I should judge that our camp to-night is thirty-five to forty miles
above the point where Captain William Clark, of the famous Lewis and
Clark expedition, embarked with his party in July, 1806, in two
cottonwood canoes bound together with buffalo thongs, on his return to
the states. It was from that point also that some six hundred residents
of Montana embarked for a trip to the states, in forty-two flat boats,
in the autumn of 1865.[C] We learn from Mr. Boteler that there are some
twenty-five lodges of Crow Indians up the valley.[D]


Wednesday, August 24.--It rained nearly all of last night, but
Lieutenant Doane pitched his large tent, which was sufficiently
capacious to accommodate us all by lying "heads and tails," and we were
very comfortable. Throughout the forenoon we had occasional showers, but
about noon it cleared away, and, after getting a lunch, we got under
way. During the forenoon some of the escort were very successful in
fishing for trout. Mr. Everts was not well enough to accompany us, and
it was arranged that he should remain at Boteler's ranch, and that we
would move about twelve miles up the river, and there await his arrival.
Our preparations for departure being completed, General Washburn
detailed a guard of four men to accompany the pack train, while the rest
of the party rode on ahead. We broke camp at 2:30 p.m. with the pack
train and moved up the valley. At about six miles from our camp we
crossed a spur of the mountain which came down boldly to the river, and
from the top we had a beautiful view of the valley stretched out below
us, the stream fringed with a thin bordering of trees, the foot hills
rising into a level plateau covered with rich bunch grass, and towering
above all, the snow-covered summits of the distant mountains rising
majestically, seemingly just out of the plateau, though they were many
miles away. Above us the valley opened out wide, and from the