178 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
first importance; and it is to be hoped that some future survey over this line will yet supply 
this important desideratum. 
Two views are given, illustrating this trip, one of the Bear’s Teeth, a prominent landmark 
near where the Missouri issues from what Lewis and Clark denominate the Gate of the 
Mountains, and the other of the Rocky mountains from the Marias Pass, pursued by Lieutenant 
Mullan. 
I left the city of New York on the 20th of September, and reached Olympia again on the 
first day of December, having been detained in San Francisco over a month by the sickness of 
my family. On my return I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Mullan and Mr. Doty, 
who, under instructions sent to them the previous season, had withdrawn their parties from the 
interior, and were now in the settlements preparing the reports of their labors. As everything 
bearing upon the feasibilty of the country in the way of communications is interesting, I will - 
say that the instructions under which these gentlemen acted were forwarded to them by express 
from the Columbia valley, previous to which, however, a supply train, under the charge of 
Higgins, had been sent there with provisions. On this occasion Higgins started about the 
month of June. The train moved from the Dalles to Cantonment Stevens in some twenty days, 
and took a route to the Coeur d' Aléne Mission and Pass, and passing over the great plain of the 
Columbia on a line crossing the Snake river some 35 miles above the mouth of the Peluse. As 
he was a man of intelligence and observation, and accompanied me subsequently, I was thus 
able to verify the general views of the country which I formed. 
А SUMMARY OF THE LABORS OF LIEUTENANT MULLAN AND MR. DOTY. 
The following April Lieutenant Mullan also explored the Flathead river and the country north 
of it as far as the Koutenay, at the 49th parallel. Leaving the Bitter Root valley on the 14th, 
he followed the route already used by the main expedition, down Clark’s Fork as far as Kamas 
Prairie, (a sketch of which is here given, ) twenty miles below the mouth of the Jocko. Clark’s 
lake was then 250 yards wide and more than fifteen feet deep, so that he had to make rafts to 
cross it. 
Spring was then well advanced, and the prairie covered with long grass. Between it and 
Clark’s Fork, towards the lake, he crossed alow ridge of hills, thickly wooded ; reaching Clark’s 
Fork again, at the mouth of Hot Spring creek, he travelled up its west bank. The river banks 
and the adjoining country, being much cut up by coulées, have the appearance of that on the 
Upper Missouri.—(See sketch.) The soil is principally a light yellow clay ; the stream here is 
two hundred yards wide, swift and deep, sparsely timbered with pine and cedar, and a few 
cottonwood and aspen. | 
From a high point he could see over the country for a great distance, limited to the eastward 
by a high snow-clad Tange of mountains, which runs close to the eastern border of Flathead 
lake at its whole length, and continues on northward to the head of Clark’s Fork. 
Just below the outlet of the lake there is a series of rapids and falls, one of which, at this 
season, was fifteen feet high. The country to the west of the lake is a high rolling prairie. 
Salmon trout, three feet long, are caught in it, supplying one of the principal articles of sub- 
sistence to the Indians of the country. 
Some distance up the west bank of the lake he had an excellent view of it, (see sketch, ) show- 
ing that it contained several large and beautiful islands, all covered with an excellent growth of 
pine. Many of these islands were several miles long, The width of the lake he estimated at 
eight miles. 
