NARRATIVE OF 1855. 211 
Thursday, July 19.—I desire not to go too much into detail in regard to a route which I have 
already reported upon, for I am now upon the trail which I followed in 1853; but leaving our 
camp of this morning our route was through what is known as the Hell-Gate or Blackfoot 
cañon, which continues for some 18 miles. This is not a cañon, properly speaking; there are 
no perpendicular bluffs; there are no serious difficulties in the way of a wagon road or a railroad, 
but the course of the river is sinuous; points project down to the river from either side, and 
the very careful examination which I made of the course of the river to-day developed this 
feature in the character of the route; wherever a point came down on one side of the stream, 
there was to be found a prairie on the other. So, by several crossings of the river, or from 
time to time cutting into points of rocks, there will be no trouble in laying a railroad line 
without the use of a single enrockment or sustaining wall. I regretted that, after passing up 
from our camp six miles, I was not able to cross the river and examine carefully and personally 
a route on its southern bank leading through the Kamas prairie of the Flatheads. This route 
was pursued by my secretary, Mr. Doty, in 1854, and at the end of this day’s journey he 
assured me that it was a much more favorable route than the one I pursued to-day, and which I 
pursued in 1853, whether as regards the construction of a wagon road or a railroad. In my 
narratives of 1853 and 1854 I have quoted sufficient from the remarks of Mr. Doty and Lieu- 
tenant Saxton to show the general character of this Kamas prairie field of the Flatheads. 
Therefore, in any future examination of location the two sides of the river will have to be very 
carefully examined; and I refer to it on this occasion simply with a view of calling attention to 
the fact that there are probably practicable lines both north and south of the Blackfoot. Look- 
ing to my notes of this day's journey I find that they are in exceeding detail, but I do not deem 
it necessary to go into any further elaboration of the character of this route. Occasionally the 
trail led us back from the river, and we found abundant streams of water and large forest trees, 
but the woods were of an open character, with good grass and arable land; and, finally, on 
emerging from the сайоп we came to a most delightful camp in the valley of the Blackfoot. 
Here we put to work our Pend d'Oreille guide and hunter, who had been placed at our diposal 
by Alexander, head chief of the Pend d'Oreilles, and who in less than an hour had for our 
supper the finest string of trout I ever saw in the mountains. Not content with which, how- 
ever, he started out again; we soon heard the report of his gun, and half an hour afterwards 
he brought into camp an elk weighing at least seven hundred pounds. This elk he killed in a 
somewhat narrow fringe of forest trees, interspersed between the Kamas prairie of the Flat- 
heads and the waters of the Blackfoot. 
Friday, July 20.—We made an early start this morning and continued up the valley of the 
Blackfoot. This valley for the most part is wide and open. The spurs separating it from the 
Hell-Gate valley on the south, and which separate on the north the various tributaries flowing 
into the Blackfoot, are all of them somewhat low and gentle in their character. Indeed, when 
we come carefully to examine the fringe of cotton-wood on the banks of the Big Blackfoot 
itself, and to look beyond those trees to the neighboring spurs and slopes, we found that we 
were in the midst, generally speaking, of a prairie country. Most of the slopes between the 
Blackfoot and the Hell-Gate, and between the several tributaries of the Blackfoot itself, were 
grassy slopes of a gently rolling character; and large portions of the soil arable. As I moved 
up the valley I began to realize the fidelity of the description of Lewis and Clark, who speak 
of this whole prairie of the Blackfoot, over which our day's journey led to-day, as the Prairie 
of the Knobs. Ona map of the usual scale, these knobs or little ridges were too small to be 
represented, the slightest mark on the map would exaggerate them. In short, I will speak of 
