NARRATIVE OF 1855. 201 
camp on the other side. Неге the good effects of the arrangements we made last evening with 
the Indians showed themselves. The chiefs and principal men, who had agreed to meet me at 
the Mission, reached the crossing before my party did, and had the canoes in readiness to take 
us over. | е 
The narrative of these last four days’ travel shows how extraordinarily well watered the 
country is west of the spurs of the Bitter Root mountains. I will state again, having crossed 
this great plain of the Columbia from the Chemakane Mission north of the Spokane to the 
mouth of the Peluse, that the difference in the character of the country on these two lines is 
most extraordinary. A large portion of the country, from the Chemakane Mission to the mouth 
of the Peluse, is arable, and is generally well grassed. There is no deficiency of wood for 
camps, yet occasionally the basaltic formations crop out of the ground, at which points the 
country is sterile and uncultivable. But under the spurs of the Bitter Root mountains the 
whole country is arable, the soil as rich as the best prairies of Minnesota, and every conve- 
nience for the house and farm at hand—water, wood for fires, and timber for building. 
Sunday, June 24.—The St. Joseph’s river, on which we camped, is larger apparently than 
the Coeur d'Aléne. For several miles it has a very sluggish current, and is quite deep. It 
furnishes unquestionably a route to cross from the Bitter Root mountains to the Bitter Root 
valley, which has been used by Father De Smet and others of the Jesuit missionaries. Father 
Ravalli, however, has not been able to give much information about the river. But to resume 
our day’s journey: we made fifteen miles, and I put the main party into camp on the Cour 
Ф Aléne river, and continued on myself to the Mission. Іп а mile and a quarter we crossed the 
St. Joseph's river, keeping up the right bank of which for three miles brought us in sight of 
the former Mission, half a mile from the St. Joseph's, on a most beautiful point of land, with 
springs of water and abundant wood. The country here was exceedingly well grassed; and 
although somewhat rolling, it furnishes every advantage for agriculture. Continuing on for 
five miles further, over the rolling country between the St. Joseph's and the Cœur d' Aléne, 
` we reached the lake, and in five miles more came to the lower crossing of the Coeur d'Aléne 
river, and encamped on its right bank. On my way to the camp I learned that Colonel Crosbie, 
whom I had sent to Colville on business connected with the treaties, had anticipated me a day 
at the Mission, and he had the forethought and precaution to have boats sent to the place 
where I camped my main party, in order to relieve the animals, who have a somewhat boggy 
road to pass over to reach the Mission to-morrow. With Mr. Doty and Mr. Sohon I rode to 
the Mission that evening, and met two of my old voyageurs, Antoine Plant and Camille, who 
had with them specimens of gold which they had found on Clark’s Fork, some forty miles 
above its mouth. I learned that an assistant of Dr. Evans, Girardin, had been sent down on 
an express to Mr. MacTavish, chief factor at Vancouver, with information about the gold, and 
to get instructions and confer in regard to the measures which should be taken to secure to the 
Crown and the company the mineral wealth north of our parallel. 
We were received at the Mission in the most cordial and hospitable manner, and remained 
there the next day. To show something of the privations which the missionaries have to 
undergo, I will remark that Father Ravalli, in his recent trip from the Dalles, had the assist- 
ance of only two Indians and an Indian boy in bringing up a train of twenty-two pack animals. 
He was obliged to see personally to the packing of each one of his animals, doing most of the 
manual labor himself, and could not get off (though he commenced at early dawn) until towards 
ten o’clock in the morning. 
26 s 
