CHAPTER XII. 
BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FORT BENTON, AND RETURN TO OLYMPIA. 
RETURNS TO Fort BENTON FOR suPPLIEs.—FonT Owkx.—HzrL-GATE.—ALARMING reports.—Mr. Dory’s ARRIVAL.— 
Crossing or Віттев Root Могхтлімз.--Мв Dory’s EXAMINATION OF APPROACHES TO STEVENS’ Pass.—MEETING оғ 
INDIANS NEAR CavR р’Аъёке MissioN.—ConpiAL RECEPTION.--W oLr's LopaE.—STORMY COUNCILS ON THE SPOKANE 
WITH Inpians.— FINAL succEss.—HosTILE INTRIGUES ОҒ Looxine-Guass, a Nez PERcÉs cHIEF.—ARRIYAL AT WALLA- 
FLATHEAD COUNCIL GROUND TO THE APPROACHES TO LEWIS AND CLARK'S PASS—BIG BLACK FOOT RIVER. 
Moving from our camp of July 6, we this day (July 18) continued over the Hell-Gate Ronde, 
and encamped a little above the junction of the Big Blackfoot and the Hell-Gate rivers, on the 
right bank of the former stream. The details of this day's journey, from our camp on the 
Bitter Root, where we held our treaty with the Flatheads, are as follows: We moved across 
the Hell-Gate Ronde for six miles, and came to a small stream lined with service bushes; at 
this point is the ford of the Hell-Gate that takes you to Fort Owen. We then proceeded up the 
valley of the Hell-Gate two miles, in a valley from one to two miles wide, with good grass, and 
in four miles we made our camp. The railroad line throughout this distance may be laid very 
nearly in a straight line to the Hell-Gate Ronde, the grades easily adapted to the ground. The 
highest rise of the river, either the Bitter Root or the Hell-Gate, is only about five feet above 
the present level, and the present height is less than one foot above the lowest water. I 
organized an express service on these treaty operations, which it may be well for me to refer 
to. At Fort Walla-Walla, on concluding the treaty with the Nez Percés, the Yakimas, the 
Cayuses, and the Walla-Wallas, I despatched Pearson to Olympia with reports to the Indian 
commissioner, and with official letters to the officers of the Indian department in the Territory. 
Pearson, on his return, reached the Bitter Root valley in season to take back, on the morning 
of July 18, full reports of the Flathead council to the Indian commissioner and the officers 
under my direction. I Suppose there has scarcely ever been a man in the service of the 
government who exceeded Pearson as an express man. Hardy, intelligent, bold, and resolute, 
having a great diversity of experience, which had made him acquainted with all the relations 
between Indians and white men from the borders of Texas to the 49th parallel, and which 
enabled him to know best how to move, whether under the southern tropics or in the winter 
snows of the north; this year he did for the service under my supervision a labor which requires 
from me at the present time the most ample acknowledgment. 
