70 
LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OE WAR. 
mine the proper location of the military road, and to examine the work already executed upon 
it. The mild weather we are now experiencing will favor his operations greatly. I shall here 
establish a meteorological post, keeping up a series of complete observations during the winter. 
The latitude and longitude will also be determined with all possible accuracy. I am pleased to 
he able to report the arrival of Dr. Suckley, with his little party. His trip by canoe from the 
St. Mary’s village has been entirely successful, having accomplished the entire distance to Fort 
Vancouver by water, with the exception of about sixty miles above Fort Colville, where the 
rapids are so frequent and dangerous in their nature that its passage by water is seldom 
attempted. I will, in the following extract from his report, give the results achieved by him : 
“ * * * Agreeable to instructions received from you, dated October 2, I had consid r 
erahle difficulty in making a canoe which would answer the purpose. A skin boat, made of 
three bullock's hides, was at length constructed, and on the 15th of the same month I embarked 
with two white men and an Indian, to descend the Bitter Root river. The inhabitants of St. 
Mary’s were entirely unacquainted with the nature of the river, and its capabilities for canoe 
navigation, no boats ever having been known to ascend the river higher than the Horse 
Plain, just below the junction of the St. Mary’s and Pend d’Oreille rivers. My trip being con¬ 
sidered so hazardous, I was obliged to proceed with great caution, and it was not until the 
eleventh day that I reached the latter river. On the twenty-fifth day after my departure from 
St. Mary’s, I reached the Pend d’Oreille mission. My provision had entii’ely given out, hut, 
thanks to the kindness and hospitality ol the good missionaries at that point, my stock was 
replenished. Here I found that the skin canoe had become so rotten that it became necessary, 
in case I proceeded farther by water, to obtain a new boat. Owing to the miscarriage of some 
letters of instruction which had been sent to me from you, and from a wrong impression on the 
minds of the priests, to the effect that they had heard of your having sent positive orders to me 
to relinquish the trip, I was reluctantly compelled to take horses and proceed to Fort Colville, 
on the Columbia river, distant sixty miles by land. The distance by the river may he a little 
more. It is my opinion, from what I could learn from observation and report, that I could 
have descended the Clark river to that point, although, of course, I should have been obliged 
to use great caution, as nothing definite is known by the Indians or others concerning this jjart 
of the river. I suppose that the river would be navigated by the Indians, in their canoes, if 
there was any inducement. Their hunting grounds lie in an opposite direction, and they are 
too indolent to travel for the sake of exploring or for pastime. On the 13th of November I 
arrived at Fort Colville, where I obtained further supplies, two canoes, and three Indians. On 
the P7th I again embarked, reaching Fort Vancouver on the 6th of December. On the route I 
stopped at Fort Okinakane, Fort Wallah-Wallah, the Dalles, and Cascades, and obtained such 
supplies as I needed. The time occupied in making the whole distance was fifty-three days, or 
two days less than were occupied by the main train, under Lieutenant Donelson, between the 
same points. The running time, exclusive of stops, was 285^ hours, and the distance, (approx¬ 
imative,) as measured by the course of the rivers, including the greater and lesser bends, one 
thousand and forty-nine miles. This will give the average speed of 3.774 miles per hour. 
There were hut three portages on the whole route of any magnitude; one of thirteen hundred 
paces on the Clark river, above Lake Pend d’Oreille; one on the Columbia, at the Dalles, of 
eight hundred paces; and lastly, one on the Cascades, one and a half mile in length. On the 
latter, I made use of the wooden railway to convey the canoes and their loads. It should be 
borne in mind that this passage was made at the lowest stage of water, when the current was 
proportionately feeble. 
“ The Bitter Root river was quite shallow in many places, and my canoe, which, when loaded, 
drew about ten inches of water, had frequently to be lightened. After reaching the St. Mary’s 
river, formed by the junction of the last-mentioned stream and the Hell Gate river, I always 
had sufficient depth of water. About sixty miles (by the river) below the mouth of the Hell 
Gate river, the mountains approach very closely to the bed of the stream, rendering its current 
