NARRATIVE OF 1853. 187 
passing through open pine woods for five miles, came out upon a beautiful prairie, four to ten 
miles in extent, having a rich soil of black loam, covered with luxuriant grass, and which is 
known as the Kamas Prairie of the Flatheads. Passing through scattering pines of large 
growth and small prairies, he struck the Big Blackfoot at a shallow ford only six miles from the 
junction of this river with the Hell-Gate. He crossed the ford, when his route continued the 
same as that of the main train. This cut-off saves some very bad side-hill travelling along the 
Big Blackfoot. Reaching Cantonment Stevens, he remained five days, and he describes the 
Bitter Root valley as one of the most charming spots he ever beheld; as, in truth, a paradise. 
On his return he followed the Hell-Gate and Little Blackfoot valleys, moving on the trail 
over which Lieutenant Mullan had taken a wagon the previous March. He found the high 
water trail on this route not so favorable for a pack train as that in the Big Blackfoot, and 
reached Fort Benton July 30, having made the distance, both ways, in seventeen travelling 
days. On the 15th August he started down the river to meet the company’s boats. 
Returning to Fort Benton he found my instructions of June 2, from Washington City, again 
despatched as before, through Lieutenant Mullan, by the hands of Mr. Burr, directing him to 
proceed to Olympia. On the "th September he was on the road, but was delayed in conse- 
quence of endeavoring to drive oxen too fat for the journey over to the Bitter Root, and was 
at length compelled to abandon the undertaking and to send them back to the fort. He pursued 
essentially his former route, and after making the necessary arrangements with Lieutenant 
Mullan, at Cantonment Stevens, he left on the 19th September, pursued my trail of 1853, over 
the Cœur d' Aléne mountains to the Coeur d’ Aléne mission, and then separated from my trail to 
take one more direct to the Walla-Walla, south of Cœur 4” Aléne lake. : 
Crossing the Coeur d'Aléue river about sixty miles east of the crossing of the main train, 
and above the lake of the same name, he passed through prairie for four miles, south of the 
river ; he then ascended a high ridge for a mile and passed over a rolling country, with scatter. 
ing pine timber, seven miles, to a stream flowing into the lake and running through a fertile 
valley. : 
Leaving the south end of the lake, he went up a narrow valley, up a gently rising slope, for 
four miles, and ten miles more through rolling country, sparsely timbered with pine, little 
undergrowth, and plenty of grass. Then came a large prairie, stretching away towards the 
west beyond view; its soil being a black sandy loam. South of this is another high ridge, of 
six hundred feet elevation, and an easy ascent for a mile. From its summit the plain was seen 
towards the west and south, bounded only by the horizon, and the distant spurs of the Blue 
mountains. Several small streams run from the foot of these ridges to the west, forming by 
their junction the south branch of the Coeur d' Aléne. 
For twenty-two miles.to the southwest of this ridge he met neither wood nor water, though 
he crossed the dry bed of a stream at about half that distance, striking the main western 
branch of the Peluse, which is thinly bordered with pines, cotton-wood, and willows; it was 
there twenty feet wide and one foot deep, flowing over a pebbly bottom. The soilof its valley 
is a rich loam, the valley narrow and bordered by basaltic precipices. Forty-nine miles 
further, keeping more to the west, he struck the Peluse four miles above its mouth. The 
longest interval between water was eighteen miles, and the country gradually becomes more 
broken and rocky, in following down the stream from the north. A branch was crossed fifty 
feet wide and two feet deep, with a valley like that of the other branches. ; 
Just north of the first branch of the Peluse is a lofty hill, called Pyramid Butte, towering 
high above the prairie. 
