176 | NARRATIVE ОҒ 1853. 
has been its dampness and storminess; scarcely a day passed during the whole time that was 
entirely pleasant."  Pend d'Oreille lake was, however, only partially frozen over, with ice 
eight inches thick on one of its arms. 
I repaired without delay to the city of Winbington, leaving Olympia on the 26th of March. 
Before I rendered my report, which was sent in on the 20th of June, I received from 
Lieutenant Mullan an account of a trip from the Bitter Root valley to Fort Benton, in the 
month of March, which established the practicability of taking wagons over the mountains, 
and showed how small was the obstruction to be apprehended from snow. 
LIEUTENANT MULLAN'S TRIP FROM THE BITTER ROOT TO FORT BENTON. 
Lieutenant Mullan having learned from the Indians and half-breeds of the mountains the 
existence of a pass leading directly to Fort Benton, through which wagons could be carried 
with little or no difficulty, determined upon its examination, and, if practicable, to test it by 
bringing wagons from Fort Benton to the Bitter Root valley. With this view he started from 
Cantonment Stevens on the 2d of March for Fort Benton, following the Hell-Gate valley to its 
junction with that of the Little Blackfoot; thence along the left bank of the Missouri to the 
Gate of the Mountains, where he crossed the river on the ice, and following along its right 
bank, reached Fort Benton on the morning of the 12th. Не found from twelve to fifteen 
inches of snow on the main divide of the Rocky mountains, and little or no snow in the valleys 
ог on either slope. He found the route, until reaching the Gate, practicable and easy, but 
here the road passed over a succession of difficult pine-clad hills that precluded the possibility 
of a wagon route, save at great expense. The character of the country and the views of the 
Indians all went to show an easier location to the north, which would turn this detached bed 
of mountains and reach the foot slope of the divide by easy grades and little or no work. 
Completing his preparations, he left Fort Benton on the morning of the 14th March, with a 
loaded wagon drawn by four mules, and keeping on the high plateau near the route of the 
expedition of the preceding year, he found a level prairie road from Fort Benton to Sun river. 
Thence to the Dearborn, keeping some miles to the south of Donelson's trail, the route was 
excellent. From this point, keeping some distance west of Tinkham’s route, in fifteen miles 
he reached the valley of the Little Prickly Pear creek, which was a half a mile wide, and well 
wooded. Up to this point he had met with no difficulty, but found an easy, practicable wagon 
road, a measured distance of 124 miles from Fort Benton. Here the fallen timber in the valley of 
the Little Prickly Pear creek was the first obstacle met with. Selecting a suitable camp on 
this creek for his party, he set his men to work clearing the timber for a track, which for a 
short distance followed the valley bottom; but finding, as he ascended the valley, the timber 
becoming somewhat more dense, which would have involved a greater amount of work and 
time in its removal than he had at his disposal, he preferred taking the southern slope of a 
hill, and, gaining the top of a high plateau, to follow this though the longer of the two routes. 
In fourteen miles, descending from this plateau, he reached the Prickly Pear creek a second 
time, which here flowed through a small prairie bottom. This creek rises in the main chain of 
the Rocky mountains, and flows through two gaps or passes of two low parallel spurs that run 
northwest and southeast. By following the valley bottom of this creek you avoid all steep 
ascents and descents, and reach the foot slopes of the main range, the only work required 
being that of removing the timber and the building one or more small e over the Prickly 
Pear creek. 
