NARRATIVE OF 1855. 205 
Leaving it at a point where there was a very fine bed of limestone, and continuing up a small 
tributary which flows in from the left, we reached the beautiful prairie where, in 1853, I made 
my noon halt and got some fine venison, as well as a salmon trout, from a little party of Indians. 
We now continued on, passing over a high hill, from whose top we got an exceedingly good 
view of the surrounding country. We could discern the general course of the valley of the 
St. Regis de Borgia, and the several connecting tributary valleys, each furnishing its water to 
the main stream. Our course thence to the Bitter Root river was mostly through an open 
wooded country, in some cases very well grassed, the whole of the country arable, and the 
hills gently sloping, the country not being as broken as one would have anticipated. Wemade 
our camp one mile below the mouth of the St. Regis de Borgia, finding the Bitter Root river 
not fordable; and it was obvious that it would be necessary for us to construct rafts the follow- 
ing day in order to cross it. The ford at this point is one requiring care to take a train over 
at the very lowest stage of the water, which is in September and October. Animals should 
be led over this ford, for it is in а very oblique line in relation to the general course of the 
river. Entering the ford from the west side you continue well down the stream, following a 
shoal or sand bar. If you goa little to the right or left you get into deep water; but in the 
fall of the year the water would simply come up to the packs. The next morning all the men 
were at work constructing rafts, and,with Mr. Doty and Gustavus Sohon, I went to the mouth 
of the St. Regis de Borgia to make observations for altitude and to examine the banks of the 
stream. The country here, for a mile each side of the river, was low, not more than from one 
to three or four feet above the highest water of the spring freshets. Occasionally I observed 
a slight depression in the ground, where the water would rise some few inches; and I saw that 
it allowed of laying a railroad line down the valley, making such a crossing of the Bitter Root 
as would give good lines of direction and avoid sharp curvatures. 
Wednesday, July 4. We were engaged this day in making the crossing. Three rafts were 
constructed. I went over on the last raft with Mr. Higgins, our packmaster, my son, and some 
of the best voyageurs of the party, and it was with great difficulty that we made the other 
side, for our raft was rather unwieldy; we did not make a good start, and came very near 
-being swept down by the current. But we succeeded in making the other shore, established 
our camp back on the bluffs, and had everything prepared to move in the morning. In the 
vicinity of our camp the country seems to consist of slightly rolling table-lands, and, as far as 
I could judge from the appearance of the country and from the information which I could gain 
from the Indians, I am satisfied that the country generally between the Bitter Root river and 
the Flathead river, whose junction forms Clark's Fork, is mostly cultivable table land. І paid 
particular attention to the forest growth, and I bore in mind our Puget Sound experience, 
which had established the fact that the timber lands, as a general thing, were much superior 
to the prairie lands. When I first went to the Puget Sound country, in 1853, that fact was 
not acknowledged; but the popular impression was that the timber lands were worthless except 
for the timber. In 1855 there had been experience of crops on timber land, which established 
conclusively the fact that they were our most valuable lands for agricultural purposes. 
CROSSING OF BITTER ROOT RIVER TO HELL GATE. 
Thursday, July 5.—My camp of last night was two and a half miles below the mouth of the 
St. Regis de Borgia. We did not get off until 11 o'clock, and, travelling seven hours, we 
made our camp on a small creek watering a rich and large prairie, with the most luxuriant 
grass we had seen since leaving the great plain of the Columbia. On arriving opposite the 
