Inasmuch as Bridger came to the mountains with General Ashley in 1823, and was guide during the Indian wars as late as 1865, it may be accepted that he ought to know.

"On the 21st," Bonneville's party "camped amid the high and beetling cliffs of indurated clay and sandstone, bearing the semblance of towers, castles, churches, and fortified cities. At a distance it is scarcely possible to persuade one's self that the works of art were not mingled with these fantastic freaks of nature."

Five years earlier Joshua Pilcher lias similarlv remarked their formation.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

NEZ PERCE AND CROW INDIANS -- CROW CREEK NAMED

After arriving at the famous mountain, Bonneville gives an abbreviated story of the naming of "Scotts, Bluff" which has been heretofore given in detail. The story then continues :

"Amid the wild and striking scenery, Captain Bonneville for the first time beheld flocks of ahsahta or bighorn, an animal which frequents the cliffs in great numbers. They accord with the nature of the scenery, and add much to its romantic effect; bounding like goats from crag to crag, often trooping along the lofty shelves of the mountain under the guide of some venerable patriarch, with horns twisted lower than his muzzle, and sometimes peering over the edge of a precipice, so high that they appear scarce bigger than crows. Indeed, it seems to be a pleasure to them to seek the most rugged and frightful situations, doubtless from the feeling of security."

On the 22nd of June, Captain Bonneville negotiated the passage of the big gap in the mountain, experiencing considerable difficulty. Thus were wagons taken over this road for the first time in history, and the gateway between the mountains and the plain on the south side of the river opened -- a gateway through which has since poured enough people to populate an empire.