NARRATIVE OF 1853. 97 
the morning, however, the Assiniboines did not resume the attack, and abandoned many of 
their dead on the field. A considerable number of Blackfeet were also killed, but none of the 
whites. ; 
Made our halt about twelve miles from camp, where we dined, resting from about half-past 
10 till 1 o’clock. By an accident, the wind being high, the prairie took fire, and extended 
over considerable surface. Our dining place was on a branch of the Milk river flowing from 
the Cypress mountain. Its channel and drift marks, though dried up now, indicate that at the 
season of freshets it is quite an important stream. Parallel to this, and some three miles further 
on, crossed a second branch, issuing also from the Cypress mountain. By a bend the two 
branches nearly meet, forming what is called the junction. 
August 30.—Y esterday we were in sight of the Bear's Paw, quite a broad and rugged moun- 
tain upheaval, stretching from Milk river to the Missouri.—(See sketch.) From the best 
information which I can gain of these mountains, they are intersected with valleys which give 
easy passes for pack animals, and probably no difficulty would be found in getting through 
with wagons. I sent off Lieutenant Grover, Mr. Lander, and Mr. Stanley to make an examina- 
tion of the Bear's Paw, as far as it could be done by ascending one of its highest peaks, and 
also to sketch in the whole surrounding country, especially the portion between the Bear's 
Paw and the Rocky mountains. We estimated our distance from the peak of the Bear's Paw 
Which they would ascend to be about seventeen or eighteen miles. I moved on myself with 
the remainder of the party, having determined that I would no longer ride in the ambulance, 
but would make the effort to push forward either on horseback or on foot. After moving seven 
or eight miles I suffered so exceedingly from riding that I walked some five or six miles, with 
great difficulty, until coming to a good camp on our second crossing of Milk river, and the point 
where we were to leave it on our way to Fort Benton, I halted the party and rested for some 
two hours. "This gave me strength enough to mount my horse and ride to camp, eighteen miles 
further on, on a tributary of the Box Elder creek, and in a straight direction from where we 
left Milk river. After leaving Milk river we crossed several branches of the Box Elder creek, 
Which is a tributary of Milk river that has its source very near the Missouri, and is on our 
generalline to Fort Benton. The ascent is very gradual from Milk river to our camp; the soil 
generally is very good. The view this afternoon was delightful. Bear's Paw itself presents a 
rugged, grotesque appearance, and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to see in it 
the paw of a grizzly bear, ready to spring upon the plain.—(See sketch.) 
The Three Buttes, or the Sweet Grass hills, some sixty miles to the northward of us, is a 
favorite resort of the Blackfeet, who say that Providence created these hills for the tribe to 
ascend and look out for buffalo. Southward we have a view of mountains on the other side of 
the Missouri. Our distance to day was 293 miles. 
I had forgotten to mention that at the upper portion of Milk river, for some thirty miles, the 
but it was exceedingly cool, delightful, and pure, and was 
water appeared only in pools, à; 
singular fact connected with all the streams of this 
evidently running water. There is a 
country, which become dried up in the summer and fall, that as soon as the cold weather comes 
on the water rises in the streams, and the usual quantity passes down. The fact is, the — 
do not dry up; only in the summer and early fall their course is in the sands, and by sinking 
wells the purest and clearest water would be found ata depth of from two to three feet; and Ihave 
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