GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 257 



in fruit. A trial is being made with grapes and peaches, the latter, he 

 understands, having some fruit on them, hut the vines and most of the 

 trees are yet too young to bear. 



The banks of the streams are lined with cotton-wood and pine, the 

 former reaching a height of 60 to 70 feet ; and the latter much larger 

 and of a superior quality, sometimes 150 feet high, 3 feet in diameter, 

 and perfectly straight. 



Although there is considerable timber between Deer Lodge and Bit- 

 ter-Eoot Yalleys, yet it may be considered an open country, furnishing 

 a large number of extensive grazing-fields. And I may remark here 

 that all of Montana from the east flank of the Belt Mountains to the 

 Bitter-Root Eange may be considered as one vast pasture. 



The valley of Big Blackfoot is some forty or fifty miles long, varying 

 considerably in Avidth at different points, sometimes expanding into a 

 broad, undulating prairie, through which the stream winds, flanked on 

 one or both sides with a low bottom of moderate width j at others nar- 

 rowing to what is called a canon, though having a valley-surface of 

 from a half to a mile or more in width. Above the caiion is a very 

 pretty open area somewhat elliptical in shape, called the Belly, which is 

 about seven or eight miles long and from four to six wide. The area 

 lying between the lower part of Blackfoot Yalley and Hell Gate is an 

 open and rolling prairie, well covered with grass. Above the canon the 

 spurs and ridges are generally covered with i^ine forests. What portion 

 of this valley can be irrigated I was unable to learn ; but the descent of 

 the stream being rapid, and it together with the - tributaries from the 

 north furnishing a large supply of water, not only the immediate bot- 

 toms, but also a large portion of the terraces and lower slopes, can be 

 . reached and rendered tillable. 



The valley of the Hell Gate from the mouth of the Little Blackfoot to 

 the lower end of the canon above Missoula is some sixty-five or seventy 

 miles long. For the first twenty-five or thirty miles it is bordered by 

 an open, rolling country, sometimes broken into high hills, the imme- 

 diate valley being narrow. 



The canon is about thirty-five miles long, having nearly all the way a 

 narrow strip of good bottom-land from one-fourth to a mile wide. About 

 thirty miles above Missoula the pine timber comes down into the valley, 

 not a thick and massive growth, but in open groves of fine, tall trees, 

 the soil throughout being good and yielding well under cultivation. 



The Missoula Yalley will average about fifteen miles wide down to 

 Frenchtown, a distance of some twenty-eight or thirty miles. From 

 there to the mouth of the Flathead River there are open pine forests^ 

 among which some farms have already been made. This portion of the 

 valley varies in width from three to eight miles. 



Although the altitude of this valley is less than that of the Bitter- 

 Root, yet the climate is not so favorable to agriculture, being somewhat 

 colder and more subject to frosts. This fact corresponds with the theory 

 I have previously advanced, but possibly may be owing to other causes, 

 as latitude, &c., but can hardly be owing to the proximity of higher 

 mountains, as this is not the case. Thorn ])son's- Prairie, Horse Plains, 

 and Kamas Prairie, which lie along Clark's Fork in the vicinity of and 

 below the mouth of Flathead, contain considerable areas of good larm- 

 ing lands, well watered and having a moderate climate. Some settle- 

 ments liave already been made in Horse Plains. 



The valley of Clark's Fork from Thompson's Prairie to Lake Pond 

 d'Oreille is narrow and broken, having but few spots of arable land. 

 It is well watered with little streams, wliich flow down from the hills to 



17 G s 



