FROM CANTONMENT STEVENS TO FORT HALL AND BACK. 
319 
boat navigation from the east to within six days of the headwaters of the Pacific, the advantages 
possessed by this northern country can be overlooked or lost sight of? Will not the emigrants 
take the shortest and most direct line to the Pacific? It has been proved beyond a cavil that 
there is a wagon road from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the base of the mountains, and 
that there exist through the mountains passes practicable for wagons. In addition to this, the 
great line and length of water communication from St. Louis to the base of the mountains'renders 
this section especially invaluable in a commercial point of view, and gives it a degree of import¬ 
ance possessed by none other. 
Should it prove that the country westward from the mountains to the Pacific is feasible and 
practicable, I hesitate not in saying that this section may yet prove the great key to unlock to our 
country rich and hidden treasures, and that will afford to our capitalists an inviting opportunity for 
investments. It might be said by some that this is nothing new. It is true that these things have been 
as long as the country has been in existence; but why have we not taken possession of them—why 
have we not used the advantages that Nature herself placed right at our doors? It it is only because 
w r e have not felt the need, the necessity for them until the present; but now we do feel the necessity, 
and that deeply, of turning to our account not only every natural advantage afforded us, but to im¬ 
prove those natural advantages by artificial ones—in a word, to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, 
not only by a water but a land communication. The exertion and enterprise of a private company 
alone has made known to us the importance possessed by the great river Missouri, extending and 
pushing their posts farther and farther into the Indian country. As time progresses, they have now 
reached the farthest confines and limits of the Indian country east of the mountains, and have 
thus made us aware of the existence of a treasure in the very heart of our country, and which 
may yet tell upon our public coffers. These men saw the advantages that would be possessed 
by this river, were it navigable to a great distance above its mouth; knowing full well the ease 
and economy of thus transporting supplies, and bringing from the Indian country their furs and 
peltries. With this view they attempted its navigation; success crowned their efforts, and year 
after year are they repaid a hundred fold for their exertion and enterprise; and now is a single 
steamer seen following the tortuous channel of the Missouri from St. Louis to a point twenty-two 
hundred miles above its mouth—a solitary, but, I trust, a sure pioneer of the long line of steamers 
that may yet be seen ploughing the waters of the Missouri from St. Louis to the Rocky mount¬ 
ains, and be instrumental in arousing our people to a sense of the advantage possessed by us, and 
which only needs an industrious and persevering hand to be turned to our nation’s benefit; and 
to these men be the credit. 
Truly and respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Governor I. I. Stevens, 
In Command of the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey, Sfc. 
JOHN MULLAN. 
25. Report of the exploration from cantonment stevens to fort hall and back, by 
LIEUTENANT JOHN MULLAN, U. S. A.; WITH HIS ROUTE UP THE ST. MARY’s, TO AND UP THE 
JEFFERSON FORK OF THE MISSOURI. 
Camp Stevens, on the Bitter Root River, 
Washington Territory, November 19, 1853. 
Str: I have the honor to report that I herewith transmit a sketch of a reconnaissance from 
the village of St. Mary’s, on the Bitter Root river, to and up the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. 
I left my camp on this river on the 14th of October last, with the intention of making the con¬ 
nexion between this point and Fort Hall on the emigrant road, taking with me Mr. Owen as 
guide, there being no Indians at St. Mary’s village, save Pierre, the Iroquois. Mr. Owen had 
represented to me that he knew the route full well between the two points, but after being out six 
or seven days he totally mistook his road; and, having with me no map or anything to guide me, 
