330 
FROM BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FORT HALL. 
very much contorted. About two miles higher up the gorge this formation again occurs, but the 
strata are more horizontal, still clipping, however, to the west. This rock is easily wrought 
upon by the weather, as in very many places along the gorge we found that it had become very 
much disintegrated. The soil of the whole of the upper portion of the valley is formed of the 
washings from this rock. Having travelled a distance of twenty-eight miles, we encamped at 
the foot of the Snake river divide, where we found good grass and wood. The divide being cov¬ 
ered with snow, and the wind blowing from it through the canon with great force, we found the 
night very uncomfortable. It was with great difficulty our tent withstood the cold and severe 
gale. The ground being frozen, our tent-pins had but little hold. On account of the high wind 
of this night, our food was well seasoned with ashes and cinders. 
The wind has been blowing strong and steady from the south-southwest since morning, and at 
night much stronger and colder than at any other time. The night was clear and cool, the ther¬ 
mometer at 9 p. m. being 30° ; at sunset 33°. 
December 9, 1853.—Commences cold and windy. The wind, which during the last night blew 
with great force from the south-southwest, at sunrise this morning had not abated in the least, the 
thermometer being 33°. After travelling about a quarter of a mile along the foot of the mount¬ 
ains separating the waters of Snake river from those of the Missouri, we found the ascent quite 
steep and covered with snow twelve inches deep. It was with difficulty that our animals made 
their way through the snow, in some places it having drifted to the depth of three feet. No one 
had passed over this road recently, so we found no trail or beaten road. We found the weather 
exceedingly cold on gaining the top of these mountains. The wind blowing exceedingly strong, 
was directly in our faces, and it, with the drifting of the snow, made travelling very uncomforta¬ 
ble. There was no one in the party whose limbs were not thoroughly benumbed on arriving at 
the summit of the divide, and each one’s face was blue with cold. On gaining the summit, to 
our right and left were to be seen immense beds of high snow-clad ridges, from the tops of some 
of which the snow is never absent. Towards the Snake river we could see far in the distance 
the bed of a lake, which our guide told us was a lake formed by the Medicine Lodge creek; in 
the distance beyond the lake lay a high range of mountains to the south of Snake river. This 
mountain, or divide, is much more steep in descending than in ascending. We were compelled 
to dismount and take the snow on foot. On gaining its base, our course for several miles lay 
through a winding gorge of the mountains. After travelling down it five or six miles, we fell upon 
a spring gushing from the side of the mountains, where is the source of the “Medicine Lodge 
creek,” a name given it by the Blackfeet Indians some years ago, when buffalo were found in 
great abundance west of the Rocky mountains. On a certain occasion, when hunting the buffalo 
in conjunction with being occupied in stealing horses from their neighbors the Flatheads, Snakes, 
Banax, and others, the Blackfeet were encamped on this stream, where they built a lodge of trees 
some sixty feet in height, the spot being selected somewhere near the lake formed by the river. 
Here they were a long time in preparing and making medicines that should prove destructive to 
all their enemies. From this fact they called it the Medicine Lodge creek. After striking this 
creek, our road lay through its valley for several miles, which we found to be very tortuous. Its 
general width was from a mile to a mile and a half; for a distance of fifteen miles it forms a 
very pretty prairie valley. The stream is unwooded save by the willow, which grows from ten 
to twelve feet high. The artemisia or wild sage, however, is found in great abundance. The 
soil of this valley we found to be principally gravel, and apparently unsuited to the growth of 
anything save the wild sage, found in abundance through its whole length. It is bordered on 
each side by walls of an exceedingly hard white rock, unstratified, the whole forming a bed 1,000 
feet thick, A few miles farther, the geological character of the gorge or canon entirely changes. 
This white-colored rock is replaced by a black or dark-colored volcanic rock, from which we 
secured two very interesting specimens presenting a honey-comb surface, and the whole giving 
undoubted evidence of the action of fire. Near where these were collected we found a second 
