56 
LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 
witli tlie greatest alacrity, and will, I am confident, do most thoroughly the work intrusted to 
his charge. 
I omitted to mention in the proper place that Dr. Suckley was directed to remain at the 
valley with a small party of the men to complete his specimens in natural history, and then to 
go down the St. Mary’s, Clark’s fork, and Columbia river, in a boat, continuing the collection 
of the animals, and making the best survey his limited means would allow. For my addi¬ 
tional instructions to Lieutenant Donelson, Dr. Suckley, Mr. Tinkham, and Mr. Doty, and for 
additional instructions to Lieutenant Grover, see appendices 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. 
On the 7th my little party was in motion, and on the 12th I reached the Cceur d’Alene 
mission. The route on the mountain was much obstructed by fallen timber, and at times passed 
through dense underbrush. Mr. Stanley made a most excellent survey of the route; hut the 
want of instruments rendered it impossible to get the barometric profile. Two streams having 
their sources in lakes only half a mile apart, flow due east and west in opposite directions 
from the route. The ascent is along the stream to within about five miles of the dividing 
ridge, w T hen the trail rises two thousand feet, by estimation, in that distance, and thence passing 
along the ridge of a spur for a considerable distance, falls suddenly at least two thousand 
five hundred feet. Its course thence to the mission is generally along the river called by the 
Jesuit fathers St. Ignatius, but known more generally as the Cceur d’Alene. 
We camped within one mile of the top of the mountain on the nights of the 10th and 11th 
November in a rain-storm, and looked forward to snow in the morning ; hut, to our agreeable 
surprise, we awoke to the clearest skies and the most genial breezes we ever experienced. Not 
a cloud was to he seen. The vast solitude of the Coeur d’Alene mountains covered with heavy 
forest trees, the Kocky mountains in the far east, and the Kootenaies mountains to the north in 
British territory, formed a coup d’ceil imposing and magnificent. The slow and lazily rising 
belts and lines of fog indicated the position of the lakes and streams. A year ago, at this very 
time, the blasts of winter howled in these solitudes, and the drifting and rapidly falling snow 
completely obstructed the traveller. 
Whether this route will come into competition with that by Clark’s fork can only be 
determined by more accurate observation than we were able to make. It is probable that by 
following up on either side the stream itself, the length of the tunnel could be reduced to six 
and perhaps four miles without involving impracticable grades : it will considerably abridge 
the distance; but the difficulties from snow should be carefully investigated. The route was 
good in grass even on the mountain tops, except for some miles in the valley of the Cceur 
d’Alene. It is a favorite route of the Spokanes and Nez Perces on their way to the buffalo 
hunt. 
At the Coeur d’Alene mission I got no information as to Captain McClellan; but from a 
Cayuse Indian who reached the mission the day my people rested there, I learned of the arrival 
of a party from the mountains, which I supposed to be Lieutenant Macfeely’s, and of thirty-five 
emigrant wagons having started on the new military road to Steilacoom. 
On the 15th of October I left the Cceur d’Alene mission, where I was most hospitably 
entertained by the Father Gazzile, and proceeded down the Coeur d’Alene river on my way to 
Colville. Various rumors reached me as to parties moving through the country, but nothing 
of a definite shape till about noon on the 18th of that month, when within fifty miles of 
Colville an old Spokane, only four days from the Yakima country, joined me, and gave me 
information that a party of some thirty men had reached the Columbia opposite to Colville the 
day before, and would cross that day. This satisfied me that by pushing to Colville that night 
I would join Captain McClellan before he moved to the eastward, and thus at once combine all 
the operations. Securing two good, fresh, fat Indian horses and an Indian guide, I started at 
two o’clock, and succeeded in reaching Colville at nine, and in a few moments the information 
in all its parts was completely verified, and Captain McClellan and myself were congratulating 
each other upon our most fortunate meeting. Not a word had we heard of each other since the 
