216 NARRATIVE OF 1855. : 
spot fora camp. This is an old Indian camping ground. The ronde extends about three miles 
along the river, and it is about one-third of a mile across. One mile up the valley of the Dear- 
born its banks come together, affording all the facilities for bridging. The valley itself is some 
three to six feet above the water level, and is never overflowed. The trail crosses the ronde 
diagonally for about a half a mile, and in one-eight of a mile we reach the immediate crown of 
the height bordering the valley, and in five-eights of a mile further reach a divide, presenting 
to our view a generally level but somewhat undulating country. Here we have a view of the 
Heart mountain, of the debouche of the Dearborn river from the mountains, and of the general 
character of the country. Going northward half a mile to a point giving a very good view, I 
could see how, by leaving our trail some miles on the other side of the Dearborn and keeping 
well along the side hills, I could eross the Dearborn from one and a half to two miles above where 
it was crossed by the trail, and lay the line somewhat along its valley, and on an extension 
about midway between our trail and the Heart mountain, so as to give good grades without 
heavy excavation or embankment, but with some rock cutting. It may not be necessary to 
give the minute details of the remainder of our day's journey, except to say that the country 
consists of a series of low divides and intermediate depressions until we come within some 
eight miles of the forks of Sun river. We took a considerable number of observations, in order 
to have all the means of making a profile. We had a clear and distinct view of the Elk or 
southern fork of Sun river, which furnishes a most excellent railroad line ; and crossing to 
it from the line already referred to as the proper line of direction in the vicinity of the Dear- 
born, will enable the road to descend into the valley of Sun river with very light excavation 
and embankment, and with no difficulty of a serious character at all, save from a point some six 
miles above the forks. The plateau or prairie country immediately bordering Sun river was 
replaced, at one and a quarter mile from the forks, by a low slope connecting this plateau with 
the immediate valley of the stream. The distance travelled to-day was 997 miles. I will 
observe in regard to Dearborn river, that about a mile and a half above our crossing it has a 
direction nearly parallel with its course below the crossing; that then it turns for three miles 
well to the north and east, and with another turn more to the west is seen to issue from the 
mountains two miles and a half beyond. 
SUN RIVER TO FORT BENTON. 
A very good description of Sun river will be found in a previous portion of the volume. I 
found Mr. Doty's description to be very correct. Iam satisfied, from the appearance of the 
forks and the adjacent country, and from a large depression south of our trail, which I took to 
be Grizzly Bear lake, that Mr. Doty is correct in his judgment that Mr. Lander, in 1853, 
crossed Sun river, not at the forks, but at the island some six miles below. Looking back to 
the previous route in 1853, I found the country within six miles of the forks to present more 
difficulties in the way of a railroad than I had expected; and it would not be practicable to 
adopt grades to the ground of less than sixty feet, without exceedingly heavy excavations and 
embankments, and very sharp curvatures, On the line laid down by Mr. Lander, the excava- 
tions and embankments as far as Sun river would be very excessive; and south ward to Cadotte's 
Pass it would be a difficult matter to adjust a railroad line from the forks of Sun river without, 
also, heavy embankments. It is indispensable for either pass, if the forks of Sun river are 
made, to keep up the south fork somewhere about ten miles, and to pass somewhat nearer to 
Heart mountain than on the line reported by Mr. Lander. Sun river, from the generally 
wide, open, and direct character of its valley and the facility with which its lower portion may 
