drawn by the attraction of the gold hidden in the bosom of that remote land. There are three cities with names there already, namely, Bannock, Virginia and Gallatin. All that country, for an immense distance east of the mountains, has recently been admitted into the Union under the name of Montana Territory.
The sources of the Three Forks, as well as those of the Yellowstone, Dearborn and Sun rivers, are interlaced with the sources of several tributaries of the two great branches of the Columbia, Lewis' and Clark's Forks, known by their primitive names of Snake and Flathead rivers.
From the sources of the Three Forks to the Great Falls of the Missouri, about 500 miles, the waters incline northward; then, taking an east-north-east direction, they reach their northernmost extension at the mouth of White Earth river, at 48° 2o' north latitude. Thence the general course of the river is southeast, until its junction with the Mississippi, in latitude 38° 5o' north and longitude go' io' west.
At about 411 miles from its first sources, the Missouri passes through the Gate of the Mountains, where it is compressed into a width of 150 yards. The floods rush tumultuously and swiftly along for a distance of six miles; the cliffs rise perpendicularly from the water's surface to a height of 1,2oo feet, with a sort of jutting edge, where a
man can hardly stand erect. This channel, scoured out by the impetuosity of the water, resembles the remarkable Dalles of the Columbia.
The Missouri proper commences at the confluence of the Three Forks, which come down from the mountains at almost equal distances and parallel with one another.
Between the Gate of the Mountains and the Great Falls (110 miles) the first tributaries of the Missouri are the Prickly Pear, Beaver, Camas, Dearborn and Sun rivers, with some other smaller streams or mountain torrents. The two last-named rivers are the most considerable.
The Great Falls of the Missouri are in the midst of a desolate and sterile region; they give it an aspect of gran-