14 RECONNAISSANCE FROM CARROLL, MONTANA, 
which has its source in the slopes of the Judith Mountains. During the day, two or three single 
buffalo were seen, and antelope had appeared from time to time since leaving Carroll. 
August 1.—The road led in a general southwest direction along the northern foot-hills of the_ 
mountains, which were eight to ten miles distant, rising steep and wooded to the height of some 
2,000 feet. The road was good, although somewhat hilly, the grass fair, and the creeks, several 
of which we crossed, were all bright little streams of good water. As we advanced, the mountains 
began to define themselves. The Little and Greater Moccasins separated from the Judith and from 
each other, between them appearing the distant Highwoods, with patches of snow; the Snowies, 
to the south, also snow-crowned ; and, separating them from the Little Belt, could be seen the 
depression which marks the Judith Gap. The road follows the western flank of the Judith, at the 
southwest extremity of which, on the banks of Big Spring Creek, finally appeared the garrison-flag 
Camp Lewis, on 0d the white tents of Camp Lewis, thirty-five miles from Box Elder. The camp 
Big peuing Creek, ig situated in the level valley of the creek, the garrison consisting of two com- 
drome: Carrol: panies of the Seventh Infantry, Captain Browning commanding. ‘The creek, the 
main affluent of the Judith River, rises a few miles above Lewis, in a huge spring, from which the 
stream emerges, full-grown, with a rapid, tumultuous current of ice-cold water, abounding with the 
black-speckled mountain-trout. The course is northwest in a gravelly bed 15 or 20 feet wide and 
1 to 2 feet deep. Wood has in a great measure to be hauled by the garrison from the mountains, 
but the grass is rich and luxuriant. 
August 2.—Lewis is the second stage-station on the Carroll road, seventy-five miles from the 
“town.” We lay over one day to rest the animals. 
August 3.—Took the road again at an early hour, ascending upon a partly level and rolling 
prairie fairly grassed over, where rapid progress, parallel to the Snowy Range, was made, crossing 
several fine creeks which rise in the Snowies and flow north and west into the Judith River. 
The Judith Basin, a sketch of which is given, opened to the north and west, showing a fine, 
well-grassed, gently-rolling prairie, some fifty miles east and west and sixty miles 
north and south, of irregular diamond-shape, and inclosing about 1,500 square 
miles, from the borders of which rose, massive and detached, the encircling ranges, the Judith, 
Snowy, Little Belt, and Highwoods. Throughout this elevated region (and more especially later 
in the Yellowstone Park), we had daily occasion to observe the marked depth and clearness of the 
coloring, owing, I presume, to the utter purity of the atmosphere; the colors of objects compara- 
tively near by seemed to possess an unsurpassable richness and reality, and even on distant mount- 
ains, seventy-five or eighty miles away, while the colors were necessarily blended and their details 
lost, they exhibited a wonderful transparency and distinctness, undimmed by the haze and vague- 
ness which usually obscure such distant objects. It is this quality of the atmos- 
phere that furnishes the chief beauty of the Judith Basin, which can hardly be 
termed a mountainous country, although the various ranges grouped about it, and separated from 
each other by broad intervals, form the principal feature of the landscape. Painted in a clear, 
transparent purple upon the sky, and seeming hardly to rest upon the yellow prairie which forms 
so fine a contrast, they look like massive islands in the tawny ocean that rolls against them. 
The basin will some day be a great stock-raising, and, by the aid of irrigation, an agricultural 
region. It has always been considered a fine hunting country, where game of all kinds could be 
found, although we saw none, with the exception of a few antelope; the recent presence of the Crow 
camp having driven it off. 
At Ross’s Fork of the Judith, near the gap, and twenty-seven miles from Lewis, we met Lieu- 
tenant Thompson, who had come out from Baker with two spring-wagons to meet us. Camp was 
made, with good grass and fair water; wood scarce. 
August 4.—Pulled out at6a.m. The road led directly through the gap. From the southeast 
extremity of the Little Belt Mountains rises a fine spring, flowing east at first, and then doubling 
back through the gap into Ross’s Fork. 
The gap is formed by a depression five or six miles in width between the timbered Snowy and 
Belt Ranges. It constitutes the head of the Judith Basin; to the south appearing 
a broad, level stretch of prairie, sloping down to the Musselshell, twenty or twenty- 
five miles distant. The Crow camp at the time we passed was said to be seven or eight miles to 
Jadith Basin. 
Judith Basin. 
Judith Gap, 
