hundred horses, belonging to
the exploration, are wintered in the valley; and up to the 9th of March
the grass was fair, but little snow had fallen, and the weather was
mild. The oxen and cows, owned here by the half-breeds and Indians,
obtain good feed, and are in good condition."[J]

This village of St Mary's is sixty miles down the valley from the Big
Hole Pass; yet, though so near, snow seldom falls, and the grass is so
verdant that horses and cattle subsist the year round on the natural
pasturage.

Lieutenant Mullan says of it: "The fact of the exceedingly mild winters
in this valley has been noticed and remarked by all who have ever been
in it during the winter season. It is the home of the Flathead Indians,
who, through the instrumentality and exertions of the Jesuit priests,
have built up a village,--not of logs, but of houses,--where they repair
every winter, and, with this valley covered with an abundance of rich
and nutritious grass, they live as comfortably as any tribe west of the
Rocky Mountains....

"The numerous mountain rivulets, tributary to the Bitter Root River,
that run through the valley, afford excellent and abundant mill-seats;
and the land bordering these is fertile and productive, and has been
found, beyond cavil or doubt, to be well suited to every branch of
agriculture. I have seen oats, grown by Mr. John Owen, that are as heavy
and as excellent as any I have ever seen in the States; and the same
gentleman informs me that he has grown excellent wheat, and that, from
his experience while in the mountains, he hesitated not in saying that
agriculture might be carried on here in all its numerous branches, and
to the exceeding great interest and gain of those engaged in it. The
valley and mountain slopes are well timbered with an excellent growth of
pine, which is equal, in every respect, to the well-known pine of
Oregon. The valley is not only capable of grazing immense bands of stock
of every kind, but is also capable of supporting a dense population.

"The provisions of Nature here, therefore, are on no small scale, and of
no small importance; and let those who have imagined--as some have been
bold to say it--that there exists only one immense bed of mountains at
the head-waters of the Missouri to the Cascade Range, turn their
attention to this section, and let them contemplate its advantages and
resources, and ask themselves, since these things exist, can it be long
before public attentio