244 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
distances, at least, thus affording an easy outlet to its products in the natural direction. Hell- 
Gate (see sketch) is the debouche of all the considerable streams which flow into the Bitter 
Root, eighty-five miles below its source at the Big Hole divide. The distance from Hell-Gate 
to its junction with the Bitter Root is fifteen miles. It must not be understood from the term 
Hell-Gate that here is a narrow passage with perpendicular bluffs; on the contrary, it is a wide, 
open, and easy pass, in no case being less than half a mile wide, and the banks not subject to 
overflow at all. At Hell-Gate is the junction of two streams; the one being the Hell-Gate 
river and the other the Big Blackfoot river. The Hell-Gate itself drains the semicircle of the 
Rocky mountains from parallel 55° 45’ to parallel 46° 30’, a distance on the divide of eighty 
miles. The main stream of the Hell-Gate has its source in the Rocky mountains in parallel 
469 30’, longitude 112° 30’, and pursuing nearly a northerly course for sixty-five miles then 
receives the waters of the Little Blackfoot river, and continuing in the general direction north 
50° west for forty-eight miles, receives the waters of the Big Blackfoot. The upper waters of 
this river connect with the Wisdom river, over a low and easy divide, across which Lieutenant 
Mullan with his party moved on December 31, 1853. Moving down this valley fifteen miles, 
we come to a most beautiful prairie known as the Deer Lodge, a great resort for game, and a 
favorite resting place for Indians—mild through the winter, and affording inexhaustible grass 
the year round. "There is a remarkable curiosity in this valley—the Boiling Springs, which 
have been described by Lieutenant Mullan. This Deer Lodge prairie is watered by many 
streams, those coming from the east, having their sources also in the Rocky Mountains divide, 
and those coming from the west in the low, rolling, and open country intervening between the 
Hell-Gate and Bitter Root rivers. The Little Blackfoot, which has been referred to, is one of 
the most important streams in the line of communication through this whole mountain region. 
It has an open, well-grassed, and arable valley, with sweet cottonwood on the streams, and 
pine generally on the slopes of the hills; but the forests are quite open, and both on its northern 
and southern slopes there is much prairie country. The divides between the Little Blackfoot 
and Big Blackfoot, as well as between it and the tributaries to the south, are low, grassed, and 
much of them arable. The Little Blackfoot river furnishes two outlets to the country to the 
east. It was the southern one of these passes, connecting with the southern tributary of the 
Prickly Pear creek, that Mr. Tinkham passed over іп 1853, and determined a profile of the 
route. It was also passed over by Lieutenant Mullan on his trip from the Muscle Shell, in 1853; 
but the northern pass was first discovered by Lieutenant Mullan when he passed over it with 
a wagon from Fort Benton, in March, 1854. There is another tributary of the Little Blackfoot 
flowing into it twenty-five miles below the point where Lieutenant Mullan struck it with his 
wagon, which may furnish a good pass to the plains of the Missouri. Its advantages and 
character were described to him by the Indians. Passing down the Hell-Gate river from the 
mouth of the Little Blackfoot, we come to several tributaries flowing from the south. Flint 
creek, one of them, is a large stream, up the valley of which there is a short route to the Bitter 
Root valley, i in a direction west-southwest from its junction with the Hell-Gate. This route 
is described by Major John Owen, Indian agent, and Mr. Adams, late Indian agent, as more 
rough than that down the Hell-Gate, Dn can be travelled in from six to twelve hours less 
time. 
A sketch is here given of the crossing of Hell-Gate river, January 6, 1854. 
On these rivers are prairies as large as the Deer Lodge prairie, and the whole country between 
the Deer Lodge prairie due west to the Bitter Root valley consists much more of prairie than 
