Year: 1869

hesers. Jay Cooke u Co., OF this city, have
received the following letter from the Chief
Engineer Of the party engaged in exploring the
route Of the Northern Pacific Railroad:--


CAMP No. 10, JocKo RIVER, Montana,


August o.


Messrs. Jay Cooke & Coin this region, as
well all other regions have explored during
the past years of my engineering life, meet
with wise people who can point out "dead level"
routes through the most mountainous country
They mean well, but the difficulty is, that not
having their minds iamiliarized with railroads,
gradients, and curvatures, they do not possess
the knowledge that would enable them TO Judge
so as to give value to their opinions, so that
nearly all they say on that subject "passes by me
as the idle Winds etc


The most amusing and most candid man l
have just encountered is an old stager at Fort
Owen. He was relating to us his correspon-
dence with prominent railroad man, and said
"this railroad friend wrote to me to give him iu-
formation about gradients and curvatures.
What in the world do / know about gradients
and curvatures? l know about the country and
about Indians; but gradients and curvatures be
hanged; how can l tell anything about them ?"


MIR. Moorhead came in last evening in time to
give us n real feast on several dozens of the
incest kind of trout, from six to eight inches
long, and one big fello,o.


This is the first time have put myself under
q tent on this expedition; in fact, this is only
the second time that tent has been set up. 1t
is now raining gently. Major Owens has a fort
named after him, and he now resides at Fort
Owens. lie confirms the universal report,
which we have had everywhere along this part
of the Pacific slope, of the remarkable drought
and absence OF rain the west side of the
Rocky Mountains. Notwithstanding the dryness
find that grain and vegetables thrive in this
Jocko valley, even without artificial irrigation;
and yet we had no dew either last night or the
night before; and much warmer nights than we
had two or three hundred miles back


We are now about 1856 miles, by our trail, from
Walla Walla, which place we left on July 90
We have rested three Sundays, SO that we have
travelled seventeen days, one OF which, namely
the day we stayed ut Pend dOreille, should be
deducted, leaving sixteen days of actual move
ment, which divided into 1856 gives an average
of "a miles day. This is very good marching
with pack animals Yesterday, when about
three miles out from our camp, was alone on
prairie heard n sound which Mt first | thought
was the noise the grasshoppers OF this region
make; but something caused me TO turn towards
it, when ! saw a rattlesnake about ~ feet long
coiled and rattling away. / had passed him,
and my horse, although within less than ten feet,
had paid no attention to his snakeship. | then
took my horse off about hundred yards and
left him loose, for there was nothing to hitch
him to, and returned to the snake. fired one
shot and came so near missing, that did not hit
him. He then began to glide off, when chased





heel according to the scriptural Injunction, after
which cut off his eight rattles and put them
away as the trophy of the first rattlesnake seen
on our route from Walla Walla, though we have
heard enough concerning them.


Although it rained this morning gently for
several hours, il resulted in very little; the
smoke between us and the sun this afternoon is
nearly the same as ii has been all along.
needed no smoked glass yesterday to look at the


Camp No. 81, August IA, near mouth of Divide
creek, at its entrance into Wisdom or Big Hole
river, an important tributary OF the Missouri
river, 6 A. NJ.


Yes, | am on the eastern side of the Rocky
Mountains at present. We RETURN however, to-
day fifty miles or more to Deer Lodge City,
where we will pass tomorrow Sunday. We
were escorted yesterday up the Deer Lodge river
to its source, and over the Deer Lodge pass
"divide" into this valley at the head of one of
the sources of the Missouri river.


The Deer Lodge River valley is charming, and
presents highly favorable ground for a railroad
all the way to the summit, about forty miles
above Dear Lodge city. On our way, when
about twenty miles out, we stopped and walked
about half mile over to the Deer Lodge Warm
Springs, which are very remarkable-the water
boils up in a number of places, and in the midst
is a rocky mound, thirty feet in diameter at the
top and one hundred and thirty feet in diameter
at the bottom, and on the top OF the mound there
are two springs boiling up freely about five feet
apart, one at the temperature of lob deg. and
the other 122 deg, one of the largest that
tested at the bottom was l6l deg, so hot that
one could not keep their hand in it, the strange
part of the mount is that it is all formed by the
sprinqs The water contains the material, which,
in concentrie layers gradually becomes rock


There is some iron in it, the water has pecu-
liar taste, different from any L ever tasted,
though not strong. The coolest spring tested
bv us was 90 degrees. We tried eight of them
A man named Belanger, a Frenchman, and
Allen have pre-empted the 100 acres on which
the mound stands They have put up rauche
and small bath house. but no one lives there
vet. At some future day this may become a
Valuable possession when the railroad shall be
running through this part of the world. The
approach to the Deer Lodge Pass OF the Rocky
Mountains on both sides, is by very gentle
grade far more smooth and Nalley-hke than
any meuntain divide nave ever seen.


In fact to me il has proved one OF the most
wonderful objects that I have ever encountered
in my long engineering experience. NO one
unacouainted with the fact could by possibility
imagine that he was crossing mountain oi any
kind, much less the great back bone OF the Aue-
rican continent. The approach Is Vy gentlc
slopes which are treeIess and carpeted with the
finest bunch-grass to the very summit. IL Is so
fiat that it is rather difficult to determine by the
eye where precisely it is. But the most re-
markable fact connected with this divide Is that
the miners have cut ditch across the summit
(which conveys the water of Divide creek from
its course on the eastern slope OF the mountaiR
over to the western slope where they use II IN
their mining operations for gold washing Inc
ditch at the deepest place on the crest OF the
summit (where without this water level guide 1t
would be hard to find it) Is Is feet, cut through
clay. No rock is found in the excavation, nor
is the smallest rock or boulder found for about
two miles either way istOod astride of the water,
passing from the eastern over to the western
side OF the Rocky Mountains, diverted from its
natural outlet the Gulf of Mexico, to flow into
the North Pacific Ocean. Warm Spring creek, is
hall mile from the mound and springs, on our