220 NARRATIVE OF 1855. 
Northward both wood and water became more scarce, for although the rivers are large and 
deep they have fewer and more distant branches, and are usually destitute of timber. 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Tappan remained with the Indians nearly all the time until the council 
was assembled in October, the former with the Flatheads, and the latter with the Nez Percés, 
in the country between the Missouri and the Yellowstone. Proceeding down the Judith river 
to its mouth, following out a considerable portion of the Muscle Shell, and over a hundred miles 
of the Yellowstone, Mr. Tappan went south of the Yellowstone, some distance up the upper 
tributaries. The country south and east of the Judith, in the direction of the Yellowstone, 
they found somewhat deficient in grass and water. In September Dr. Lansdale, the Indian 
agent, made a careful examination of the Bitter Root valley and of the country on the Flathead 
river, from the Coriacan defile northward and eastward, through a country watered by the 
Jocko river, Prune creek, and other streams; and he describes that whole country of which 
you have a view, passing from the valley of the Hell-Gate to that of the Jocko river, as one of 
the most rich and inviting countries he ever saw; the view most extensive, the country arable, 
the streams well timbered, and good facilities for establisl 
ing mills and supplying them with timber. 
CHANGE OF COUNCIL GROUND—EXPRESS TRIPS OF PEARSON AND HAZARD STEVENS—MOUNTAIN MEN. 
The council was not, however, held at Fort Benton, but at the mouth of the Judith, which 
enabled us to extend our barometrical observations down the river and to examine something 
of the adjacent country. The country in the neighborhood of the mouth of the Judith, and 
the greater portion of it between that point and Fort Benton, presents good inducements to the 
settler. Formations, however, of the mauvaises terres occur at some points, and twenty miles 
below Fort Benton is the famed Citadel rock, an extraordinary resort for bighorn and smaller 
game. Iwill here remark that we had in our employ an Indian hunter, Metsik, who never 
failed, starting out early in ihe morning, to get back by night, always heavily laden with the 
meat of the antelope and the deer. As we had very little bread, sugar, and coffee, for a 
change of fare the bighorn of Citadel rock was exceedingly delightful as an article of food, 
and is generally preferred by the mountain men to any other game of the country except 
buffalo; so between buffalo, bighorn, and the smaller game, we fared very well. The parties 
who extended our information of the country in conveying messages to the Indians, &c., 
invariably lived either on the dried meat which they took with them or on the game which 
they killed from day to day ; they had no flour, no sugar, no coffee, and yet there was not а 
word of complaint from one of them; but we made it the subject of a good deal of merriment 
when we were able to reach the boats and have a sufficiency of those articles which in civilized 
life are deemed indispensable to comfort. As the moving of expressmen, also, will give some 
idea of the practicability of a country, I will remark that on the 27th of August my expressman, 
Pearson, reached camp from Olympia, having made the distance from the Bitter Root valley to 
Olympia and back to Fort Benton, some 1,750 miles by the road he travelled, in twenty- 
eight days, during some of which he did not travel. He was less than three days going 
from Fort Owen to Fort Benton, a distance by the route he pursued of some 260 miles, which 
he travelled without a change of animals, having no food but the berries of the country, except 
a little fish which he killed on Travellers’ Rest creek of Lewis and Clark, on the morning of 
starting from Fort Owen, which served him for a single meal. 1 might refer to other incidents 
which occurred at this council, showing how easy it is to travel in this country, but one niore 
will probably suffice. My son, Hazard, thirteen years of age, had accompanied me from 
