174 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
same size—between six and eight feet in diameter—and, as far as the eye could detect, were 
as perfectly round as if they had been turned. 
At the foot of the bluffs, and in the small brooks near by, were traces of lignite, and glauber 
salt had collected by efflorescence on the surface. 
Near Arrow and Dog rivers the bluffs recede from the river, leaving wide grazing meadows 
scattered with cottonwood. An extensive bottom is formed at the confluence of Judith and 
Dog rivers, which is well wooded. 
Below this point the Mauvaises Terres border the river for about twenty miles, presenting a 
picture of nature’s wild deformities, a masterpiece in its way, characterized by a total absence 
of anything which could, by any possibility, give pleasure to the eye or gratification to the 
mind by any associations of utility. Not an island nor a shrub of any account; nothing but 
huge piles of bare mud towering up as high as they can stand and crowding each other for 
room. The banks varied in height from 200 to 300 feet for the whole distance. After passing 
this tract the country rapidly becomes more inhabitable. The bluffs are lower and more 
sloping, and covered with grass; the bottom lands increase in width and richness of soil, while 
fields of rank grass alternate with thick groves of cottonwood, cherry, and willow. 
The larger groves at this season are overrun by bands of elk and deer, which seek the 
protection of the thickets against the cold autumnal storms. 
There are a few scattering pines on the bluffs, and some short, scrubby red cedars. 
From Fort Benton to the end of the Mauvaises Terres is 124 miles. The remainder of the 
distance to Milk river—2283 miles—the face of the country continues to improve, gradually 
approaching to the appearance of that below its mouth. This trip having been made in Sep- 
tember, and at the lowest stage of the river, furnishes important data as to its navigability. 
For the first hundred miles numerous rapids occurred, only one of which was as shallow as 20 
inches, known as Dauphin's Rapid, some miles below the mouth of the Judith. The others 
were from 23 to 30 inches in depth, and the current on the shoalest was less than five miles an 
hour. Rocks carried down by ice also form obstructions in these shoals. Below these the only 
obstacles are sand-bars, snags, and sawyers, such as occur everywhere below. 
Lieutenant Saxton, at the same period, made a voyage down the Missouri from Fort Benton 
to Fort Leavenworth. Leaving on the 22d, he reached the latter point in fifty days, having 
travelled from below St. Joseph's in a steamer. The keel-boat in which he went was fully 
loaded, and drew eighteen inches, The distance to Fort Union, estimated at 750 miles by the 
river, was made in eleven days without the least difficulty. 
Lieutenant Grover, after returning from his survey of the Missouri, remained at Fort Benton 
until January 2, 1854. Up to that time very little snow had fallen there, and it had covered 
the ground for only a few days atatime. The weather generally had been mild and uniform, 
and the stock of the Fur Company and of the expedition, without shelter or care, were in fine 
condition. There had not even been snow enough yet for him to make use of the dog-sledges 
prepared for his journey across the mountains. 
On the 2d he left the fort; and that evening it commenced snowing, and continued stormy 
for several days, during which about six inches of snow fell. On the 7th he continued on the 
way with dog-sledges, but by the 9th all the snow was gone, and he was compelled to go over 
bare ground to near the base of the dividing ridge, where he again met with more permanent 
