LETTER OF LIEUTENANT A. J. DONELSON. 
635 
latter route. I estimated the distance travelled by the route to Fort Hall to be 325 miles, the 
return route 3S6 miles, to my main camp—making a difference of sixty-one miles in favor of the 
more western route, but over a more rough and more uninviting country. We did not experience 
snow to a greater depth than fifteen inches on a level, and this only in places. On the dividing 
ridges, however, the cold at times was very intense, the thermometer for many days being as 
low as 20° and 25° below zero. This was one great difficulty to contend with, which made 
travelling exceedingly uncomfortable, and hard both for men and animals. Myself and two of 
my men were frosted by the cold. We arrived at our main camp on the 10th of January, 1854, 
after an absence of forty-four days. It had been my intention, when leaving the Bitter Root 
valley, to connect Fort Hall with Fort Benton direct; but finding my animals very much jaded 
by their long march, and the season so far advanced, with such intense cold, with great re¬ 
luctance I was compelled to abandon it. I would have desired to have made a barometical 
profile of the route travelled ; but fearing that our regular barometrical register, in the Bitter Root 
valley, would be thus interfered with, I was unable to take it. The temperature, however, was 
noted on each day till within a few days of the Bitter Root valley; by comparing which with 
those taken in the Bitter Root valley, I found the cold much more intense on the eastern than on 
the western "side of the mountains. I am under the impression that the route could not be 
travelled at any season later than I travelled it. But having partially made the connexion as far 
as the Jefferson fork of the Missouri, when 1 set out to go as far as Fort Hall, and being deceived 
in my guide, I was anxious to complete the line, and thus connect our survey with that of 
Fremont. It is impossible to give in this short sketch the character of each portion of the route 
travelled, being over 700 miles, but by Lieutenant Grover’s or the next express I will send a 
detailed report and the accompanying map. 
Sketches of the principal features of the route were made with great accuracy by Mr. Adams, 
which will be sent down in the spring, together with those taken in the meanwhile. 
Truly, your obedient servant, J. MULLAN, 
Lieutenant United States Army. 
Governor I. I. Stevens, 
In Command of the Northern Vacific Railroad Survey, Sfc. 
Washington, D. C., November 27, 1854. 
Sir: I most respectfully beg leave to protest against the following portion of Governor Stevens’s 
published correspondence, as being erroneous, and consequently unjust to me: 
“At Fort Union the observations were placed in charge of Lieutenant Donelson, with instruct¬ 
ions, if practicable, to get longitudes by lunar distances; but Lieutenant Donelson was not able 
to report any results except for latitude.” 
In proof that this is erroneous, I respectfully refer you to the orders and letters which accom¬ 
pany Governor Stevens’s first published report; and I would say, that no verbal understanding 
or instruction to the above effect ever prevailed. 
I much regret being compelled to object to a statement of one under whom I have served for 
so long a time, and under such peculiar circumstances. 
Feeling it to be due to myself, I most respectfully ask your indulgence for the course I take. 
I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your most obedient servant, 
A. J. DONELSON, 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, 
Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 
Second, Lieutenant Engineers. 
[IdsP See note on next page. | 
