124 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
without streams of running water for considerable distances; and eighty miles, by his estimate, 
from where he started in the morning, and about seventy miles south of the Muscle Shell, he 
found the encampment of Flatheads. Having been unsuccessful in procuring an interpreter to 
accompany him, he was without the means of communicating with them. Fortunately, however, 
one of the Flatheads could speak French, and he acting as interpreter, Lieutenant Mullan 
explained to them the object of his visit; that he had a message from their Father, who desired 
them to send some of their principal men west of the Rocky mountains to hold a council with 
him; and that the intention was to do them good by making a firm peace with the surrounding 
tribes, and by supplying them with the means of cultivating the land, &с. 
They received him in a friendly manner, and astonished him by having prayers on his arrival, 
as well as in the morning and evening, the whole tribe being assembled in the chief’s lodge. 
After hearing him, the chief told him that in the morning he would give him an answer. The 
next morning, after much persuasion, he consented to send four of his principal men, who: 
accompanied Lieutenant Mullan to his camp, where they arrived next day. There were 
altogether 150 lodges, 50 of them Flatheads, the remainder Pend d' Oreilles, and though plainly 
showing the good influence of the missionary instruction, they still were complete Indians in 
their love of finery, and in the state of drudgery in which they kept their women. 
Returning to the Muscle Shell from the Flathead camp, he followed it up to the head of its 
north branch, and, crossing the dividing ridge there, a grassy prairie, descended along the 
headwaters of Deep (Smith's) river to the Missouri. The country passed over here was more 
rugged, mountains rising one thousand feet above the streams; but they were always well 
wooded with large trees, among which the hemlock spruce appeared. Near the Missouri the 
mountains were formed of a dark blue slate, changing lower down into red and green slate, 
under which is a rugged cream-colored rock. Antelope were abundant, and fine trout, two 
feet long, were caught in Deep river. Here, almost at the sources of the Missouri, and above 
the Gate of the Mountains, the valley was eight miles wide, and a most beautiful, well- 
grassed prairie extending on each side of the route as far as the eye could reach. Far to the 
south lay a high mountain range, the most distant peaks snow-clad, and, in the bright sunshine, 
glistening like mountains of silver. 
His Piegan guide deserted him at the Muscle Shell, but the Flatheads showed a perfect 
acquaintance with the route mentioned. The main stream of the Missouri was here rapid, clear, 
and tortuous, near two hundred yards wide, the channel being six or eight feet deep, shut in 
by mountains on the west and hills on the east, causing numerous rapids in its course. Cotton- 
wood and willow are the only trees on its banks, 
Crossing a rough but low ridge west of the Missouri, he again entered a large level prairie, 
which further up opens on the Missouri, and is said by hunters to have an excellent communi- 
cation for wagons with Fort Benton along that river. This valley was eighteen miles wide, 
and, crossing it, he followed up Prickly Pear creek for ten miles, finding the road good but 
оло, and encamped at the foot of the dividing ridge of the Rocky mountains. In crossing 
he dividing ridge, on September 24, he went up a steep acclivity, about one thousand feet 
dn ени Б valley ` This partieular route was not practicable for — 
| ere 1$ one which, skirting the prairie referred to, crosses the dividing 
ridge a few miles further is the north by a very easy and gradual ascent and descent, the only 
obstruction ; being the timber and the loose rocks and stones. At the western base of 
the mountains the valley of the Little Blackfoot Fork is, for some distance, from a mile 
