REPORT

ON THE

CONSTRUCTION OF A MILITARY ROAD

FROM

FORT WALLA-WALLA TO FORT BENTON

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By Capt. JOHN MULLAN, U.S.A.

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WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

1863.

LETTER

OF

THE SECRETARY OF WAR,

TRANSMITTING,

In answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, the report and maps of Captain John Mullan, United States army, of his operations while engaged in the construction of a military road from Fort Walla-Walla, on the Columbia river, to Fort Benton, on the Missouri river.

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IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, February 27, 1863.

Resolved, That there be printed for the use of the Senate one thousand additional copies of Captain Mullan's report of his military survey of the route from the Columbia river, in Washington Territory, to Fort Benton, in Dakota Territory; also four hundred copies for the use if the Topographical bureau for distribution, and one hundred copies for the use of Captain Mullan.

Attest:

J.W. Forney, Secretary.

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WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, February 19, 1863.

Sir: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith the report and maps of Captain John Mullan, United States army, of his operations while engaged in the construction of the military road from Fort Walla-Walla on the Columbia river, to Fort Benton, on the Missouri river.

I am, sir, very respectively, your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

Hon. SOLOMON FOOTE,

President pro tempore of the Senate.

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OFFICE OF MILITARY ROAD EXPEDITION,

Topographical Bureau, Washington, D.C., February 18, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit to your bureau the final report of my operations while in charge of the military road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, with eight illustrations. Accompanying the report are one general map and three detailed maps, all compiled from our original field-notes. All these are worthy of publication, and particularly the general map.

I am, sir, truly, your obedient servant,

JOHN MULLAN,

Captain 2d Artillery, in charge of Military Road.

Major J.C. WOODRUFF.

United States Topographical Engineers,

Chief of Topographical Bureau, Washington, D.C.

(2) OFFICE MILITARY ROAD EXPEDITION,

Topographical Bureau, Washington, D.C., February 14, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit to the War Department the following final report of my labors and operations in connexion with the exploration, location, and construction of the military road from Fort Walla-Walla, on the Columbia, to Fort Benton, on the Missouri river, comprising a period from March, 1858, to September, 1862. At short intervals, while engaged in the field, sub-reports in full detail were submitted to the bureau, and your department was kept advised of the prosecution and progress of the plan of the work; also the causes that led to the location of each special section of the line as it was handled en route. The material, however, contained in these sub-reports, though important to be known to the bureau at the time of the location and construction of the road, has lost much of its special value since the road has become completed. In making to you, therefore, this my final report, I have deemed it due to the character of our work and to the labors of those who have followed and assisted it to a successful completion through so long a period, to give a brief outline memoir of the causes that led to its first exploration and location, the special difficulties under which this construction was had, and the ulterior views and ends sought to be accomplished in part by the completion of the work.

The necessity felt by the government for a more thorough and satisfactory knowledge in detail of the geographical and topographical character of the country that lay between the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean, looking especially towards the location and construction of a Pacific railroad, called into the field, in the spring of 1853, under authority from Congress, several corps of engineers and explorers, whose mission it was to supply this desired information within certain limits of time and means.

To one of the fields of exploration laid out by the department was assigned the Hon. Isaac I. Stevens as chief, to whom, at the same time, I was assigned as one of his several assistants, and in that capacity accompanied his expedition across the country from Minnesota to the Pacific.

The problem of a railroad connexion from St. Paul across the prairies to the eastern water-shed of the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 46 and 47 degrees, was one of easy solution, and the country was therefore accurately and rapidly explored; but the late autumn of 1853 found our labors of exploration truly only begun; for we now entered the more difficult section of the Bitter Root range of the Rocky Mountains, where the lateness of the season, the difficulty of the country, the importance of our mission, the scarcity of our supplies, the meagerness of the information we then possessed, and the necessity felt for a more detailed and thorough exploration of the Rocky Mountain section, since proved to be the key of the work, together with other equally cogent reasons existing at the time, all conspired to influence Governor Stevens to leave in the mountains a small party for the winter of 1853, for further explorations, and thus supply that information which a lack of time did not allow him to collect at an earlier period.

To the command of this winter party I was assigned in October, 1853, and selecting in the genial range of the Bitter Root a suitable location, and there erecting comfortable, though rude, log huts for my men, I made it a centre from which to explore the mountain region which included the sections whence flow the sources of the Columbia and Missouri rivers in a network of babbling brooks.

The margin of authority left me by Governor Stevens was broad and liberal, and the field to be explored was only commensurate with the importance of the work that called us to its exploration. The most essential thing at that time was a general reconnaissance and exploration of the country before the question of location and construction of a railroad line could be at all profitably or

(3) properly considered; and up to that date the only basis that formed our knowledge and understanding of the country was the map left us by Lewis and Clark in 1805, together with such addenda as the more intelligent of the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were able to give us, or the scraps of information which the chance traveler or sojourner in the country felt disposed to offer.

That the field of labor assigned to Governor Stevens, owing to the meagre information possessed at that date, was the most difficult to be explored, I believe few will doubt; and that he filled it with an ability and energy, so characteristic of the man, I can personally vouch. His labors have left to the country a very correct outline of the geography of the Rocky Mountain sections, examined by his parties, which needs hereafter only the minutiæ which the more detailed surveys and time will supply, to complete our knowledge of the entire north Pacific region. In connexion with the proper location and construction of a railroad, one of the most essential aids in advance was a good wagon-road line; and looking at the necessity of transporting supplies and material over a long line from eastern to western depots, which the Pacific railroad on all lines will necessarily involve, this last became a subject of primary importance, and reduced the spirit of my own work almost to exploring the country for practicable wagon-road locations, which, in time, should lend themselves as aides to the construction of our railroad lines. The attention of Stevens was especially given to this matter at an early date of our explorations, and in his instructions to me was dwelt upon with more than ordinary emphasis and stress; and hence my mission in the winter of 1853 was to solve the problem of a proper connexion, through a practicable mountain pass, of the plains of the Missouri with the plains of the Columbia, between the 45th and 48th degrees of north latitude, for either wagon road or railroad lines, and to make my reports thereon; and, therefore, my present connexion with the Fort Walla Walla and Fort Benton military roads dates therefrom.

In making our explorations in 1853 we had used a wagon train from St Paul's, Minnesota, to Fort Benton on the upper Missouri river, at which last point in was deemed judicious to abandon it, and complete our work with the use of pack trains; and the character of the country in advance was such that this afterwards proved not only a wise but necessary step.

The eastern or the western plains, as a general thing, interpose but few physical obstacles to the location of a practical wagon road; but the mountain sections form special problems for solution, which are not always so easily handled. The only continuous overland wagon-road line, at that date, traveled to the Pacific was by the South Pass, where the difficulties were so few that it was then, and is now, probably, the great highway across the continent. But the region of the sources of the upper Columbia and Missouri rivers, the great arteries of our country, was an area that the geographer had already pointed out as a fruitful field for development, and which our later explorations showed to be worthy of a more detailed examination than it had received up to the time it became our more especial field to study.

The question of the navigation by stream of the upper Columbia and Missouri rivers was, at that date, in the infancy of its discussion, but was deemed of such importance that its practical solution was looked upon by the friends and advocates of the railroad line as the sine qua non to the full and speedy settlement of the country between them, as well as the all-important aids in the construction of a Pacific railroad via a northern route.

The limited commerce and travel along the narrow margin of the Columbia and its principal tributary, the Willamette, at that date, gave employment to one or more similar sized steam-craft, that were ample to do the business of those who looked towards the Dalles as the head of steam navigation on the Columbia, or to Oregon City, that of the Willamette; and on the eastern water-

(4) shed of the Rocky mountains a solitary steamer, engaged in the fur trade, that made its annual trips from St. Louis till it crept along the waters of the Missouri to a region where the red man alone walked, though a pioneer to the long line of steamers that must follow in the wake of its trade and development, constituted the only attempt made to test the further navigation of this noble river towards its sources in the Rocky mountains. The necessity, therefore, of testing by steam the further practicability of each of these rivers entered as a great, indeed as an essential element in an overland connexion between the two, in order to attain the minimum land transit; and hence to solve the special problem of connecting, by a continuous practicable wagon-road line, the head of steam navigation between the two, be those heads where they may, formed the spirit of the end of my work, to which all things else were subordinate means. The field examined by my party, in 1853 and 1854, extended from the valley of the Kootenay river on the north to Fort Hall on the Snake river on the south, between which extreme limits the western link in the chain of connexion with lines from the upper Mississippi must lie.

During the interval, through hunters and trappers and those familiar with the country from a long residence in the mountains, we were enabled to glean much information that formed the basis for our own more detailed examination. Pack trains constituted our own, as it did then the only means of transportation of all other persons when traveling in the country, and as to move from point to point by the aid of wagons did not enter into the necessities of the persons then resident in the country, so it did not enter into the subject either of their thoughts or discussions; and hence to ascertain from them, à priori, where wagon trains could or could not go, was not a matter easily ascertained; but every pass in the range had to be examined with this especial object in view. The result of our earlier explorations showed the Bitter Root range, between 45 and 48, to be a marked geographical centre, and the capabilities that developed themselves under our own eyes confirmed our first views of the importance of its having a direct connexion with the main valleys of the rivers on its either slope.

During the winter of 1853 many were the conversations held with whomsoever could give us information of the geography of the country; and through a half-breed named Gabriel Prudhomme, who had been a voyageur and traveling companion of the earlier Jesuit fathers in their pilgrimage through the Rocky mountains, I was enabled to glean such data concerning a line from the Bitter Root valley to Fort Benton that I was induced, in the spring of 1854, to explore it with a small party. Upon examination it proved to be not only feasible in itself, but, with a small amount of labor, could be rendered a very proper connexion with the line we had followed from St. Paul's, Minnesota.

We left the Bitter Root valley on the 1st March, crossed the Rocky mountains on the 10th, reached Fort Benton on the 14th, and on the 17th of the same month, having fitted up a wagon train, we recrossed the range, and reached our original starting point on the 31st.

This gave a test of practicability that could not well be gainsaid; and, deeming the matter of so much importance, I at once dispatched my expressman, Pearson, to Governor Stevens, with the result of the exploration. This discovery gave fresh hopes to the governor and the friends of the road, all of whom were anxious to open the section by an emigrant line of travel.

This resulted, at a later period, in an appropriation of $30,000, the first of a series to open a wagon road from Fort Benton to Fort Walla-Walla. Though the eastern connexion from the Bitter Root valley was attained by this expedition to Fort Benton, yet the region for the proper location of the line westward to the Columbia had not been thoroughly examined.

The difficulties and disasters arising from snow and other obstacles that attended the trip of Mr. W.W. Finkham, one of our civil engineers, via the

(5) southern Nez Percés trail in 1853, were such as to preclude the possibility of this line being chosen for a field of further examination, much less for a wagon-road location. The only other lines left us were Clarke's Fork, St. Regis Borgia, Coeur d'Aléne valley, and the Lo-Lo Pass. A just estimate of the comparative advantages possessed by these several lines could only be arrived at by an especial examination of each and all of them by the same person.

I learned, though an old Iroquois Indian called Æneas, now resident in the Bitter Root valley, whose wanderings amid the mountains had often thrown him with parties traveling with wagons at the southward, thereby rendering him capable of judging of the requisites for a wagon road, that a line could be had through a gorge-like pass in the the Coeur d'Aléne mountains. Our later explorations proved this to be Sohon's Pass. Placing a partial confidence in his judgment, I send Mr. Thomas Adams, one of our topographers, with Æneas as a guide, as early as March, 1854, to make an especial examination of this point. The snow prevented Mr. Adams from prosecuting his undertaking further than the Kulkullow creek, and he returned, leaving the examination to be made at a later period. In May, 1854, availing myself of a visit from reverend Father Hoeken, S.J., then a missionary with the Lower Pend d'Oreilles Indians, I determined to examine Clarke's Fork valley in person, and starting with a pack train explored the country as far as the Pend d'Oreille lake, where, finding the streams much swollen, with the lake trail under water, and no trails above through the forest, I was compelled to abandon my animals at the east end of the lake and continue my further examination to the Lower Pend d'Oreille mission by means of canoes.

From what I saw of Clarke's Fork and the neighboring country, I concluded that a wagon route could be easily and economically constructed from Hell's Gate Ronde to the east end of the lake; the Bad Rock, Cabinet mountain and Pack river would form, it is true, three difficult problems, but could be solved by time and means; but the chief difficulties would be found in the section around the lake. This lake during the freshet has a rise of from ten to fifteen feet, completely covering the low water trails, thus forcing a location above high water mark and along the slopes of the difficult rocky spurs jutting upon its northern rim; from which I concluded a construction at this point could only be made at a heavy outlay; the Indians, also, gave me to understand that the country back was so difficult and impracticable that during the period of high water all travel was suspended.

I have always exceedingly regretted that it was my fortune to examine this route at so unfavorable a period, for I have been convinced by later data that it possessed an importance, both as regards climate and railroad facilities, enjoyed by no other line in the Rocky Mountains between latitudes 43 and 49; these facilities I will refer to more in detail in a future portion of my report.

I now determined to take in my return route to the Bitter Route valley the pass known to Æneas, and with this view I started for Fort Colville to replenish my supplies, and from thence, via the Spokane, I went to the Coeur d'Aléne mission, where, meeting with the reverend Fathers Josét, Ravalli, and Gazzoli, S. J., I laid before them my desires and requested their co-operation. I deem it but simple justice to these reverend gentlemen to here state that, although we often differed as to the minor details of administration and government of the Indians, yet, looking towards the ultimate ends and objects of my mission, I ever found them my staunchest and most reliable friends.

Finding the Fathers possessed of but little geograpical information that suited my purpose and the Indians absent at the camass grounds to the southwest, my only means left was to make an especial visit to their camps and interrogate them. The reverend Father Josét volunteered to accompany me, and on reaching the Indians I found them much adverse to giving me any information regarding the country, and on one pretext or another, declined to serve me in

(6) any capacity. The Fathers had told me of a route they heard of from the Indians which, crossing the Bitter Root mountains near the sources of the Palouse, followed a generally easy and practicable country until it reached to main Bitter Root valley near the Lo-Lo Fork. Did such a route exist it lay in an admirable connexion with our line recently examined towards Fort Benton, and hence I became exceedingly anxious to reconnoiter it; but circumstances were against us and no examination was ever made. Whether such a route does exist I have never been able to discover, after endeavoring to do so for a period of seven years; my opinion is that it does not; certainly no such line is now travelled. After much solicitation I procured the services of Bassile, a Coeur d'Aléne Indian, to accompany me in the capacity of a guide through the Coeur d'Aléne and St. Regis Borgia valleys. We made this examination in June. As the rivers were still swollen we were compelled to take to the mountain slopes, down ravines, and over much fallen timber. I was much pleased with the general aspect of these valleys, watered as they are by rivers flowing from the same source in opposite and parallel directions. That much work was required to lay and construct a first-class road was self-evident; but its direction and short distances, and the connexion made with the Spokane on the one side and with the Bitter Root on the other, were recommendations in its favor that caused it to occupy, in my judgment, a higher place than a line by the Clark's Fork.

From this, therefore, dates the period and reasons why the Coeur d'Aléne Pass route was looked forward to, both by Governor Stevens and myself, for the ultimate location of our route; and as the War Department possessed no other knowledge of the country it was natural that they should do as they did, viz: indorse our joint views then given from a consideration of all the data that went to form our conclusion. But I am free and frank to admit that there was one element which we had ignored, and this was one of climate.

All of our explorations up to the date of our leaving the field in 1854 had been confined to the spring, summer, and autumn months, and it is a self-evident proposition to those familiar with the winter character of the Rocky Mountains, that it is impossible for a man to express a winter view from a summer stand-point.

This was the error that we made, and a very natural one from the mode of reasoning adopted by us and many others, as fallacious as it is paradoxical. We reasoned thus: that the Coeur d'Aléne route lying to the south of the Clark's Fork by fifty or sixty miles, and the difference of altitude being small, that all questions of climate were supposed to be in favor of the more southern line; and hence, supposing the element of climate in both instances to be equal, or, if there was a difference, that this difference was in favor of the more southern route, which general analogy would grant us, that, as distance, direction, and connexion were all in favor of the Coeur d'Aléne Pass, our location must be via this route and no other. But our later winter examinations have developed this marked and most important fact, that as you go north in this Rocky Mountain region within certain limits, that the climate is milder, the snow less deep, that horses can travel all winter, and the general characteristics of winter are all less severe; and that there does exist a zone or atmospheric river of heat in that region I am free to vouch and can substantiate by facts, and which I desire to treat upon further in my report.

But to come to the bearing of this most important meteorological fact upon our wagon-road location, I would state that had I known in 1854 what I did not learn until 1859, I should have recommended that the section of the road from Antoine Plant's to the Hell's Gate should have followed, at any cost of construction it called for, the Clark's route instead of the section via the Coeur d'Aléne mission. But it was not until a later date, when we had made snow profiles by measuring its depth every ten miles during the winter months, and made a record of the readings of the thermometer on both sides, that we were enabled

(7) to form a just comparative judgment of each. I can only trust that the developments taking place so rapidly in that region will yet demand that the Clark's Fork route be opened, and our experience in this connexion be of service to other exploring parties who would desire to give a truthful description of this Rocky Mountain region both in winter and summer. This may be placed on record as a fact: that to describe properly and truthfully the winter character of these mountains, all data must be collected in the winter season itself, as all rules and analogies applicable to the climates of other portions of the country there apparently fail.

In September, 1854, my party having been ordered in from the field, I determined to proceed to the coast by a new route, and the only one then left unexplored, namely, via the Lo-Lo Fork Pass; not that I felt or believed it to be practicable for wagons, but more with a view to arm my judgment with such facts as would not leave a shadow of doubt behind which should cause us to err in the final conclusion in so important a matter. This route I found the most difficult of all examined. After eleven days severe struggle with climate and country we emerged into the more open region where "Oro Fino" now stands, glad to leave behind us so difficult a bed of mountains. After examining all these passes my judgment was finally decided in favor of the line, via the Coeur d'Aléne Pass, as a proper connexion for a road leading from the head of navigation on the Columbia to that on the Missouri, and the result was so reported to Governor Stevens, under whose direction I was then acting.

Completing my field labors for the winter of 1854, I left Puget Sound in January, 1855, with letters for the War Department from Governor Stevens, and resolutions passed by the legislature of the Territory of Washington, recommending my continuation in the same field of labors. I founds the War Department, though favoring the project, averse to its continuance, at that time, giving as a reason that the appropriation was inadequate to the character of the work, unless carried on in connexion with some large military movement that would justify its expenditure; and as it was not deemed judicious to direct at that time any such movement, the appropriation for our road remained untouched in the vaults of the Treasury Department till a later day, and the measure itself was allowed to slumber until the spring of 1857, when it was again taken up in connexion with a movement of the 4th and 6th infantry. Again it was abandoned, in consequence of a doubt on the part of the War Department as to its feasibility, until the winter of the same year. At this time Governor Stevens was in Congress; he had ever been one of the warmest friends, and, in fact, the projector, in a great part, of the enterprise; he knew and felt its great importance, and invited the attention of the War Department to it, asking that the work be at least commenced. His reasons were so strong and valid that a favorable indorsement was given, and I was once more ordered to Washington to take charge of the work. During this interval the subject of overland communication had grown in importance, and from a subject of speculation and doubt had changed to one of every day reality. While the central section became the field for wagon-road operations under Colonel Lander, the overland mail carried weekly intelligence over thousands of miles of mountain and prairie by a more southern route. These facts gave the friends of a northern line a right to be heard in their modest applications to have a route opened through their own section. The character of the Mormon disturbances, occurring simultaneously, was such as to compel the government to look the subject of overland communication direct in the face. Here were foes, with Indian emissaries in every quarter, whose obedience to law the government had to enforce at the point of the bayonet, by an army so large that the question of supplying it was one of no small import.

Even in this connexion our line entered on the score of economy and safety as a new route of transportation. Mr. Russell, of the firm of Majors & Russell, came to learn of my opinion as to the advisability of transporting supplies by

(8) steamboat up the Yellowstone to the mouth of its tributary the Big Horn, and thence wagon them by a short transit to Salt Lake. Though approving the boldness of his scheme, I could not desire to see it attempted when so great objects as supplying an army depended upon its success or failure, hence it was abandoned.

The subject of route and location having been frequently discussed with General Humphreys, who, from his connexion with the Pacific railroad explorations, thoroughly understood the subject, it was determined to put the work in hand by the route referred to, and special instructions for this purpose were issued from the War Department on the 15th of March, 1858. While this was being done, the co-operation and energy of the house of Chouteau & Co., of St. Louis, was enlisted to the extent of testing the extreme navigation of the upper Missouri. This daring project was attempted by Charles P. Chouteau, with a slight assistance from the government, and was crowned with complete success.

Simultaneously with these developments on the Missouri slope, events were at work at the sources and along the upper section of the main Columbia that were destined to eventuate in results no less important, and directly bearing upon this subject. The Indians of the Columbia had by some strange but united action risen to a tribe, determined to meet the fast approaching settlements from the east, and to measure strength with the whites, and strike a blow in behalf of their rights and property. The Indian war of 1855 and 1856, that converted each man's home in Oregon and Washington into a block-house, caused the portals of the upper Columbia to be opened awide, and brought especially to the attention of the people a hitherto neglected and little known region. Though the disturbance was quelled, the Indians to the east of the Cascade mountains were not subdued, but sought every occasion to show their disaffection, which thus finally culminated in the defeat of Colonel Steptoe. Such was the feeling after the war of 1856 that a military occupation of the Walla-Walla valley became necessary, and the rude mud walls of old Walla-Walla, that year after year had listened to nought but the jargon of Indians and traders, caught a new sound in the tramp of the march of civilization.

A new and unexpected element was thus introduced, which tended greatly to develop the upper Columbia. The question of supplying the large force in the field became one of great importance, and it was but natural to suppose that steam navigation could not long lie dormant and untested. Enterprise, energy, and liberal means were not tardy in converting forests into a steamer destined to plough this river to the very base of the mountains. Thus the year 1859 became a noted period in the history of the development of the upper Columbia and Missouri rivers.

While the above experiments, so pregnant with meaning, were being made at the two extreme sections, instructions from the War Department to commence upon the central link in the line of communication were received. I accordingly left New York on the 5th of April, 1858, and proceeded to Fort Dalles, Oregon, in pursuance to my instructions, designating this as the point for preparing my outfit. Further instructions were sent to General Clark, commanding the department of the Pacific, to furnish me with an escort of sixty men and such stores as were necessary for our purpose. All these having been directed by the general, I reached the Dalles the 15th of May, and, organizing my party, took up my line of march for Fort Walla-Walla, at which point my escort was to join me.

In the outfitting of my expedition, and in all things necessary for the success of my trip, I was cordially aided by Captain Thomas Jordan, (then captain in the army,) to whom I am indebted for all co-operation that it was in his power to accordæto him I return my sincere thanks. Fiat justitia ruat calum. I had not proceeded further than the Five-Mile creek when the news reached me of the lamentable defeat of Colonel Steptoe on the Spokane plains, a point

(9) directly on the route of my intended location. The news, though much exaggerated, as is usual on the frontier, was such as to cause me to halt at this point till I could confer by letter with Colonel Steptoe regarding the strength of the Indians in the field and the prospect of my being furnished with an escort from Fort Walla-Walla, where he then commanded. To construct the wagon road while the Indians were in a state of open hostility was out of the question; but it was necessary for me to possess authentic facts before I could either move forward or break up the expedition. During the interval I occupied my men in building the bridges now over the Five-Mile and Ten-Mile creeks, and in otherwise improving the wagon road from the Dalles to the Des Chutes. On the 30th of May a reply was received from Colonel Steptoe, from which I judged it impracticable to prosecute the work this season. I therefore returned to the Dalles and disbanded my expedition, with the exception of Mr. Kolecki, my topographer, Mr. Sohon, my guide, and the men necessary to take care of my stock, reporting the facts immediately to the War Department.

On learning of Colonel Steptoe's defeat, General Clarke immediately determined upon retaliatory measures, and, with this view, promptly ordered to the field a well-appointed and well-equipped command, under Colonel George Wright, 9th infantry.

I had no disposition to remain idle during the summer, but, on the contrary, was anxious to become personally cognizant of such topographical facts as would give me a correct idea of the western section of the country through which our road would pass. I therefore addressed a communication to General Clarke, and offered the services of myself and party to join any command going into the field, stating that, having instruments and material, we were in a condition to collect and prepare any topographical facts and features that the march might develop. I would here state that the region lying between the Spokane and Snake rivers was only known to me through the reports and maps of others; and to say, a priori, where the line should or should not be located was no easy matter. General Clarke accepting the services offered him, I was assigned to duty on Colonel Wright's staff, as topographical officer, and, with my party, accompanied him against the Indians who had defeated Colonel Steptoe.

The movements of Colonel Wright form not only a part of the especial records of the War Department during 1858, but, being a part and parcel of our own operations, a detailed report thereof has been made by myself, and been published in public documents.

Colonel Wright's successful campaign terminating in 1858, I was once more left in a dilemma as to what course I should pursue. I had seen sufficient of the western approaches to the Bitter Root range to convince me that the physical difficulties were such that a longer period of time, more ample means, and a larger force of men than either myself or others had imagined were requisite to accomplish our object. Should I then remain idle during the winter, and, laying the facts in official reports before the bureau, await in hopes that they would be favorably acted upon by Congress; or should I go in person and solicit the aid and co-operation of those friends of the project who were in a position to give strength to their views by legislative action? The latter plan appeared the more plausible; and, though the fates seemed against us, I determined to make one more effort, pleading my zeal in justice of the course I took. I therefore returned to Washington, reaching there in December, 1858, and laid all the circumstances of the case, together with our new wants, before the War Department and the military committee. Governor Stevens, then in Congress, ever active in those movements that tended to develop the country, had already prepared the way for a favorable action on the part of many, and watched its progress with a daily helping hand, until we succeeded in our applications for additional means. In the month of March, 1859, the bill appropriating $100,000 for our work became a law, and new instructions were issued to me in the same

(10) month by the War Department. With these I again started for Oregon on the 5th of April.

The importance of overland communication, by either rail, wagon, or telegraph, had lost none of its weight or importance, either in the estimate of the government or the people who were to be benefited by them. I found that a communication with the north Pacific was one that the delegations from the northwestern States had made an especial study, and there were no facts bearing upon this region, collected or published, that had not been critically and carefully weighed by these gentlemen, whose constituents were to be directly benefited when these projects were consummated. I had the benefit of many interviews with those who were not only fresh from the field of similar duties, as in the case of Colonel Lander, but of those whose aid was finally requisite to breathe that vitality into our work necessary to its successful accomplishment.

My instructions left me a liberal margin for collecting all the facts that bore either directly or indirectly upon the question of a railroad location, to which our immediate work ultimately tended. We reached the Dalles again on the 15th of May, where, organizing my party, I took up the line of march for Fort Walla-Walla. My escort this season had been increased to one hundred men, who were detailed from the companies of the 3d artillery, then at Fort Vancouver, accompanying which were Lieutenant James L. White, Lieutenant H. B. Lyon, and Lieutenant James Howard, 3d artillery, all of whom joined me for duty at Fort Walla-Walla the 28th of June.

There was a point to which I desired to give especial attention in the earlier part of our exploration, and that was to run in a line of levels along the bank of the Columbia to the Snake river, from the Dalles, and thus obtain some well based data, that would determine the feasibility of a railroad line by this route. No instrumental line ever having been run here, it was necessary that this link be supplied.

Knowing that our labor would be comparatively light and easy over the western plains, to the mountains, I found I could judiciously divide my force, and consequently organized a small but efficient party under the joint command of Captain W.W. Delacy and Conway R. Howard, civil engineers, both of whom brought to bear that experience gained on eastern railroad lines that would render their conclusions of value. Their report is herewith appended, marked A and B. It is apparent that the most difficult section of the line exists from the Dalles to the Des Chutes; but this portion is now being rapidly covered by a railroad under the auspices of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which will be in running order by May, 1863, this being made over the portage, to connect with steamers on the upper and lower Columbia. The remaining portions offer most marked advantages for location immediately along the bank of the river, which lends itself as an all-important aid in the construction of the road. The examination was made along the Oregon side, but the survey would tend to show that the Washington side offers the superior advantages.

The reports of Captain Delacy and Mr. Howard are full as to facts and details of construction, pointing out special points of difficulty, and as to mode of handling them. Depots if material, sand, wood, stone, and lime are referred to, and the especial advantages enjoyed by the location are dwelt upon by them with emphasis, and to all of which I invite attention and study. The gentlemen did their work thoroughly, and here have my thanks for the same.

While organizing my expedition at the Dalles, a command of two companies, under Major Lugenbeel, was directed to proceed to Fort Colville, for the double purpose of giving protection to settlers in that quarter and putting on foot such movements as tended to facilitate the work of the northwest boundary survey party, then in the field. Major Lugenbeel requested me to let Mr.Engel, one of my topographers, accompany him in that capacity to Fort Colville, and

(11) after taking a copy of the facts collected by him they should be turned over to me. Acquiescing in this request, Mr. Engel so started, and the map of that line is his work, and the principal features of the route traveled are described in the extracts from his report of the same.-(See Appendix.)

This trip of Mr. Engle tended to give us a truthful map of the country from the mouth of the Palouse, a common point of our present road and the Colville road, to the lower Spokane crossing, and which thus enabled us to map properly the entire Columbia plain. It also gave us the region towards Fort Colville, by which we connected our later work in the summer of 1859; and the fixed position of Colville having been determined by the northwest boundary survey, we were enabled to have a check upon our branch lines of reconnaissance . Mr. Engle's report treats in much detail of this route, the natural advantages that it enjoys, the especial improvements required upon it, and the distances and campgrounds are all referred to with great accuracy.

While at the Coeur d'Aléne mission, in 1858, I brought up anew to the fathers the subject of the route leading from the headwaters of the Palouse to the Bitter Root valley, referred to in former pages as supposed to be known to the Indians, requesting them to obtain for me any facts that would guide me in its exploration. In compliance with this request, Father Josét sent me, while in Washington, a letter which caused me to set foot on a project of surveys that would afford the authentic facts. The instructions of 1858 and 1859 from the Topographical Bureau, directed me to pursue a line which, leaving the Snake river at the most eligible point, should cross the Spokane plains northeasterly, skirting the Coeur d'Aléne lake at its southern edge, and reach the Coeur d'Aléne mission via the valleys of the Coeur d'Aléne and St. Joseph rivers, and thence take the line that I had reported in favor of in 1854. But the reception of this intelligence caused me to weigh the letter of my instructions against the feasibility of finding a shorter, better, and more economical line via the route set forth by the Fathers knowing, as I did, that the instructions of the department were simply based upon the best information then had of the country and not intended to govern me absolutely, if a better and shorter line could be found.

Having directed Mr. Weisner, my astronomer, to proceed from the Dalles to Fort Walla-Walla, and there establish an astronomical station, I instructed Mr. Sohon to accompany him from the Dalles, availing himself of the necessary aid to proceed to the country of the Coeur d'Alénes; there securing such guides as had been promised by Father Josét in his letter and other reliable persons knowing the country, to proceed to explore it in order to give me on crossing Snake river such information as would guide our future movements. With this object Mr.Sohon started from the Dalles on the 5th of June, and his more detailed movements are contained in the appended synopsis from his official report.

Mr. Sohon's early connexion with my explorations in 1853 and 1854, his knowledge of the Indian language, his familiarity with the general scope of country to be traversed, and the influence he had always so beneficially exerted over the Indians, all pointed him out as the proper person to explore the new and dangerous region.

His mission was put on foot, but bitterly opposed by the Indians. He kept me advised from time to time of his position and progress, and it was only after being convinced from his several reports that the country was impracticable and his life threatened by the Coeur d'Alénes, that I determined to withdraw him and give up all hope of finding a route further south than that by the Coeur d'Aléne mission. It was evident from the explorations that had already taken place that the mountains to the south of the Coeur d'Aléne river, until you reach Salmon river, were high, difficult, and probably impracticable for a wagon road, and we were forced, from the topography of the country, to turn this immense bed of difficult mountains by either a line to the north, which takes us by the Clark's

(12) Fork, or by the extreme south, taking us near the head of the Snake river, thence tending northward at the Three Butes, at Fort Hall.

I was determined, however, to satisfy myself as to the true nature of the country lying between the Clearwater and St. Joseph's river, to which I felt favorably disposed, from a conversation with General Stevens, who represented the valley of the Palouse, at its point of intersection with a line drawn from Coeur d'Aléne lake to Lewiston, as being not less than twenty miles broad, and extending eastward from this point seventy estimated miles. This caused us both to think that this valley would, at the headwaters of the stream, lend itself as a favorable location for a road to the Bitter Root valley; but the governor over-estimated its true value; I do not think that a route can ever be had in the direction we so much desired to find one.

The different parties of Messers. Sohon, Engle, Howard, and Delacy, started from the Dalles in advance of my main expedition, which left on the 15th of June, and, following the usually traveled wagon road, reached Walla-Walla by the 28th of June; tarrying there for temporary repairs and additional outfit, we again started on the 1st of July. A portion of our supplies were forwarded to the mouth of the Palouse by the steamer Colonel Wright and the remainder transported by wagons to the same point, under general charge of Lieutenant Lyon, 3d artillery.

The question of wood and water between Walla-Walla and the Snake river caused me, during this season, to locate the route via the mouth of the Toukanon, the spirit of our work looking simply towards having a low-water route, or one that summer travel alone demanded; and as, along this line, the distance between water was much shorter than via the mouth of the Palouse, I was governed by these considerations in its location. The general character of the route is similar to that of the Palouse-a high rolling prairie region-but it is shorter by two miles. The country in this section possess remarkable advantages for grazing, the long red bunch grass giving pasturage to numberless flocks of sheep and horn stock, while the valley bottoms are sufficiently large and fertile to afford not only ample means for the graziers, but could supply the local wants and travel of the country. The creeks found in this length of forty-eight miles are, the Dry creek, eight miles from Walla-Walla; the Touchet, twenty-one miles; the Red creek, thirty miles; and Toukanon, forty miles.

Already have each and all these valleys became the comfortable homes of the pioneer farmer and grazier, where the hand of industry, adding daily to the wealth and prosperity of the country, gives a new beauty, by the erection of school-houses and churches, those barometers of the intelligence and morality of a people.

The waters of the streams flow directly from the snows on the mountains that girt them, and, when the wants of the country demand it, an abundance of good mill sites can readily be found. The pure water, free from all alkaline elements, cannot be too highly appreciated by the stock raiser. We reached the Snake river, at the mouth of the Toukanon, on the 3d of July, and, being delayed in swimming our stock, were not able to proceed until the morning of the 4th, on which date we took up our line of march for the valley of the Palouse at its southern bend.

Mr. Sohon, having crossed the Snake river at the Red Wolf's crossing, and returned to the mouth of the Toukanon via the valley of the Smokle creek, left the section of the Snake river between these two crossings unexplored, so that, in order to correctly map the river and the circumjacent country and connect his survey with my own, I was obliged to send Mr. Engle, now returned from Colville, to examine and report upon this line, and a description of its features is contained in his appended report.

The general character of the country from Walla-Walla to the mouth of the Palouse is an easily rolling prairie; road excellent; camps good, with fine water

(13) and most abundant grass. The valley bottoms are nearly all densely settled; the land in the bottom being sufficient for farms of considerable size, and the hill-sides bowed down in beauty under their loads of most excellent and nutritious grasses. We built bridges over the Touchet and Dry creeks, and over a slough three miles from Walla-Walla; also making slight repairs where needed. With these improvements the road is a good one. Crossing the Snake river without accident, save the drowning of one of my men, who, in rafting wood down the stream, was caught by its impetuous current and swept out of sight before aid could reach him, we moved from the river on the morning of the 4th of July, and after a severe march of fourteen miles reached the Palouse at its junction with Cow creek. At this point we found Lieutenant Lyon encamped, awaiting our arrival, having moved from the mouth of the Palouse, where our supplies had been debarked.

The line from Snake river to this point of the Palouse is over a rolling prairie region, six hundred feet above the river, which at the point of crossing is nine hundred feet, and flows through high, broken, basaltic, bluff banks; at its intersection with the Toukanon is the site of Fort Taylor, built by Major Wyse, of Colonel Wright's expedition, in 1858. Wherever work was required en route from the Snake to the Palouse it was done, consisting of slight excavations made by the men while the train was moving.

Our different parties having come together on the 5th of July, we moved eastward up the left bank of the Palouse for six miles, when, fording, we followed its right bank for a mile, to a good camp, and halted for the day. The general width of the valley is from a half to a mile and a half wide, about a hundred feet below the general level of the prairie country around, and bounded on both sides by abrupt bluffs, from which crop out at many points basaltic rock, the general formation of this region. Only willows and a few cotton woods fringe its borders. The soil is mostly a black loam and will doubtless produce cereals and vegetables; but the absence of timber is an impediment to its settlement that cannot be easily met. At the headwaters of the stream and its tributaries limestone is said to be found, and there also in places, the soil is fertile, and lying, as it does, under the slopes of the mountains, and in close proximity to the Nez Percés mines, it is not at all improbable that the grazier and agriculturist will find at no distant day tracts of land that will amply repay their reclamation.

July 6.-Making another ford, we moved along the valley bottom two and a half miles, when, finding more labor required than could be attended to while the train was in motion, we encamped until the morning of the 9th.

Our work consisted in grading along an abrupt side-hill in loose rock and clay to avoid additional crossings of the Palouse, always difficult, and particularly so when the stream was swollen. At all the fords the current was swift, running over rocky and pebbly bottoms. It was a question with me whether we should follow the main valley of the Palouse or strike across the high prairie country and go by the way of the upper tributaries of this stream; by the former we pass to the south of the direct line to the Coeur d'Aléne, and thus go by way of the camass prairies, near the headwaters of the Nedlwhuald, and by the latter to the north of the Pyramid butte. As the country had not been examined in detail, I deemed it best to avail ourselves of our delay at this point and send Mr. Kolecki forward to explore it and obtain some authentic facts. From the summary of his report (appended) I determined to take across the high prairie country, as no doubt was left upon my mind but that a route to the north of the Pyramid peak was the better as well as the shorter. Therefore on the morning of the 9th of July, our work being completed, the train moved forward a distance of five miles until we reached and crossed the Mocalisiah, the principal tributary from the east, making in this distance three ford of the Palouse.

(14) On Monday, the 11th of July, resuming the march across the prairie country for 13.4 miles we reached the Oraytayouse, the northern fork of the Palouse. In the interval we has a good road, over a level prairie for the most part, and but little work required en route; springs of water were found in the plains and copses of willows at one point sufficient for a small camp. The water of the Oraytayouse was very shallow, being only eighteen inches deep, and with its good grazing, willows for fuel, and pines within a distance of a mile to the east afforded us a good camp. Distance from Walla-Walla ninety-six miles.

On Tuesday, the 12th, of July continued the march for sixteen miles, reaching a camping on the Tcho-Tcho-u-Seep, a tributary of the Oraytayouse. The prairie country afforded us a good location; springs of water were passes in the route; no work of note was necessary. At this point we entered what might be termed the more difficult section of the basaltic basin, which constitutes the chief characteristic of the Spokane plains, and hence it became of marked importance to feel our way by examinations in advance that would guarantee to us the best locations. The general face of the country, as well as the map of the line, tended to show that our more direct route was in a direction eastward from our present camp towards the Coeur d'Aléne lake; but to be assured of this I sent Mr. Sohon forward, with a Coeur d'Aléne Indian as guide, whom chance had brought to our camp, to make a preliminary examination. On exploring it he found the ground so cut up by deep basaltic cañons and ravines, with the bed of the Spectre lake intervening, that we were necessitated to take a more northerly course, and therefore, on Wednesday, the 13th of July, we moved forward over a generally easy prairie region interspersed in places with flat basaltic rock and copses of pines for a distance of nine miles, when we reached and encamped upon the Sil-Sil-cep-pow-vestin, one hundred and twenty-one miles from Walla-Walla. The cañon of this creek at our point of crossing it was rocky in the extreme, so much so, indeed, that when once into it, it required nice engineering to get out. Half a mile back from the cañon good grazing fields are found, which, together with the abundance of timber on the borders, will always make it a good camping ground. No other capabilities, except grazing, are here found. A few acres of good soil of inconsiderable extent occur but not sufficient to make it an object of especial note.

On the 14th of July, leaving the cañon of the Sil-Sil-cep-pow-vestin, and gaining the higher level prairie country in an elevation of one hundred feet, we found a good location for the road, requiring light work in places, for about sixteen and a half miles, when we reached the Lahtoo, or Nedlwhuald creek, which last empties into the Spokane. It is thus seen that on this day's march we cross the prairie divide that separates the waters that flow into the Snake from those that flow into the Spokane; but by a rise so gradual as to be almost imperceptible, except to the barometer. This interval of sixteen miles is a swelling prairie, well grassed, with here and there good tracts for settlement, though the general scope of country is unsuitable for culture. Timber is in sight nearly the whole distance, and though this section will probably never be continuously cultivated, still it offers many inducements for graziers and farmers, and enters as an essential element in affording good sites for mail and recruiting stations, by the fine grasses now found and the abundance of forage and supplies it is capable of producing under the hand of an industrious and diligent culture.

We encamped this day on the banks of the Nedlwhuald, and at the same point where General Wright hung Qualtian, the noted Yakima chief, and several other Indians; from which fact the stream is known to many as Hangman's creek. Poor creatures! their doom, although in this instance a just one, is, nevertheless, pitiable; had the white man been to them more just, fate had proved less harsh.

Our route of this date skirts the lake from which Colonel Steptoe retreated

(15) the day of his noted defeat at the hands of the Coeur d'Aléne and Spokane Indians. We crossed Nedlwhuald on the morning of the 15th of July at the point of our encampment, although another crossing is found one mile above this point. This stream is subject to very high rises in the spring freshets; its banks in places are low, in others, bordered by high, rocky bluff banks, and fringed with groves of open pines. The lower sections are not favorable to settlements, but nearer the mountains its valley widens, and offers inducements for small farms here and there, with rich grazing, fine timber in abundance, and water in creeks and springs of the most delicious purity. Leaving the Nedlwhuald, the road, for three miles, passes over gently swelling hills, when it reaches a prairies swale or bottom two miles in length and one in breadth, whence, in seven miles more, we reached some pools of water fringed with cotton woods and pines. After halting to improve the road, we journeyed on through an open prairie basin for seven miles to some wells, where, being provided with wood in our wagons, we made camp for the night. This portion of the route may be termed a natural wagon road, needing but very slight improvement.

It was on this day that we met, for the first time, a band of the Coeur d'Aléne Indians, under Pierre, a few miles from our camp; they were well mounted, anxious to learn our mission, our line of direction, and plied us with many questions as to our ultimate ends and objects. A few of these Indians were also met by Mr. Sohon in his exploration toward the head of the Palouse. Discretion and prudence directed that our course towards them should be both frank and honest. I invited them to accompany me to my camp, gave them to eat and to smoke, and afterwards explained to them in detail our mission and object; they left, apparently satisfied, and with a promise to preserve friendly relations in future. They are wily fellows, and great caution is necessary in all intercourse with them.

On the morning of the 16th of July we resumed our march; moving eastwardly for nine miles over an easily swelling prairie region, timbered for the last three miles, to a point which I had selected for a depot camp, while our work was progressing in advance. We had left the plains of the Columbia proper, and reached the spurs of the Bitter Root mountains, where our more difficult work commenced.

We had chosen for our location a line which, jutting upon the southern edge of the Coeur d'Aléne lake, would follow up for four miles the valley of the St. Joseph's river; when crossing it would take the most direct line across the divide to the Coeur d'Aléne river; thence up the valley of that stream to the Coeur d'Aléne mission.

Our first work of difficulty was to make the descent of seven hundred feet from the table land to the valley of the St. Joseph's. Several points were examined, but none afforded a natural descent, and I was forced to work one over a long spur making down to the lake at the juncture of the St Joseph's river with the outlet of the Poun lake. Over this outlet a bridge of sixty feet was constructed. This piece of excavation was rocky and difficult; but, with the bridge, was completed in eight days. I then moved the entire camp up the valley of the St Joseph's to the point selected for crossing. The St. Joseph's and Coeur d'Aléne rivers are the two arms and feeders of the Coeur d'Aléne lake. They rise in the Bitter Root mountains, between sixty and seventy miles to the eastward, and during their greater length are characterized by flowing with a rapid mountain current, in a narrow timbered gorge of cañon-like formation, till losing their impetuous current the valley widens, the current slackens to dead water, the stream becomes from twenty to forty feet deep, with banks almost six feet above low water mark, but which, unfortunately, in high freshets, are overflowed, and to which overflow we failed to give a just estimate during this season, and which will be referred to hereafter. While building the bridge over the Poun lake, we observed that during the earlier part of the day

(16) a slight current up stream was perceptible, sufficiently so to move the bridge timbers, while late in the day it moved in the opposite direction.

This phenomenon is only to be seen during the freshet months, and is accounted for by the fact that the outlet of the lake is so small, and so obstructed by boulders and rocks that dam its waters, as to render it incapable of discharging the volume of water as fast as the feeders supply it; hence the lake, swelling, forces a certain volume of water back, giving the appearance of a receding current, this changing again as soon as the lake has discharged itself of the surplus.

The valley of the St Joseph's is a beautiful gem, embedded in a noble range of mountains. Viewed from an elevation, on a summer's day, the scenery and effect is grand and picturesque-the river winding from side to side in graceful curves, while copses of willow, cottonwood, and alder fringe its banks, and silvery lakes dot here and there the green sward in which it is clothed. The spurs that form its either boundary, gently rising to an elevation of a thousand feet, are densely clad with one of the finest growths of fir and pine to be found in the mountains; and, enlivened, as it is, with here a camp of hunters and there the light bark canoe of the Indian, forms one of the most beautiful scenes it was our fortune to meet with in the Rocky Mountains. It was in this valley that, as early as 1842, the Jesuit Fathers chose a site for the first of their Rocky Mountain missions. A small plateau, projecting into the valley from the north, where fine springs gushed from the slopes, on which the forest lay as yet untouched by the woodman, and a rich virgin soil smiled in a beauty of profusion, cultured by the hand of nature alone, offered them a choice garden, that, with slight attention, should yield abundant fruits. Here they maintained themselves for many years, until, finding the overflow of the lower portion of the valley entered as an impediment both to pleasant travel and to the extension of their fields, they removed to their present location on the Coeur d'Aléne lake.

The overflow of the Coeur d'Aléne and St Joseph's rivers, and the means of preventing it, is a subject to which I have given much attention; and having made surveys, both in high and low water, I have been enabled to collect many facts and data, which I will treat of at greater length at a future point of my report.

Four miles up the valley we selected a suitable place for crossing by a ferryboat. We immediately set the whip-sawyers in the timber to get out the necessary lumber, and some men to burning tar, and, being provided with the necessary oakum, we built two flat-boats, forty-two feet long, twelve feet broad, and two feet deep-one for the St Joseph's and the other for the Coeur d'Aléne. The later, when completed, was rowed down into the lake, and thence up the Coeur d'Aléne river to the point selected for its crossing. While this was being accomplished, the divide between the two streams was examined, the road marked out, and several parties placed at work upon it.

The distance from the St Joseph's to the Coeur d'Aléne is twelve miles, passes through a partially timbered country, and gives a good location. Indications of gold were observed, and much quartz scattered over the ground. Springs of water occur at convenient distances, and small tracts of land capable of cultivation. Game, consisting of bear and deer, were occasionally found, and an abundance of mountain grouse. This work, from the St. Joseph's crossing, involved the building of a corduroy, four hundred feet long, over a wet section of the river bottom, and a heavy excavation up a suitable spur, in order to gain the divide, seven hundred feet above. This entire work occupied our force until the 5th day of August, 1859. During this interval our topographers were engaged in tracing the St. Joseph's to its sources, in the Bitter Root mountains, marking its tributaries and defining its boundaries; also in making a survey of the Coeur d'Aléne lake. This last is a noble sheet of water, about eight by twenty-two miles in extent, with a depth of from fifty to fifty-five feet, and

(17) bounded on all sides, except at the points of juncture of its arms, by high, sloping timbered spurs. It is about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and filled with an abundance of delicious salmon trout. The line to the Coeur d'Aléne river being completed by the 5th of August, I moved the entire train to its left bank, where it remained in camp until the 9th, when the road, for nine miles up its left bank to the point of crossing, was completed. This work consisted of a side cut of a fourth of a mile along a broken, rocky spur, jutting upon the river's edge, building three bridges, and cutting through a slight growth of timber near the point of crossing. Our boat being in readiness, we crossed the river on the 11th, and remained on the left bank until the morning of the 16th, engaged with our entire force in opening the line thence to the Coeur d'Aléne mission, which involved building three bridges, making a cut of one mile of excavation along difficult spurs, and cutting through timber for three miles, which, when completed, gave us an excellent road. On the morning of the 16th of August we reached the mission, two hundred miles from Walla-Walla. This was one of our fixed points from which began our mountain work proper. That this proved a difficult task to handle our three years' labor abundantly proves. I would here state that the same features mark the valleys of the St. Joseph's as characterize that of the Coeur d'Aléne-fine tracts of land for settlement, abundance of timber, and most excellent grazing, with mill sites on many of the smaller tributaries.

Reaching the mission we determined to make it a depot point for our train until such time as our work in advance should enable us to move forward.

Placing the depot under the charge of Lieutenant White, we divided our force into several sections and distributed them along the line of work for ten miles. This work consisted of timber cutting and clearing, building small bridges, corduroying wherever the ground was wet and marshy and making side cuts wherever it was sidling, or where the formation of the spurs compelled it.

Crossing the Coeur d'Aléne a mile above the mission we lose sight of the river till reaching the Four-Mile prairie, a point four miles beyond, and again lose sight of it until reaching a point we called the Ten-Mile prairie. This section of the road, for the first four miles, passes mostly through a timbered region and along the south foot of the spurs, making back from the river, till it reaches the Four-Mile prairie; after which it agin enters a timbered region till reaching Seven-Mile prairie, and then again through timber until it reaches Ten-Mile prairie. Each of these prairies afford good camp grounds, and the first was formerly cultivated by the Fathers; this soil is good; it contains about one hundred acres. Seven-mile prairie is an excellent camping ground but not so well suited for cultivation; it is abundantly fed by springs and creeks, and contains about four square miles; traces of gold are said to have been found here. Ten-Mile prairie has many springs and is very wet in the early part of the year; it contains about a square mile, and is bounded on one side by timbered spurs and on the other by the banks of the Coeur d'Aléne, fringed at this point with pine and cottonwood; it produces a rich growth of meadow grass, and its soil in places is alkaline; it might be reclaimed by ditching, and would then be a fertile and desirable spot. We chose this as our second depot, as it afforded us a good grazing range for our stock; and from it we also cut a quantity of hay. The work from the mission to the Ten-Mile prairie occupied us until the 17th of August, when we again brought forward our entire train to the new depot. Every one was moved except the astronomical party under Mr. Weisner and Mr. Kolecki, who were left at the mission during a lunation to fix the position of that point. Our position at Walla-Walla had already been determined by a six week series of observation, and our plan was to occupy as many fixed points as time and circumstances would allow.

While at the Coeur d'Aléne mission we had sent out two parties to explore and bring back such data as would guide our judgment in our further movements.

(18) The one was assigned to Mr. P. M. Engle, whose duties were to cross the bed of mountains along the south fork of the Coeur d'Aléne river, and strike the Clark's Fork at or near Thompson's prairie, in order to see if the country along this route was adapted to a cheap location. In this undertaking he was provided with the necessary Indian guides and outfits, and directed to pursue his examinations up the Clark's Fork to the Pend d'Oreilles mission, and return via the route of the Bitter Root, recrossing the mountains via Sohon's Pass and thence to our camp. This was fully and satisfactorily accomplished, and developed the fact that the features of the mountains precluded the possibility of securing a line in that direction. The second party was placed in charge of Mr. Sohon, with directions to pass rapidly forward and mark in a general manner the location; to ascertain the best point of passage over the Coeur d'Aléne mountains, and to continue his examination down the valley of the St. Regis Borgia to the Bitter Root, and thence up to the Hell's Gate valley. For this purpose he, too, was provided with the best Indian guides we could procure, and fulfilled his mission satisfactorily, returning to camp by the 15th of September.

From my own knowledge of the country, and the additional data brought in by Mr. Sohon, I saw that we had to content ourselves with the cheapest location that the peculiar features of the valleys of the Coeur d'Aléne and St. Regis Borgia warranted. Both of these valleys were densely timbered, with here and there a prairie affording scanty grass. Both of the valleys at points verged towards cañons, and their rivers were serpentine in their course, leaving alternate flats and spurs along their banks; hence the character of the streams necessitated frequent crossings or long and difficult side cuts to avoid them. The latter was a work of great magnitude, and incompatible with the means at our disposal; hence the former was our only alternative. Our work, consequently, from the 16th of August to the 4th of December, 1859, consisted in cutting through this densely timbered section of one hundred miles, building small bridges where required, and grading in thousands of places, made necessary by the physical nature of the country. We likewise graded an ascent of one and three-fourths miles, to the summit of the Coeur d'Aléne mountains.

This work was heavy, and in so brief a report as herewith given justice cannot be done to the industry and fortitude of the men while mastering this wilderness section.

The standing timber was dense, and the fallen timber that had accumulated for ages formed an intricate jungle well calculated to impress one with the character if impracticability. Suffice it to say that we mastered the many difficulties with which its construction was fraught, and reached out winter camp in the St. Regis Borgia valley on the 4th of December.

As we hade been obliged to keep our stock in the mountains until they were covered with snow, many had died from starvation and exposure. I had at first intended to reach the Bitter Root river, but winter overtaking me, I did the best in my power, and made a point on the St. Regis Borgia below the last crossing. It was to attain this that I pushed my stock to the last point of endurance, dreading to be caught in a mountain gorge to battle out the winter, or to contend with the high water of the coming spring. As stated previously, we did not reach our winter camp until the 4th of December, and already had our men worked in the snow at great discomfort, though with cheerfulness and zeal.

Becoming settled in our camp, we forwarded our stock to the Bitter Root valley, but the distance was one hundred miles, the ground covered with snow, and the mountain trails difficult and slippery; these, together with their enfeebled condition, caused the loss of the greater number of them before they reached the valley; but there was no point for pasturing short of this, and they must either reach it or perish in the snow. I took the precaution to have the beef cattle driven to camp and slaughtered and the beef frozen, in which con-

(19) dition it kept until the month of March. The truth was that the amount of work required was immense, and very much underestimated both by myself and others, for we only truly appreciated it when we came to handle it in detail. It was completed, however, by our party, with an industry and interest seldom evinced on similar occasions.

We occupied the summit of Sohon's Pass for a period of six weeks with our transit, and determined its position with great accuracy. From this point it was sent to the crossing of the Bitter Root river, which we occupied from November until April, and here obtained a very important fixed point.

Early in November I sent Mr. Engle forward to the Bitter Root valley, there to organize a small party and proceed to Fort Benton, mark the general features of the line, and bring me back such data as would control my judgment in future movements.

Our men set to work erecting such log huts as our wants demanded, and to the camp I gave the name Cantonment Jordan. It was situated in a dense bed of timber, that furnished both building material and fuel, had many fine springs, and was securely sheltered from the winds by friendly rims of mountains. We erected an office, and occupied the entire winter in compiling filed-notes, completing maps, as far as our material sufficed, and writing such memoirs and reports as would furnish the bureau with exact information on all points connected with our operations. The office hours of employés were from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., and from 6 till 9 p. m. The men were employed in gathering and preparing fuel, and the ordinary labors incident to camp life. Guard duty was kept up merely to preserve discipline, as the snow was an effectual barrier against Indian depredation or Indian surprise.

The question of snow has been with me an all-important one, and with the view of arming myself with facts as to its fall and depth, I had snow gauges prepared along the route, either by cutting off the tops of trees or planting posts graduated to a scale of feet and inches, so that when the mail-men passed, which they did every month, they might accurately note its depth. I have had this done during two winters, and am enabled to state definitely the depth attained during any month at every point of the route.

These show that in the upper Coeur d'Aléne and St. Regis Borgia valleys it fell to the depth of from two and a half to three feet; in the higher portions to from three to five feet, and on the summit of the mountains to from seven to nine feet. This is an objection to this route of so vital importance, when compared with that via Clark's Fork, that, as I before states, had I known in 1854 what I did not learn till 1859, I should, by all means, have recommended the latter, at least, as far a regards the portion lying between Antoine Plant's and the Hell's Gate. During the winter of 1859, Spokane Garry brought the mail by the way of the Clark's Fork, and though he lost one horse en route, yet he nevertheless made the trips mostly on horseback. As soon as this fact was brought to my notice, I set an inquiry on foot and found this fact to hold: that no Indians had ever been known to cross the mountains in winter, via the Coeur d'Aléne route, while it was quite the usual thing for them to do so via the Clark's Fork. Further investigations of this point have proved of marked value, and must enter as essential elements into the location of any railroad line that would seek the Columbia via its upper tributaries. We find this meteorological fact to exist: that of we take the isochimenal line which crosses the country in the latitude of St. Joseph's, Missouri, and trace this line westwardly, we reach Fort Laramie, when, varying from the line of latitude, it trends northwestwardly and passes between the Wind River mountains and the Black Hills of Dacotah, reaching the headwaters of the Yellowstone, at the hot spring and geysers of that stream; thence again to the Beaver Head valley, crossing the main range of the Rocky Mountains at the Deer Lodge valley, in latitude 47 north. In other words, in the longitude from St. Joseph's to the Rocky Mountains it has gained six degrees of latitude, which remarkable increment continues as we trace it further westward; for the line crossing the range grasps the valley of the Hell's Gate, and keeps it till it reaches the Bitter Root, and thence, trending northwestward, strikes the Clark's Fork at the Pend d'Oreilles lake; from this point it trends south and comes down to the Walla-Walla, in Washington Territory. Thus we find the same climate along the Clark's Fork, Hell's Gate, upper Missouri, and Yellowstone rivers, that we find at St. Joseph's, Missouri.

This is as true as it is strange, and shows unerringly that there exists in this zone an atmospheric river of heat flowing through this region, varying in width from one to one hundred miles, according to the physical face of the country. This affects the kingdoms of natural history, botany and climatology to such an extent that herein we find mild winters, vigorous grasses even in midwinter, that enable stock to be grazed on the open hills, and gives a facility of travel during the severest seasons of the year.

There is no doubt in my own mind that this fact will yet be turned to a practical utility to the extent of opening this route by a wagon road, when the mail coach and the emigrant wagon can, each and every month, make the trip overland from the Missouri to the Columbia. This line once opened would prove the great pioneer to the railroad which is destined to tap the interior of the northern mining section of the Rocky Mountain system, and which will have its outlet to the north Pacific either via the mouth of the Columbia or Puget Sound. The effect of this important fact had a material bearing upon the time of our resuming work in the spring of 1860. The point chosen for our winter camp was fifteen miles from the Bitter Root ferry, through a densely timbered section, involving heavy labor. The winter at the main camp proved severe, while at the ferry it was generally mild and pleasant, with less snow by one and a half feet, and, although only fifteen miles distant, like a new climate. In fact, to compare the climates of these two points was like the difference of spring and winter, for one was situated within this river of heat and the other without it. So apparent was this difference in the month of February that I could resume work with advantage along the Bitter Root river, whereas the snow and frozen condition of the section from my camp to the ferry rendered it impossible to work this till late in the spring.

I determined at once to throw forward all my men upon the Bitter Root, there build boats for the transportation of our supplies up the river, and resume work. We could not use our animals, as their condition and the want of grass would not allow of their being brought down to us at so early a date. To carry our supplies this distance of fifteen miles by hand involved much hard labor. The men transported on their backs two months' supplies, all their tents and personal baggage, and setting to work at the crossing got out the necessary lumber for six bateaux and a large flat, the last to be permanently left at the crossing, and the former to be used in transporting our supplies and baggage up the river as our work progressed. The location for thirty miles lying immediately along the right bank gave us every facility in moving camp. The different sub-parties were arranged with a view to efficiency, each under the supervision of a chief, to whom, as I was about to leave the party for a period to visit the Indians to the east and prepare for my spring and summer movements, I gave certain instructions, which are herewith appended, and which set forth the nature of the work. I then placed the whole command under charge of Lieutenant J. L. White.

During the winter months my mind was much exercised in regard to the time when I should reach the Missouri, and whether the summer of 1860 would not prove a proper time for carrying out the project originally set on foot by Jefferson Davis, and promised to be carried out during Mr. Buchanan's administration, namely: a military movement via these two rivers, Columbia and Missouri, and the route we were then opening. The success of such a movement would prove

(21) conclusively that a result had been obtained. I felt sanguine that we should reach the Missouri by the early summer. The success of the steamers in reaching Fort Benton in 1858 and 1859 was one point accomplished. Looking upon the necessity of the companies then serving in East Oregon and Washington being replenished in numbers by the coming summer, and the fact of my reaching Benton in the spring with a large and empty wagon train which could be judiciously and advantageously used in connexion with such a movement, I thought the spring of 1860 was, above all other periods, the proper time for testing the merits of our road. With this object in view I despatched to Washington Mr. W. W. Johnson, a young man then in my employ, whose thorough knowledge of the work pointed him out as a suitable person to perform what I desired. He left my camp for Washington city, with letters for the Secretary of War, Topographical bureau, General Jesup, and Governor Stevens, setting forth my views in full detail and pledging my energy and determination that nothing should be left undone to secure the full success of the movement recommended; this was to send three hundred recruits from St. Louis to Fort Benton in the spring by the steamers of P. Choteau & Co., with four month's supplies, and that I would meet them at Fort Benton with my train, with which they could make the trip to Walla-Walla in sixty days. It is needless to narrate all the details that followed my recommendation, nor the various difficulties that beset our pathway to the right and left on the part of callous and apathetic persons, nor those that had to be handled from the inception of the enterprise to its final completion. Suffice it to say, the movement was ordered, its details and management were judicious, and three hundred recruits, shipped direct from St. Louis, supplied the vacancies in companies then stationed in East Oregon and Washington, at an estimated saving of $30,000 to the government. This movement had the effect of keeping in subjection the turbulent disposition of the Indians, transforming, while en route, recruits into soldiers, affording protection to the emigrant, security to the pioneer settler and tiller of the soil, and giving a practical test of the value of a route, which from the days of Jefferson, who initiated the project of opening a north Pacific communication, to the present date of its practical accomplishment, has had zealous friends and advocates.

Having perfected all the details for resuming work in the spring of 1860, and seeing the parties duly engaged, I proceeded to the Bitter Root valley and held a talk with the Indians, whose dispositions towards myself had always been friendly. The necessity of getting my supplies from Fort Benton, and the condition of my own animals, compelled me to lay my wants before the Flatheads. I told them I needed one hundred and seventeen horses, with pack saddles, and from fifteen to twenty of their men to accompany Mr. Sohon across the mountains. They promised me a reply the next day, when they would send me as many sticks as they had men and horses to furnish.

The next morning their chief, Ambrose, came to Fort Owen, where I was a guest, with a bundle of one hundred and thirty-seven sticks, each representing a horse or a man. Such nobleness of character as is found among some of the Flatheads is seldom seen among Indians; and I here record to their credit that I never had a want but which, when made known to them, they supplied, and that they always treated myself and my parties with a frank generosity and a continuous friendship.

They were paid for the use of their animals and the services of their men, and made the trip in the month of March safely across the Rocky Mountains, bringing me back eleven thousand rations. I also dispatched from this place an express to Salt Lake, making a requisition upon Colonel Crossman for fifty mules. My expressman, Ned Williamson, was caught in the mountains by deep snows, near the head of the Snake river, lost his horses, made snowshoes from his saddle rigging, and, though snow-blind for several days, made the greater portion of the five hundred miles on foot, reaching Camp Floyd safely, and returned

(22) on horseback with a single companion, making the whole trip to and from within the period of fifty days. He proved himself a hardy fellow, and showed what a man can accomplish when the will is strong. In company with Lieutenant Lyon I then visited the Pend d'Oreille mission, to procure fresh vegetables for my men who already were affected with the symptoms of scurvy. We had at this time about twenty-five cases of this disease, all of which readily yielded under the care of my brother, Dr. James A. Mullan, to the specifics of fresh vegetables and vinegar.

This fact was developed with regard to the scurvy: that among the citizen employés who received five days fresh beef and two days dessicated vegetables out of the seven, not a single symptom appeared, every case being confined to the soldiers who received but two days fresh beef and two days dessicated vegetables in the seven. The rations of the latter were regulated by Lieutenant White; those of the former by myself.

In our trip to the mission we made the distance from the Bitter Root ferry to the Bitter Root valley in February and March without difficulty or detention. We carried with us a small quantity of forage, to be used in case of emergency; but we found grass at every camp. The ground, in places, was still covered with snow, but here and there large tracts of prairie were found covered with abundant grass; the smaller creeks were still locked in ice, but the main Bitter Root river was open and free.

Accomplishing the object of my journey, I returned to camp in the latter part of March to find my work progressing satisfactorily. As before stated, the timbered section of fifteen miles from our camp to the ferry was kept in abeyance until the disappearance of the snow should enable the ground to be worked; hence all the parties were engaged along the right bank of the Bitter Root river. The topographical character of this stream required us to keep along its right bank for a distance of thirty miles at least, and whether from this point a change to the opposite bank would be advisable, to avoid long ranges of difficult spurs, forming bluff banks for seven miles, could only be determined by thorough detailed examination. The fluviatile plateaus that mark both banks afforded us an excellent location; they are of different levels, but generally from fifty to twenty feet above the water, from one-forth to two miles broad, covered with pines, without underbrush, and well grassed. The work in this stretch of thirty miles involved three miles of excavation.

Mr. Sohon, in his examination of the previous year, brought to my notice that the spur of the mountains thirty miles from the ferry jutted upon the river bank for six miles, leaving no berme over which we could lay our road. This would force us either to cross the stream, make a side-hill cut through this length, or turn the mountain by its rear. I endeavored to accomplish the latter, and in the month of April devoted several days to examining the entire country, and especially a route known as Brown's Cut-off; but I found the mountains so high and abrupt, to say nothing of the snow, that I gave up all hopes of attaining my ends in this direction.

To make this six-mile cut through rocky spurs was an undertaking that I almost feared to attempt. I fully appreciated the advantages of a continuous stretch along one bank; but the extensive plateaus on the opposite side formed so inviting a contrast to the rocks and bluffs before us, that I at first allowed my judgment to decide in favor of the additional crossing, and, indeed, had begun to get out the material for a flatboat, when, reflecting on the many contingencies to which these boats would be subject from fires, floods, and Indians, I re-examined these spurs, and determined, at all hazards, to make the cut, thus having but one ferry on the river.

The road from our winter camp to the Big mountain, as these spurs are called, was completed by the 10th of May, including the fifteen miles of heavy timber already referred to, which was opened by Lieutenant White and Cap

(23) tain Delacy. On the 1st of May I commenced upon the cut around the Big mountain, and by the 10th had my entire force of citizens and soldiers employed. My camps were formed at its west base, where a small creek and an abundance of timber afforded all the conveniences required. In order to obtain the practicable elevation, on account of the abrupt, rocky faces of the spurs, I carried the line up a ravine until, gaining 1,000 feet, I wound around mountain sides, making the re-entering angles by gentle curves, until the entire six miles was completed. It was a severe piece of work, and cost is the labor of 150 men for six weeks. Being rocky in most places, we were compelled to blast, when, by a premature explosion, one of our men, Sheridan, lost one of his eyes, and another, Robert P. Booth, was severely stunned; this finished, all further difficulties as to location ceased.

In the remaining stretch to Hell's Gate, amounting to sixty miles, we made one and a half mile of side-hill excavation, built a bridge of 150 feet in length, over a bad slough seven feet deep, and continued the road through much open timber. This line, during this season, was left in fair order. Our entire work to the Hell's Gate ronde was completed by the 28th of June, when our train was moved from our winter camp to the residence of a Frenchman, named Brown, where I had built a storehouse to leave such supplies as I did not care to transport to Fort Benton. While my train was encamped in the left bank of the Bitter Root the river gained its maximum rise, and during the night swept away our ferry-boat, leaving us no alternative but to build another. The men therefore were set to work to whipsaw the necessary lumber, built and launched the boat, crossed the train and set it in motion on the other side-all within seven days.

The 90 miles from the Bitter Root ferry to the Hell's Gate ronde affords a good road, with camp grounds at convenient points, with an abundance of wood, water, and grass. Many beautifully situated agricultural tracts are found through this region. The principal of these are the Nine-Mile prairie, the Nemoté prairie, the Skiotay and Kul Kullow creeks, and several stretches of great extent along the main Bitter Root river. Game is in abundance in the shape of deer and sheep, and all the streams are filled with trout. My astronomical party was moved to the Hell's Gate ronde on the 1st of April, which point it occupied until the middle of May, when it was sent to Fort Benton, via the Big Blackfoot Pass; it was deemed best to send it to Fort Benton at once, and let it take observations there during the remainder of May and June, as the atmosphere in the prairies was then clear, and to return to the summit of the Rocky Mountains at Mullan's Pass in July, when we could take the necessary observations for determining its position, and also observe the eclipse of the 17th of July, 1860, and thus determine the longitude.

In order to get the geographical connexion of the Bitter Root with the Clark's Fork, never before made, I sent out Captain Delacy with a boat party. It was satisfactorily obtained, and a map of both rivers made. His detailed report is appended.

Having now completed all the work of exploration and construction to the west of the Hell's Gate ronde, we pushed on to the Blackfoot river, and reached our crossing point on the 1st of July. I here detached a party under Mr. Howard and Mr. Kolecki, to make a thorough examination of the Big Blackfoot and run a line of levels from the mouth of its tributary, Lander's Fork, across the Rocky Mountains, via either Cadottes or Lewis and Clark's Fork Pass to the Dearborn river. According as a preliminary examination should best determine, this party was to join my own at the crossing of the Dearborn river.

This work was accomplished, a profile was determined, and many valuable statistics gained, which will be hereafter referred to in a detail in the chapter on "railroad data." Mr. Kolecki's more detailed report is herewith appended.

Reaching the Big Blackfoot, we crossed to its left bank on the 1st and 2d by

(24) means of a wagon-boat and a small bateau, transported for the purpose. We carried this last the entire distance to Fort Benton, and in it Mr. Williamson with a small party descended the Missouri to Fort Randall. While crossing this river we learned of the arrival at Fort Benton of Major Blake, with a command of three hundred recruits en route for Fort Walla-Walla, and who awaited our arrival at Fort Benton, to supply himself with the necessary means of transportation. This movement was the execution of the recommendation to which reference has been made. Our location up the Hell's Gate this season involved eleven crossings of this stream in fifty miles; the first was ferried, the rest forded. This stream is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet broad; its current rapid, and its course very serpentine over the distance that we followed it. Its valley is from one to four miles broad, and mostly timbered with open pine. The location, until reaching the last crossing of this stream, was not one involving much labor, being simply slight cutting in timber, grading banks at river crossings, and such other light work en route as the face of the country called for. We reached no point of much difficulty until making the eleventh crossing of the Hell's Gate, where a spur involved a cutting of half a mile to enable us to pass it. This was completed by the 9th of July, when with rapid marches we harried forward to the mouth of Gold Creek. On our march to Fort Benton this season we made the mouth of the Little Blackfoot a point of the route; this involved three additional crossings of the Hell's Gate, and four of the Little Blackfoot, all of which we avoided on our return trip.

From the eleventh crossing of the river, now the only one bridged, the Hell's Gate widens to a broad valley, the spurs recede and large flats or plains are found; it has many rich and fertile spots, and the river has many tributaries; the valley generally afforded an excellent location for our road.

From the mouth of the Little Blackfoot the steam makes an elbow to the north for a distance of ten miles, and to avoid this bend we crossed the open prairie in the re-entering angle, and struck the river again near Belknap's camp. This section involved light work. We then followed the stream until it forked and took up the north branch, making two crossings of the main river, and a greater number of its north fork.

The chief difficulty up to this fork arose from its wet and mucky condition, which continued for eighteen miles, when we reached a gravel formation.

The valley of the Little Blackfoot and its north fork is from one-fourth to two miles broad, bordered by timbered spurs of one thousand feet. The soil in places is a rich black loam; but its altitude above the sea may prevent its ever being brought under cultivation; with the necessary work that this section involved we reached the west base of the Rocky Mountains by July 16. On the morning of the 17th we crossed the range at Mullan's Pass without difficulty, and encamped upon the waters of the Missouri. You approach and descend this pass by a gradual slope; its summit is not timbered; the mountains on both sides are much higher and densely timbered with fir and pine. It is six thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is evidently one of the lowest depressions in the whole range. The pass at the head of the south fork of the Little Blackfoot is practicable for a wagon road, but its position was too much out of the line of our connexions to answer our purposes; it may, however, come into requisition if ever a connexion from the Deer Lodge valley to the plains of the Yellowstone is determined upon.

The eclipse of the sun occurred at an early hour on the morning of the 17th of July, but as our astronomical party had now descended the Missouri for St. Louis we were deprived of the opportunity of observing it from the summit of the Rocky Mountains, as originally contemplated. More detailed allusion will be made of this mishap in the astronomical chapter that is subjoined.

Crossing the Rocky Mountain range at Mullan's pass and descending upon

(25) the Missouri slopes, a new climate and new character of country is at once encountered. The spurs of the mountains become lower and less timbered, the country more diversified with hill and dale, and the scope for a wagon-road location enlarged. The climate too, is warmer, the frosts at night less severe, and the great difference of heat between midday and midnight no longer noticeable.

The first stream touched upon the eastern slope is the Big Prickly Pear creek. It rises at the foot of the pass, and, draining a region twenty miles in width, empties into the Missouri. Its valley for two miles partakes of a cañon like character, where, however, with moderate work, we secured a good location; at the end of this the valley widens, until, near its junction with the Missouri, it has become a prairie ten by fifteen miles in extent. Many fine, though small tracts of tillable land are found within it, and, at present, game abounds. Once in the valley of the Big Prickly Pear we had made our extreme point of southing, and were enabled to turn all the eastern spurs and take a direct line for Fort Benton.

Our location involved three crossings of the Big Prickly Pear, making which, on the morning of the 18th of July, we left its valley and moved northeasterly over rolling hills until we reached and encamped upon Fir creek, distance four miles. In this stretch only light work was required.

The plateau of the Fir creek is about forty feet above its bed, to descend into which required a side cut of sixty feet, and a bridge of thirty feet; making these, on the morning of the 19th of July, we again moved over a rolling prairie region, and in five miles reached and encamped upon the Silver creek. We had now left the more difficult sections of the mountains, and skirted along their eastern bases over the long lateral spurs making out from the main range; these spurs were untimbered, and here became reduced to easy rolling hills; only light work was needed in this last section, so that, on the 20th of July, we again moved forward, and in five miles reached the Soft Bed creek, crossing in the interval Willow creek; this last unites with the Silver creek, which, with the Fir creek, become tributaries of the Big Prickly Pear. None of these streams interpose obstacles to travel, except during the higher freshets, and then only for a few days. The Soft Bed creek is a stream of inconsiderable extent, rising in the prairie hills, and flowing into the Little Prickly Pear. This last rises in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and flows through a cañon, with intervals of bottoms, until within three miles of the Missouri, when the hills that bound it recede, giving its valley a width of three miles. It drains a considerable extent of country, and in this vicinity is one of the larger tributaries of the Missouri.

Along the Soft Bed creek but slight work was required to secure a good road; so that, on the morning of the 31st of July, following up this creek to the hills in which it rises, we crossed these hills with moderate work, and at once fell upon another tributary of the Small Prickly Pear, which we called Hard Bed creek. This contains water only a portion of the year; its valley is from a fourth to a half mile in width, bounded by low timbered spurs, and is about eight miles long. We now entered upon the red sandstone and slate formation, the country generally giving every indication of the presence of gold; we followed this stream to its junction with the Small Prickly Pear, which last we crossed, and now entered upon the last point of material difficulty before reaching Fort Benton. The junction of the Hard Bed creek with the Little Prickly Pear affords one of those prairie intervals before referred to, which, at this point, is one by three miles in extent; at the eastern limit of this prairie the Little Prickly Pear again enters a deep rocky cañon, a perfect defile, leaving no berme on its either side. The difficulty drove us over a broken section, which we termed Medicine Rock mountain, and where we worked the road for four days. Its peculiar features of difficulty, and the short time allowed us in which to reach Fort Benton, where Major Blake awaited us with much impatience, all de-

(26) termined me to secure the cheapest and most rapid location; and, for this reason, after descending once more into the valley of this stream I made eighteen crossings, and again reached its more open valley within three miles of the Missouri river. This last was the nearest point of our road to the Missouri, until we reached it at Fort Benton.

On the Medicine Rock mountains we found traces of quartz, and continual indications of gold; one of my men found ten cent prospects in the Big Prickly Pear at the point where it enters the rocky defile referred to, and the Indians gave me to understand that two miles higher up the stream, in another cañon, gold had been found by them. The Medicine Rock section was by far the most difficult of any point along the entire line, from Hell's Gate to Fort Benton, and to it attention will again be given.

Completing this work by the 22d of July, we again moved forward over prairie hills for nineteen miles, when we reached the Dearborn river. We now left both the mountains and their spurs behind us, and emerged upon the broad, swelling prairies of the upper Missouri.

The Dearborn river rises in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and for six or eight miles winds through a deep sandstone gorge, when its hills gradually recede, giving place to prairie bottoms covered with cottonwood. Its stream is two hundred feet broad, and fordable, except during the freshet, at which period it is subject to rises that flood its banks and sweep everything before it. The party under Mr. Kolecki, sent to explore the valley of the Big Blackfoot, rejoined us here.

While encamped upon the banks of the Dearborn we were overtaken by Mr. W. W. Johnson, direct from Washington, with dispatches, setting forth a continuation of our appropriation, and orders countermanding instructions that had been issued relative to my command, and the action taken by Major Blake in regard to the same.

From the Dearborn, on the morning of the 27th of July, we traveled over an easy prairie region to a camp at the Bird Tail Rock, passing along the Beaver creek for three miles, and finding during this length an excellent location, requiring but little work. From thence, on the 28th, we proceeded to Sun river, crossing the same at a ford where is situated the Indian agency of the Blackfeet, then in charge of Colonel A. J. Vaughn.

At this point our work proper ceased, for the remaining distance of fifty-five miles to Fort Benton was over an easy and almost level prairie road, with no running streams. The prairie is thirteen hundred feet above the Missouri at the fort, and broken at its southern edge by deep coulées and ravines making into the river, and on its northern edge by similar formations making into the Teton river. A knowledge of the topographical face of this country would therefore show that a feasible line would lie over the high table land and between the heads of the coulées, on its either side, provided water was supplied. This is afforded by a lake sixteen miles to the eastward of the Sun river, and by springs seven miles to the east of the lake. These points subdivided the distance of fifty-five miles from the Sun river to Fort Benton into convenient day's marches. It will be readily seen that the character of the region immediately bordering the Missouri and Teton rivers precludes the possibility of carrying a road by either of these sections.

On the morning of the 29th of July, leaving a portion of my escort in camp on the Sun river to await my return, I divided the remainder of my party into four portions, each to proceed to Fort Benton by different routes; one to camp at the lake, one at the spring, the third to proceed to the Teton direct, and the last to move up the Sun river to the old Blackfoot mission, striking thence across to the Teton, and down it to Fort Benton. This was done for the purpose of examining the country, was well as to bring in a report of each route, which would enable me to judge which was the proper location for a permanent line.

(27) When the different reports were presented, I found that the one via the lake, the spring, and thence to the fort, possessed advantages over all the rest, and was consequently the one chosen for the permanent road.

The Sun river rises in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 48°, and empties into the Missouri about nine miles above the falls. Its border is fringed with cottonwood, and its valley is from one to three miles broad, possessing many tracts of arable land. The Blackfoot agency has large fields under cultivation, where wheat, oats, and every character of vegetable is raised. There are many beautiful agricultural tracts to the south of the Bird Tail Rock, along the many little creeks that rise in the broken section lying between it and the Missouri. Fuel is abundant, though timber for building purposes is scarce. Our different parties that left the Sun river on the 29th of July all reached Fort Benton by the 1st of August. Here we found Major Blake encamped, with three hundred recruits awaiting our arrival. We remained here until the 5th of August. A Mackinac boat built for a party to descend the Missouri to St. Louis, composed of discharged civilians and such soldiers as were near the expiration of their term of service, all under charge of Lieutenant J. L. White. This party made the trip without accident, and for a portion of the distance in company with one of the boats of Captain Raynolds, of the topographical engineers, who for three years had been exploring the country from Fort Laramie to the head waters of the Yellowstone and Missouri, and who had reached Fort Benton only two weeks in advance of our own party. The arrival of Captain Raynolds was of advantage to ourselves, as he was enabled to add to our transportation a large number of pack animals.

Every available means of transportation being turned over to Major Blake for the use of his command, and having completed all the arrangements that our mission called for, we left Fort Benton on the morning of the 5th of August, on our return to Fort Walla-Walla.

At Fort Benton Mr. Sohon was transferred to Major Blake, as a guide and interpreter to his command; Mr. Creighton, one of our wagonmasters, was also transferred, and to their joint good services Major Blake was largely indebted for the success of his march. Such other of my men as could be spared were also turned over to him, so that, so far as our means could supply him, he had nothing of which to complain.

My plan in returning was to pass rapidly over the line, keeping always in advance of the major, and making such repairs as the condition of the road called for and as time allowed. Having turned over to Major Blake's command every wagon taken by us to Fort Benton, and using pack animals ourselves, we were enabled to make excellent time till reaching the Hell's Gate valley, where, having left a few wagons, we were enabled to put our pack animals into harness and used wagon transportation for the remainder of the distance. Our work in returning was limited to repairing the road, excepting at points more especially referred to hereafter. We made no radical change in the location, except in passing from Belknap's camp to the Deer Lodge valley.

Having sent forward my wagonmaster, Mr. Caldwell, to examine this section, and it being pronounced by him practicable for wagons with a moderate amount of work, I determined to adopt it, and thus avoid the three last crossings of Hell's Gate and the four of the Little Blackfoot. It rendered the road longer by three miles; but the avoiding of these streams at high water was an object of great importance, and this is at present the permanent location of the road; thence to the Bitter Root ferry our movements were rapid and our work light. Entering the timbered region of the Bitter Root mountains where the more difficult section of the road lies, repairs became more frequently necessary; we had originally cut the stumps as close the ground as possible, but the road having been travelled, the melting snows of the past winter had washed away the soil from the roots, causing them, from their height, to constitute material obstacles. It was, of

(28) course, impossible to cut them down again this season, and hence, determining to make this a special work for the next summer, I limited myself to making such repairs as immediate necessity called for.

My health during this time had seriously failed me, and I had to intrust the general charge of the work to Lieutenant Lyon and Mr. W. W. Johnson. We pushed forward with the repairs until reaching the Coeur d'Aléne mission, where we arrived on the 1st of September. During this period of the march many despatches were sent back to Major Blake, advising him what camping points to make, and to so divide the distance as to facilitate his movements in passing the belt of timber.

On reaching the Coeur d'Aléne mission I divided my party into two portions, one under Lieutenant Lyon, to proceed towards Walla-Walla, keeping up the repairs of the road in advance of Major Blake and awaiting me on the banks of the Touchet river, employing his men in the meantime in building there a new bridge; with the other party under my own supervision, I returned to the third crossing of the Coeur d'Aléne, to there erect a pier in the middle of the stream, with a view of testing the force of the current and obtaining in the spring fixed facts regarding the rise of the water, as these would be of value in preparing the general programme of my next season's operations, which I intended to lay before the department.

This was done: a triangular pyramid of fir logs twenty-seven feet long, twelve feet broad and ten feet high was erected, with a floor fitted with rock, and left until the following spring. My party, on completing this, resumed the march towards Walla-Walla, reaching the advance camp on the Touchet by the last of September. Here, uniting our forces, the bridge, except its covering, was finished in a few days, the hewn pine timber for its construction being hauled twelve miles, as nothing but cottonwood was found nearer its site. Completing this structure, we reached Fort Walla-Walla in two marches, where, discharging my men and returning my escort to the companies to which they belonged, I brought to a conclusion a long and tedious work constituting my second expedition. The command of Major Blake had made the trip without accident in fifty-seven days, and were now encamped at Fort Walla-Walla; on reaching the Coeur d'Aléne mission they had been met by a pack train from Fort Colville, and by that means turned over one hundred and fifty recruits to the companies there stationed; another portion was turned over at Walla-Walla, while the remainder proceeded to the Dalles and Fort Vancouver. Thus ended this military experiment via the upper Missouri and Columbia rivers; and the success that attended it, the good effects that it induced, the economy resulting, and the eulogistic manner in which each officer of the command referred to the trip, all constitute a sufficient commentary upon its feasibility for future movements towards the north Pacific.

On reaching Fort Benton I had sent Mr. Kolecki to Washington with my field note books, giving him instructions to commence the compilation of our maps. My instructions for the winter contemplated my compiling certain maps at Walla-Walla, but, as the note books necessary for the purpose had been sent off, I was left comparatively idle. The instructions from the War Department required that I should lay before them a plan of operations for the next season's work. Accordingly I prepared one that looked toward resuming work from the Pacific slope, and sent it to the department; but, on comparing a table of statistics of cost of labor and material on the Pacific with a similar table for the Missouri, I became convinced that the latter was the more judicious. My second programme looked toward outfitting at Fort Leavenworth, and proceeding via Fort Laramie to the Deer Lodge valley, where I should spend the winter of 1861, and then press the work vigorously toward Walla-Walla, reaching there by the winter of 1862. This would also enable me to test the value of the Laramie and Deer Lodge route, which had always been with me a favorite measure, give me two long working seasons, and subserve all the requsities of

(29) economy and efficiency. To carry out the plan I proceeded to Washington in the stage from San Francisco to St. Louis, via the southern overland route, and laid my views before the department. On my arrival in Washington I found affairs in a somewhat chaotic state, a change of administration at hand, my first project already indorsed and returned to me, and seeing so many difficulties interpose, I was forced to relinquish my Laramie scheme and procede back to Walla-Walla, reaching there early in April. Immediately organizing my expedition, I was ready to proceed again to the mountains by the 13th of May, 1861. An escort of one hundred men from the 9th infantry was detailed to accompany my command, with Lieutenants Wickliffe and Marsh, and Dr. Lewis Taylor. The former soon resigned his commission and the latter exchanged places with Dr. George Hammond, United States army.

The change that had been wrought by the settlement of the country since the date of my second expedition compelled me to modify that portion of the road from Walla-Walla to the Snake river by changing the crossing point of that stream from the mouth of the Toukanon to the mouth of the Palouse. At the latter point a ferry had been established, chartered by the legislature of Washington Territory, to meet the wants of the Colville travel.

Making the mouth of the Palouse a point of my route likewise enabled me to avoid all the crossings of that stream. The bridge across the Touchet and Dry creek were now completed, and, with the road thoroughly worked from the former to the Snake, left this stretch of forty miles in good order. The distance from the Touchet to the Snake river is twenty-seven miles, with springs seven miles north of the former, and the remaining portion of twenty miles is the longest section without water on the whole route.

From what I had seen of the wet and mucky character of the St. Joseph's valley in early spring, I found that we should be compelled this season to cross the Spokane river and skirt the northern rim of the Coeur d'Aléne lake, opening a new section of thirty miles from the lake to the mission. To this end I had the line explored in September, 1861, by Mr. W. W. Johnson, whose report is herewith appended. This latter, though not furnishing the minutiæ that the location afterwards demanded, tended at least to give me general facts to guide my judgment.

Crossing the Snake by the 20th of May, we worked the road up the bluffs on its right bank and gained the table land, when we had no difficulty in making a camp on the Palouse, fourteen miles from the former river. I availed myself at this time to make a visit to the falls of the Palouse, which are situated nine miles above its mouth. During a high stage of water they form a beautiful and interesting falls. The whole river, which for a mile or more has been confined to a narrow cañon, here leaps in a single sheet over a rocky ledge into an octagonal basin one hundred feet below. The sides of this basin are perfectly black, and the belt of foam, with the spray and mist rising from its base, renders the whole a picturesque scene well worthy of a visit. There are other lesser falls above, but none worthy particular mention. Mr. Sohon has made a very truthful sketch of the larger. Occurring, as they do, in an most uninteresting region, with no signs of habitation or life to break the dreary silence of travel, they serve in a most pleasing manner to break the monotony of this desolate waste.

Leaving the Palouse on the morning of the 21st of May, we journeyed over the prairie hills to Cow creek, a distance of eleven miles, having an excellent road. The Colville wagon road from Walla-Walla is one and the same with our own up to this point; thence it tends up the Cow creek, while our own leads, towards the east in the direction of Antoine Plant's ferry on the Spokane. This ferry is chartered by the legislature of Washington Territory, and, being already established by a fixed settler, I determined to make it a point of my route.

Leaving the Cow creek on the morning of the 22d of May, we moved 18 miles over an easy, open prairie country, with light work, to Aspen Grove;

(30) springs of water were passes en route. From thence our next march was to a chain of laggons, distant 2 1/2 miles, for which distance we still had an excellent prairie road; and from thence to Rock creek, crossing it at the same point made by our old location. Rock creek rises in the Spokane plains, and flowing mostly through a basalt and red sandstone formation, unites with other small streams, and pours its tribute into the Palouse river. There is no country for settlement immediately on this creek, but back a mile or so small patches of arable land exist; this entire district is a pine timbered plain, the timber being in strips of from one to six miles broad, and extending from the Spokane as far south as the Palouse, near the Mocahlissia. From Rock creek, in 13 1/2 miles, we reached Lake Williamson, a beautiful sheet of water in spring, but which evaporates by early autumn. It receives the drainage of a large portion of the Spokane plain, and is surrounded by a fine growth of pine; bordering its margin we also find an excellent tract of fertile soil. Water can be obtained from springs that exist in the neighborhood at all seasons, and there is a smaller lake a mile to the westward, where it may always be had.

From Lake Williamson, in six miles, we reached Hangman's creek, the valley of which is four hundred feet below the Spokane plain; this involved a cut of one-third of a mile, at the end of which we reached the point selected for a crossing. This stream was now quite swollen, and we camped upon it for four days, while building a bridge fifty feet long. Having improved the road in advance, we moved on towards the Spokane at Antoine Plant's, reaching that point on the 1st of June, a distance of 12 1/2 miles from Fort Walla-Walla; at this point we were joined by another portion of the escort, which had marched from Fort Colville under Lieutenant Harker of the 9th infantry; these fully completed the complement of men originally intended for the expedition.

The ferry at the Spokane is a good one, consisting of a strong cable stretched across the river, and a boat forty feet long; it is kept by a very worthy man, Antoine Plant, a half-breed Flathead Indian, who speaks both French and English; he has a small field under cultivation on the left bank, near the ferry landing, from which he obtains corn, wheat, and vegetables; these, with the salmon found in the river, form an abundant supply for his Indian family. The winters here are generally mild, and stock range the hills and plains the whole season, no provision for forage being made. Small tracts of good soil are found bordering the river, as well as two or three miles back; several of these are under cultivation by the Indians, and a few Frenchmen; one of the finest of these is on the south bank, about ten miles from Antoine's, in a re-entering angle of the mountains; here the Coeur d'Aléne Indians have small farms enclosed. This latter region is said to be one of the mildest sections in the Spokane country; little snow falls, and it is protected by long spurs of mountains; these advantages, together with running brooks and perennial springs, will render it a choice locality as the country become settled.

Effecting safely the crossing of the Spokane river, which is here three hundred feet broad and eight deep, with rapid current and high banks, on the morning of the 3d of June we moved up its right bank to a camp at Seltisse's farm, distant nineteen miles. We had an excellent road, fifteen miles of which was over level prairie, and the remainder through a beautiful open pine forest; work in clearing away the fallen timber was all that was required. We passed, during this march, an Indian burial ground of the Coeur d'Alénes, where a cross, erected over each grave, testified to the cheering fruits of the labors of the noble Jesuit fathers in their midst. Seltisse is a worthy Coeur d'Aléne Indian, who has several acres under cultivation, and with hunting, fishing, and tilling the soil, leads the life of an independent chief; I have always found him frank, honest, and friendly.

From his farm we reached in four miles a considerable creek that drains a small sheet of water to the north, and empties into the Coeur d'Aléne lake;

(31) here we entered a difficult belt of timber, extending for thirty miles to the Coeur d'Aléne mission. I determined, therefore, to make this a depot point for such provisions as we had with us, and send a wagon train back to the mouth of the Palouse, where the steamers were to deposit the remainder. Perfecting these arrangements, I set my men at work-a portion building a bridge over the stream, and the remainder making a side cut in the spurs that jutted upon the lake. Mr. Sohon, with a small party and an Indian guide, was kept in advance to mark out the road, and give us, in full detail, the features of the country. This thirty miles of new road was a difficult undertaking, and occupied us until the first of August. The country was broken, and unfavorable to our purposes, but we took advantage of its features as far as possible, following the bottoms of small creeks, and only cutting through the dense timber when it could not be avoided; by these means eventually securing a fair location. The Wolf's Lodge prairie, with an area of a mile square, occurs midway between the mission and the lake, and, with the fine grasses on the hills that surround it, constitutes a fixed and favorable camping ground. Traces of gold are said to have been found in it; and I had myself come across a small camp of men here on my return from the mission in 1862. Quartz is found on many of the neighboring hills, and rumor would set forth that this immediate section was favorable for gold developments. Reaching the Coeur d'Aléne mission, we united with our old road of 1859.

Having abandoned the St. Joseph location, I sent a party to remove the ferry-boat from that river to the Coeur d'Aléne, at its first crossing. My work from this point forward during the first season was to improve the road by cutting the stumps close to the ground, avoiding as many crossings of the Coeur d'Aléne and St. Regis Borgia rivers as possible, by side cuts along the mountains, and by bridging those I could not avoid, and, finally to select a mild and sheltered point for passing the winter. With these objects in view, my entire force was divided into sections of from four to twenty men, with a chief. Each being assigned a bridge to build and the road between two crossings to repair. To each was given wagons drawn by oxen for hauling the heavy timbers, and having blocks and tackles to assist. With these arrangements we made light work of the bridging. All spans over fifty feet required piers, which were filled with rock from the bed of the stream. As soon as one bridge was finished the party in charge would move forward to another. The bridge and abutment sites were all selected by myself, and this system was kept up until the whole was completed. The timber used was red fir and white pine for the framework, and red and white cedar and red fir for covering. We continued bridging the crossings of the Coeur d'Aléne until we reached its forks, when the stream, becoming smaller, no longer absolutely demanded it; but the rou