NARRATIVE OF 1853. 123 
that none of them would continue unserviceable for any considerable length of time, and I 
believed they would be entirely equal to any service which Lieutenant Mullan’s duties might 
require of them. 
September 29 to October 3.—During these days we were all occupied in making arrangements 
for the movement of the parties westward, and to establish Lieutenant Mullan’s winter post. 
Lieutenant Donelson arrived on the 29th with the main party, and Lieutenant Mullan on the 
3Cth with a delegation of chiefs from the Flathead nation. 
LIEUTENANT MULLAN’S TRIP TO THE FLATHEAD CAMP AND THENCE ТО FORT OWEN. 
Lieutenant Mullan, leaving camp near Fort Benton on the 9th of September, forded the Mis- 
souri five hundred yards below the fort, where the water was two and a half feet deep, took a 
southerly course to the foot of the Belt or Girdle mountains, which he reached after going 
twenty-two miles. Part of the route was along a small, shallow, and winding stream called 
Shonkee creck; which, however, showed signs of being sometimes thirty feet in depth. Grass 
was luxuriant in its valley, and at its head pines of large size were abundant. The first spurs 
of the range known as the Highwood are a thousand feet in height, and abundantly wooded. 
The branches of Arrow river were next crossed near their heads in the mountain spurs, having 
beautiful valleys, wooded along the stream. On the 11th and 12th he crossed six branches of 
Judith river, and followed it to its head in the spur called the Judith mountains. These were 
also well wooded with pine, and of moderate elevation, and on crossing them the lofty snow- 
clad peak south of the Muscle Shell came into view. 
Small tracts on some of the branches of Judith river had the desolate character of the 
Mauvaises Terres, particularly on Arrow river, where the ravines were perfectly awful to behold, 
descending to the depth of many hundreds of feet; the cliff black, barren, and destitute of timber, 
being composed of a mixture of sand and clay, the latter predominating. Granite and sandstone 
of excellent quality exist in the Girdle mountains, and a bed of salt was seen near their bases. 
The whole country was found to be peautiful; a level plateau between the Girdle and Judith 
mountains, traversed by the numerous branches of Judith river and covered with excellent and 
high grass. Innumerable herds of buffalo were feeding near the mountains, and the small ponds 
swarmed with geese and ducks. The climate he compares to that of Virginia in May, and fre- 
quent rains, chiefly at night, were beginning to renew the growing season and the verdure of 
the plains. Near the mountains the streams were always wooded with cottonwood and wild 
cherry. Cedar grew оп the lower bluffs, and the mountains, from their bases upward, were 
clothed with pitch and yellow pines, attaining a height of seventy-five feet and a diameter of 
from one to two feet, besides a species of spruce. 
Thirty miles from the Judith range he crossed the Muscle Shell on the morning of the 14th, 
the stream being fifty yards wide, and from two to five feet deep, with a very rapid current. 
ten miles wide, covered with excellent grass, and the drift 
It winds through à beautiful valley, 
wood showed that the river in high floods reached a width of one hundred and twenty yards. 
owed up the stream four miles, 
Not finding the Flathead camp, or any signs of their trail, he foll 
and found traces of their having gone down. He then traced them for nineteen miles down 
Stream, and passed two deserted camps, when they were found to have crossed the river. After 
going several miles over a rocky ridge three hundred feet high he made camp, and next morn- 
ing, taking only the Piegan guide, started in search of them, and, after getting about fifty miles 
South of the Muscle Shell, again met with a beautiful prairie country, dotted with lakes, but 
