ITINERARY OF THE ROUTE FROM FORT OWEN TO FORT BENTON. 
373 
October 19.—A short distance from yesterday’s camp is a very pretty series of 
cascades of about one hundred and forty feet fall... 1 
The valley rises rapidly ; the brook is several times broken with cascades, and 
the night camp is over seventeen hundred feet higher than the camp of yesterday. 
Trail wooded, but not generally difficult. Grass very scarce. Camp near the 
brook ; wood and water good..... 13§ 
October 20.—The valley suddenly terminates, and we cross the mountain sum¬ 
mit in a direct line from camp, a little over four miles. A naked, narrow, 
rocky ridge closes the valley, and the trail passing it is very narrow, and often only 
sufficient for the feet of the horse. 4£ 
Descend precipitously into the valley on the east side, and camp under the 
dividing ridge, on the edge of a small pond, on whose banks rest the snow-banks 
of the previous winter. Grass, wood, and water good. 2 
At this camp have our first snow. 
October 21.—Trail good and easy, descending with a tributary of Marias river, 
having its source in the small lake on which was yesterday’s camp. Seven or 
eight miles from camp the mountains end, and wood is found only on the borders 
of streams. The trail ceases here. Prairie extends thence to Fort Benton. Camp 
on the bank of the tributary of Marias river; grass, water and wood good. Air 
thick with snow during the day, and several inches of snow on the ground. 
October 22.—Descend Marias river for a short distance, and one of the party 
becoming too sick to proceed, camp again on the stream ; water, wood, and grass 
good Air very cold; morning temperature nearly as low as zero. 
October 23.—Leave the tributary of Marias river, by which we descended the 
mountain, and pass over rolling, smooth prairie, fairly gravel, with not a rich, but 
a tillable soil. Camp on a second tributary of Marias river as large as the one left 
in the morning; a brook thirty to forty feet wide and one foot deep, fringed with 
cotton-wood, and liberally supplied with drift-wood. This stream issues from the 
mountain through a wide and promising opening. Morning temperature nearly 
at zero ; ponds and smooth streams of water frozen over... 
October 24.—Continue on the same high, rolling prairie, sometimes stony at the 
surface; crossing two tributaries of Marias river, eight and thirty feet wide brooks, 
and at night camp on a large tributary of Marias river, sixty feet or more broad, 
well wooded with cotton-wood. Deer and bear were near the camp. The day 
has been raw and chilly; the air so thick with the falling snow as to shut out of 
sight all objects not very near; our course, in consequence, deviating and un¬ 
certain... 
October 25.—Very smooth even prairie throughout the .day. After leaving the 
brook on which we encamped yesterday, no running water was passed; the beds 
of some small brooks, and of a shallow pond, passed during the day, were mostly 
dry. Not a tree was to be seen. Encamp at night under a butte, taken to be the 
“Knee,” from its resemblance to that elevation, but actually over forty miles west 
of it. Here we had good water standing in the bed of a brook; no fuel save a few 
willow-bushes; the grass was good, but cumbered with the snow. Small game, 
such as antelope and brown bears, were frequently seen. The Trois Buttes first 
came into sight to-day..... 
October 26.—Very extensive and smooth prairie, without wood, and with a scarcity 
of water reaching to the Teton, on which we camp. No water seen during the 
14§ 
6 * 
15 $ 
n 
12 
21 * 
234 
