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Show 133 [ 174 ] Where we descended into this beautiful valley, it is thre' to four miles iu breadth, perfectly level, and bounded by rllOllntainous ridges, 011e above another, rising suddenly from tile plain. Aunexed is a map of that portion of the river along which passes the emigrant road. Iu its character of level bottoms, endosed between abrupt mountains, it presents a type of the strean1s of this re~iou. We contintlCu our roac.l down the river, and at uight encamped with a family of emigrants-two tnen, women, and several children-who appeared to be bringing up the rear of the great caru van. I was struck with the fine appearance of their cattle, some six or eight yoke of oxen, which / really looked as well as if they bad been all the snmtuer at work on some good farm. It was stra11ge to ·ee one small tllntily travelling alon" through such a conutry, so remote from civilizatiou. orne nine years . iuce, such a secnrity might have been a fatal one; bnt since their disastrous defeats in the country a little north, the Blackfeet have ceased to visit these waters. llldians, however, are very uncertain in their locali ties; and the friendly feelings, also, of those now iultabitiug it may be changed. According to barometrical observo,tion at noon, the elevation of the valley was 6,400 feet above the sea; and our encampment at night in latitude 42° 03' 47'', ancllougitnde 111° 10' 53", by observation-the day's journey having been 26 miles. This encampment was therefore witltin the territorial limit of the United States; our trav lliug, from the tirnc we eutered the valley of the Green river, on the !5th of Augu t, having been to the 3outh of the 42d degree of uorth latitude, and consequently on Mexican territory; and this is the route all the emigrants now travel to Oregon. The temperature at unset was G5°; and at evening there was a distant thunder storm, with a light breeze from the north. A11telopo ~UJd elk were seen dnring the day on tlle opposite prairie; and there were ducks and geese itt the river. The next morning, in about three miles from or1r encampment, we reached Smith's fork, a stream of clear water, al>ont 50 feet iu breadth. It is timbered with cottonwood, willow, alJd aspen, and makes a beautiful debonchemeut through a pass about GOO yartls wiuc, bet ween remarkable mountain hills, rising abruptly on either ide, and forming gigantic columns to the gate by~ which it enters Bear river valley. The bottoms, which below Smith's fork had been two miles wide, narrowed, as we advauced, to a gap 500 yards wide; and dnriug the greater part of the day we had a winding route, the river making very sharp and sudden beuds, the mouutain~ steep and rocky, and the valley occasionally so un.rrow as only to leave space for a passage through. · We made onr IJalt at noon in a fertile bottom, where tho comrnon blue flax was growing abttlldantly, a few miles below tl.te month of Thotnas's fork, oue of the larger triuutarie~ of the river. Crossiug, in the afteruoon, the point of a narrow spnr, we descended into a beautiful bottom, formed by a lateral valley, which prcscntetl a picture of home beauty that went directly to our hearts. The edge of the wood, fur several miles along the river, was dotted with the white covers of emigrant '~~gons, collected in groups at different camps, where the smokes ~vere nswg lazily from the fires, around which the women were occupied m preparing the eveuing meal, and the children playing in tho grass; and herds of co,ttle, grazing about in the bottom, had an air of quiet security, |
