters about nine miles below the fort, and narrowing gradu- 
ally to the mouth of the Pagnack river, where it hasa breadth of only two 
or three miles. Allowing 50 miles for the road from the Beer springs of 
Bear river to Fort Hall, its distance along the travelled road from the town 
of Westport, on the frontier of Missouri, by way of Fort Laramie and the 
great South Pass, is 1,323 miles. Beyond this place, on the line of road 
along the barren valley of the Upper Columbia, there does not occur. for 
a distance of nearly three hundred miles to the westward, a fertile spot of 
ground sufficiently large to produce the necessary quantity of grain, or 
pasturage enough to allow even a temporary repose to the emigrants. 
their recent passage, they had been able to obtain, at very high prices and: 
in insufficient quantity, only such assistance as could be afforded by a. 
small and remote trading post—and that a foreign one—which, in the supply 
of ats own wants, had necessarily drawn around it some of the resources 
of civilization, but which obtained nearly all its supplies from the distant 
depot of Vancouver, by a difficult water carriage of 250 miles up the Co- 
lumbia river, and a land carriage by pack horses of 600 miles. An Ameri- 
can military post sufficiently strong to give to their road a perfect security 
against the Indian tribes, who are unsettled in locality and very uncertain 
in their disposition, and which, with the necessary facilities for the repair 
of their equipage, would be able to afford them relief in stock and grain 
from the produce of the post, would be of extraordinary value to the emi- 
gration. Such a post (and all others which may be established on the line 
to Oregon) would naturally form the nucleus of a settlement, at ‘which 
supplies and repose would be obtained by the emigrant, or trading eara- 
vans, which may hereafter traverse these elevated, and, in many places, 
desolate and inhospitable regions. sae 
T subjoin an analysis of the soil in the river bottom near Fort Hall, which 
will be of assistance in enabling you to form some correct idea of its gen- 
eral character in the neighboring country. I characterize it as good land, 
but the analysis will show its precise properties. . 
Analysis of soil. 
Sillea = - - - et Re gh es a - 68.55. 
Alumina - - : - - - - 7.4h 
Carbonate of lime - - a ON a - - 8.51 
Carbonate of magnesia - - = a . “ 5.09. 
Oxide of iron - . - - 5 - - 1.40 
* Organic vegetable matter - - - . - 4.74 
Water and loss - - - - . . : - 4.26 
— : ‘ —— 
Our observations place this post in longitude 112° 29’ 54” latitude 43° 
01' 30", and in elevation above the sea 4,500 feet. 
Taking leave of the homeward party, we resumed our journey down 
Fe 
