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Show • [ 174 J 162 runs nlon(l' tbe upland plain nearly to its mouth, and an nbrupt (lcscent of pet haps too feet broug~1t us down immcdiatel.y t~pon the stream, which at the foru is 100 yards wtde and 3 feet deep, w1th clear water, a swift cur. rent, alld gravelly bed; but a little higher up the breadth was only about 35 yard with ~pparently deep water. ln the 'twttom I remarked a very great number of springs and sloughs, with remarkably clear water and gravel beds. At sunset we encamped with Mr. Taluot and our friends, who <:ame on to Fort II all when we went to thr Ial<e, and whom we had the satisfaction to find all well, neither party J1aving met with any mi8chance in the interval of our separation. They, too, had had their shar·,~ of fati~ue and scanty provisions, a there had been very little game left on the trail of the populoua emip;ration; and Mr. Fitzpatt ick had rigidly husband ed our sto(•k of flour and light provi ions, in view of the approaching winter and the long journey before us. September 19.- This mot ning the sky was very dark and gloomy, and at daylight it bPgan snowing thickly, and continued all day, with cold, disagreeahlc weather. At sunrise the temperature was 43°. 1 rode up to the fort, and purchased from 1\fr. Grant (the officer in charge of the post) sev· eral very indifferent horses, and live oxen in very fine order, which were received nt the camp with great sati::d'action; and, 011e being killed at evening, the usual t:;;tycty and good humor were at once restored. Night came in stormy. September 20.-We had a night of snow aud rain , and the thermometer at sunri~c was at 34c; the morning was dark, with a steudy rain, nnd there was still an inch of snow on the ground, with an abundance on the ucigh· boring hills and mountains. The sudden change in the wettther was hatd for our animals, who tremoled and shivered in the cold-sometimes taking refuge in the timber, and now and then coming out and raking the snow off the ground for a little grass, or eating the young willows. Sq~tPmber ~1 .-Ice made tolerably thick during the night, and in t.he mornmg the weather cleared up very bri<rht, with a temperature at sunnse of 29°; and I obtailled a meridian obser~ation for latitude at the fort, with observations for time. The sky was again covered in the after noon, and the thermometer at sunset 48°. September 22.-The mornin<, was cloudy and unpleasant and at sunrise ld . 0 ' a co ram commenced, with a temperature of 41°. The early ?J>proach of winter, and the difficulty of supporting a large J~arty, detenruned me to send back a number of the men who had become sati.sfied thn~ thry were not fitted for the laborious service and frequent pri· vatto~ to whtch they were necessarily exposed, and which there was reaeon to beheve would become more severe in the further extension of the voyage. I accordingly called them toO'ether and informino· them of my intention to t' . . t:' ' ' ':;) , . h con mue our JOurney dunng the ensuing winter, in the course of w 11~ they .":ould probaoly be exposed to considerable hardship, succeeded tn p~evallmg upon a number of them to return voluntarily. These were: Charles D~ Fones~, Henry Lee, .J. Campbell, Wm. Creuss, A. Vasquez,~· re~a, Patnck Wlnte, B. Tesson, M. Creely, Franc·ois Lajeunesse, Basil aJeunesse. Among these, I regretted very much t<)' lose Basil Lajeuness~, one. of the best men in my party who was obliged by the condition of hiS farmly , to b~ a· t 11 om~ I·n t 11 0 comin' g winter. Our pr'e parations IJavJ·O g been. comp~eted 10 the mte~val of our s!ay here, both parties were ready thJS mornmg to resume the1r respective routes. \ • 163 [ 174 J Except that there is a f!;rcater quantity of wood used in its construction, Fort Hall vrry much resembles the other trading posts which have been already described to you, and would be another excellent po5t of relief for the emigration. It is in the low, rich bottom of a valley, apparently 20 miles long, formed by the confluencr of Portneuf river with Lewis's fork of the Columbia, which it enters about nine miles below the fort, and narrowing gradually to the mouth of the Pannack river, where it bas a breadth of only two or thrcr miles. Allowing 50 miles for the roao from the Beer springs of Bear river to Fort Hall, its distance along the travelled road frotu the town of Westport, on the frontier of Missouri, by way of Fort Laramie and the great South Pass, is 1,323 miles: Beyond this place, on the line of road along the barren valley of the Upper Columbia, there does not occur, for a distance of nearly three hundred miles to the westward, a fertile spot of ground sulliciently large to produce the necessary quantity of grain, or pasturage enough to allow even a temporary repose to the emigrants. On their recent pa sage, they had been ahlc to obtain, at very high prices and in insuflicient quantity, only such assistance as could be afforded by a small and remote trading post-and that a foreign one-which, in the supply of its own wants, had necessarily drawn around it some of the resources of civilization, but which obtained nearly all its supplies from the distant depot of Vancouver, by a diflicult water carriage of 250 miles up the Columbia river, and a land caniage by pack horses of 600 miles. An American military post sufficiently strong to give to their road a perfect security against the Indian tribes, who arc unsettled in locality and very uncertain in their disposition, and which, with the necessary facilities for the repair of their equipage, would be able to afford them relief in stock and ~rain from the produce of the post, would be of extraordinary value to the emigration. Such a post (and all others which may be established on the line to Oregon) would naturalJy form the nucleus of a settlement, at which supplies ~nd repose would be obtained by the emigrant, or trading caravans, whtch may hereafter traverse these elevated, and, in many places, desolate and inhospitable regions . . 1 subjoin an analysis of the soil in the river bottom near Fort Ilall, which wtll be of assistance in enabling you to form some correct idea of its general character in the neighboring country. I characterize it as good land but the analysis will show its precise properties. ' Silica Alumina _ Carbonate of lime Carbonate of ma(l'nesia Oxide of iron ~ _ Organic vegetable matter Water and loss - _ Analysis of soil. 68.55 7.45 8.51 5.09 1.40 4.74 4.26 100.00 ?ur,~hserv,ations place this post in lon~itude 112~ 29' 54", latitude 43° 01T30 .' ~nd m elevation above the ~ea 4,500 feet. ukwg leave of the homenrard party, we resumed our journey down |