114 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
and accordingly I allowed them to go on. We had now been together some three months, and 
there was great confidence between the several members of the exploration. 
Lieutenant Donelson finally got off on the 16th, and I remained behind in order to hold a 
council with the chiefs of the Blackfeet, whose arrival from the Cypress mountain was daily 
expected, and to make up my mail for the department and my friends at home. I will respect- 
fully refer to the first volume of the Pacific Railroad Reports for my detailed account of 
operations up to Fort Benton, and my plans for prosecuting the survey. From the 16th to the 22d 
instant we were very much occupied in fitting out Lieutenant Saxton for his homeward trip; 
Lieutenant Grover for the survey of the Upper Missouri; in correspondence, and in our council 
with the Indians. Mr. Stanley returned on the 20th, leaving in camp on the Teton the dele- 
gations of Indian chiefs who had accompanied him from the Cypress mountain, and he gives 
the following account of his visit: 
MR. STANLEY’S TRIP TO CYPRESS MOUNTAIN. 
From the camp near Fort Benton Mr. Stanley proceeded on the 11th of September, with 
three voyageurs and an interpreter of the American Fur Company, guided by Little Dog, one 
of the chiefs of the Piegans. His course was a little west of north, gradually ascending to 
the base of the Three Buttes, a distance of thirty-five miles from Marias river. He found 
them as interesting and full of life as did Mr. Tinkham, the grass around them having all the 
freshness of spring, with great herds of game feeding on it. 
The next day he reached Milk river, thirty miles from the Buttes, and about thirty to the 
northwest of where Mr. Tinkham had left it. The country in its vicinity was much broken by 
dry coulées, in one of which he found a stratum of coal or lignite, three feet thick, and running 
for a quarter of a mile. The valley of Milk river is a mile in breadth, studded with groves 
of cottonwood, &c.; and its high borders of table-land, broken by ravines, look like the buildings 
and streets of some old city. Here he found three lodges of Piegans belonging to Lame Bull's 
band, and learned from them that the Piegans had divided their camp. Lame Bull had some 
days before descended the river, expecting to meet the expedition at the crossing to Fort 
Benton. Low Horn, with the rest of the tribe, had gone to Cypress mountain. He explained 
the object of his visit, and made them presents of ammunition and tobacco, for which they 
were very grateful, giving him fresh and dried meat inreturn. Onthe 13th he proceeded towards 
Cypress mountain, ascending gradually to the summit of the table-land north of Milk river; 
crossed a high rolling dividing ridge for twelve miles, to the dry bed of a stream having a 
valley two miles wide. This is the outlet of the large salt lake called Pa-ko-kee, which is 
about eighteen miles long and five wide. From this he crossed another broken, rocky ridge, for 
nine miles, and ascending it, halted at an old Indian fort built of logs and sticks. Twelve miles 
further he encamped, making in all forty miles that day. On the 14th he proceeded twenty 
miles north, and there reaching the valley of Bow river, which runs at the base of Cypress 
mountain, he discovered a band of horses towards the west, which he reached eight miles 
further, and found them to belong to the Piegan band he was in search of, which consisted of 
ninety lodges, under their chief, Low Horn. 
Little Dog conducted him to the chief's lodge, 
and immediately the principal chiefs and 
ebraves, to the number of sixty, 
collected in the council lodge to receive his message. After 
hearing his talk, the chief answered that “ the whole camp would move the next morning 
to hold a council with the chief sent by their Great Father." The day was spent in feasting 
