FROM CANTONMENT STEVENS TO FORT DALLES. 
529 
hand trail in going eastward which you followed, I took the one to the left, and thus avoided the 
steep and high mountain crossed by your party; and though I found the route much obstructed 
by fallen timber, yet the character of the country offered no further obstruction to the passage of 
wagon trains, or for a railroad route, save the divide itself, which has an estimated height of fifteen 
hundred feet above the level of the valley, and which from base to base is from a mile to a mile 
and a half wide. The mountain is formed of schist rock and friable sandstone. At this point a 
tunnel, from a mile to a mile and a half, would be inevitable. By the peculiar formation of the 
valleys on either side, the summit of the mountain could not be gained by a single grade. By 
your estimate, this gap or pass is two thousand feet lower than the one you crossed, and is, in my 
judgment, the lowest gap in the range. It could be made a good wagon road by cutting and 
making a road along the side-hills, and having the road make one or more bends in gaining the 
summit. The present trail crosses and recrosses the river several times, but these, in a good 
measure, could and would be avoided by cutting a road on either bank, which is perfectly feasi¬ 
ble. The stream flowing from the mountain to the fcft. Mary’s river is called the St. Regis Bor¬ 
gia. The road at present is much obstructed by fallen timber, but this could be removed without 
much difficulty. I would have had my party at work on the road this summer, had not instruc¬ 
tions ordering them to the Dalles been received by me in June last. 1 would mention, at this 
point, that Mr. Adams passed over this road from the Bitter Root valley to the Dalles of the Co¬ 
lumbia in eleven and a halfdays. 
This route, therefore, I pronounce to be the most feasible and practicable, and possesses advan¬ 
tages superior to any that I have examined in the whole range of the Bitter Root mountains. It 
is true that the route formed by the natural gaps of the mountain of the St. Mary’s river and the 
Clark’s fork of the Columbia is one involving no tunnel, but it does involve a length greater by two 
hundred miles than the Coeur d’Alene route. The surface-work forming the divide of the Bitter 
Root mountains I found to be friable, and apparently easily acted upon by the weather, and 
which I think would be found to be easily worked by the saw. I do not deem it necessary to go 
into details as to the character of the country from the St. Mary’s river to the Bitter Root divide, 
since the party under your command examined it in October, 1853. Nor do I make mention of 
the country from the Bitter Root divide to Wallah-Wallah, since that has been passed over and 
examined by Janies Doty, Esq., in September and October last. 
Having, therefore, examined this route previous to receiving your letter, I did not deem it inex¬ 
pedient to follow a different route on my way to Fort Wallah-Wallah. The only route left to be 
examined in the whole range of the Bitter Root mountains, was the pass by what is called the 
Lo-Lo’s fork of the Bitter Root river. The route had been represented to me by some to be very 
rugged and difficult, and by others as feasible and practicable. 1 therefore decided that, as Mr. 
Doty was to take the route by the Coeur d’Alene country, I would examine the Lo-Lo’s Pass, and 
meet him at Fort Wallah-Wallah. Accordingly we left the Bitter Root valley together on the 
19th of September, encamping at the crossing of the river, after a march of twenty miles; but 
owing to the straying away of one of my animals, we remained in camp on the next day, but 
resumed our march on the 21st, which commenced clear, bright, and pleasant. We halted a few 
minutes to make a sketch of the entrance to the Lo-Lo’s Pass, when we crossed the river to the 
left bank. The stream, at the crossing, is well timbered with the cotton-wood and poplar, and is 
fifteen yards wide, with good banks on either side, and channel-water two feet deep. The 
mountains on each side of its valley, which here is five hundred yards wide, are quite high, and 
well timbered with the pine and cedar. The trails fir six miles being on the left bank, through 
a low prairie bottom, at the end of this distance we crossed to the opposite bank, still finding an 
excellent road passing through beautiful pine openings. A shoit distance farther we crossed the 
stream a third time, when our trail, being up the left bank, passed over a series of side-hills, some 
of which proved quite steep and fatiguing to our animals. But little fallen timber was, however, 
found on these mountains. The growth being quite large, was consequently much scattered, thus 
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