TOPOGRAPHY OP ROUTE FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COLUMBIA. 
171 
mountain waste. At this great elevation there is probably always more or less high wind, 
which, with the tremendous view on every side, might well fill the untutored mind of the roam¬ 
ing savage with the idea that here must be the abode of the spirits of storm and destruction. 
The Blackfoot fork of the Bitter Root river, which has one of its sources here, flows southwest 
by west for twenty miles through a narrow valley, which gradually opens to a width of four 
miles at its lower end, where there is considerable timber in the bottom; the trail, however, keeps 
the open prairie, which is unobstructed, except by the small affluents of the main stream. The 
valley suddenly closes to a narrow gorge, into which the waters, now swollen to the dignity oc 
a river, rush with some force. Here was a considerable beaver swamp, and a complete dam 
across the river forcing the pent up waters into a side channel; this was the only specimen of the 
labors of that industrious animal which was seen upon this route. The trail follows the river 
through the gorge, crossing it several times, and, after twelve miles of the most difficult mountain 
paths—sometimes through thick and tangled brush, sometimes along steep and dangerous side- 
hill, then through a gigantic net-work of fallen timber, and often through the swift and deepening 
current—emerges at last upon one of the largest and finest of the mountain prairies. Enclosed 
all round by high mountains, as this and all the other prairies are, they appear to be of much 
smaller extent than they really are. Its greatest length nearly north and south is about twenty 
miles, by an average width of seven; thus containing certainly over one hundred square miles 
of good grazing land, with a gentty undulating surface and numbers of small ponds, the river 
meandering through it, with timber and brush at intervals. 
Geology must determine whether, as it occurs to almost every one, such prairies have been 
formerly the beds of mountain lakes; while a reflective mind takes pleasure in anticipating 
the time when the wild and exuberant beauties of such scenes shall receive the chastening touch 
of art, and be animated by the labors of a civilized and industrious community. 
Crossing this prairie a point or two north of west, the route, and the river generally, continue 
in the same course for ten miles along the base of high and steep mountains on the south, 
and a considerable extent of prairie hills on the north (“Prairie of the Knobs,” of Lewis and 
Clark;) thence through a small level prairie of a few miles in extent, surrounded, of course, by 
high mountains ; thence, for thirty miles, a few points south of west in a deep, narrow valley, 
following the river where it can be followed, and meeting with every variety and difficulty 
of mountain path—narrow, level intervals, jutting rocks, thick-growing and obstructive timber, 
steep ascents,' and rocky and dangerous side-hill. It would be a tedious if not a hopeless task 
to attempt to give in detail the striking and ever-changing scenery of so great an expanse of 
mountains; it is the happy privilege of the painter, only, to present at a glance the varied ele¬ 
ments of the picturesque and sublime, which would soon grow tiresome in description, even if 
exact and vivid description were possible to such an extent. 
After the last distance stated, a small stony prairie occurs where the Blackfoot fork joins'the 
Hell Gate river, which then flows through a narrow opening on the west called Hell Gate, and 
debouches on the open valley of the Bitter Root, which, seven miles farther west, receives by 
two moulhs the collected waters from the eastern ranges. The Blackfoot fork is the “Cockala- 
hishkit or River of the Road to Buffalo” of Lewis and Clark; but why it should be so called is 
not very clear, for the mountain Indians go to the buffalo plains by several routes, of which the 
Blackfoot river is believed to be the worst and least used. 
Some twenty-odd miles up the valley of the Bitter Root, which has already been sufficiently 
noticed, are the Flathead village of St. Mary’s and the hospitable mud-walls of Fort Owen, oc¬ 
cupied by the gentlemen of that name, independent traders with the Indian tribes, and setting a 
fine example of persevering industry in reclaiming and cultivating the soil, raising crops and cattle. 
From the confluence of the rivers near Hell Gate the main route avoids the difficult part of 
the Bitter Root valley, turning on a course directly north about twenty miles through a pictu¬ 
resque defile to an extensive and fertile prairie on Jocko river, where numbers of wild horses 
