332 
FROM BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FORT HALL. 
and not high enough to he called mountains,” and which occur, as a general thing, in a prairie 
country. The Tetons, on the contrary, occur in a mountainous country in travelling to the south. 
The Tetons form a very prominent land-mark in the Snake River valley; the Teton to the north 
being the highest of the three, the one to the south being of an equal height. The mountains in 
which these Tetons occur have a direction of north and south, and have never yet been ascended. 
They are represented as being formed of rock from their base as far as they can be seen towards 
the summit; and the tops are covered at all seasons with snow to an unknown depth. We were 
told by the guide that there is a beautiful cascade in the mountains where the Tetons occur, hav¬ 
ing a fall of sixty feet over a vertical wall or precipice. Our trail crossing the Medicine Lodge 
creek led through an immense sage prairie, extending about twenty miles to the north, to the 
Snake river on the south, and to the Tetons in the east. Our course at the time was due mag¬ 
netic east. The Medicine Lodge creek, from where we crossed it, bends to the south, where, at 
a distance of twelve miles, it forms a lake in connexion with a second stream coming from the 
Salmon River mountain, a few miles farther to the south, and called John Day’s river. This lake 
is called the Medicine Lodge lake. The soil of the prairie up to, and after crossing the Medicine 
Lodge creek, for a distance of eight miles, is of a grayish yellow-colored clay, mingled with 
much gravel, affording, however, a very excellent road. The character of the soil of the 
remaining portion of the road was completely changed. There it formed an immense sandy 
desert, which was covered with nothing save the artemisia, which, with its dark, black tops, gave 
a sombre and gloomy aspect to the whole valley. In places we found the sage desert covered 
with immense beds of black lava, presenting a scoriated surface, and at times occurring in broken 
fragments along the road. This rock we found to be very compact; where it occurs in bedsit 
presents a uniform surface, but in fragments a honey-comb vessicular surface, the whole showing 
the action of fire. This same rock, with the addition of trap-rock, formed the geological character 
of our journey of this day. Large bands of antelope, many hundreds, were seen to-day feeding 
along our pathway; but when an attempt was made to approach them they would fly across the 
sage desert with the fleetness of arrows, preventing all possibility of capture. Many sage hens 
were seen during the day. Those, in addition to a few ducks, constituted the game of to-day. 
After leaving the Medicine Lodge creek, our journey for sixteen miles still continued through the 
sage desert, till we struck a second creek, coming Horn the range of mountains on our left, and 
known as the Kamas Prairie creek, a name given it from the fact of the root of the kamas being 
found and collected in great abundance near its headwaters by the Snake and other Indians. 
This stream is wooded with willows and a few scattered cotton-wood trees. I took several 
bearings to the Buttes from the north, and also to the Tetons from the west, these fixing their 
positions definitely. Mr. Adams has sketched the Tetons as we saw them when first coming in 
sight of them, and as perceived from the west. This day has been mild, though the sky was 
overcast during the whole time. The thermometer at sunset stood at 36°, about 7 p. m., when 
snow commenced falling heavily ; the thermometer at 9 p. m. being at 32°. I take the following 
description of the kamas root, and the manner of preparing it, from the Oregon Missions of 
Father De Smel: “It is a small white, vapid onion when removed from the earth, but becomes 
black and sweet when prepared for food. The women arm themselves with long crooked sticks 
to go in search of the camash. After having procured a certain quantity of these roots, by dint 
of long and painful labor, they make an excavation in the earth, from twelve to fifteen inches 
deep, and of proportional diameter, to contain the roots. They cover the bottom with a closely 
cemented bottom, which they make red-hot. After having carefully withdrawn all the coals, 
they cover the stones with grass or wet hay, then place a layer of camash, another of wet hay, a 
third of bark, overlaid with mould, whereon is kept a glowing fire for fifty, sixty, and sometimes 
seventy hours. The camash thus acquires a consistency equal to that of the jujube. It is some¬ 
times made into loaves of various dimensions. It is excellent, especially when boiled with meat. 
If kept dry, it can be preserved a long time.” 
