My readers who have never seen the plains, rivers, cañons, rocks, and mountains of the portion of our country travelled by these companies, can form but a faint idea from any description given by them of the innumerable and formidable difficulties with which every mile of this weary march was encumbered. History has assigned a foremost place among its glorified deeds to the passage of the Alps by Napoleon, and to the long and discouraging march of the French army under the same great conqueror to Russia. If it be not invidious to compare small things with great, we may assuredly claim for these early pioneers greater conquests over nature on their journey through the northwestern wilderness than were made by either of the great military expeditions of Napoleon. In addition to natural obstacles equally formidable and of continual occurrence for more than a thousand miles, their route lay through an unexplored region, beset by hostile Indians, bristling with mountain peaks, pierced with large streams, and unmarked with a single line of civilization. Their cattle and horses were obliged to subsist upon the scanty herbage which put forth in early spring. Swollen by the melting snows of the mountains, the streams, fordable in midsummer, could now be crossed only by boats, and frequently the passage of a single creek consumed a week of time. Seeking for passes around and through the ranges, ascending them when no such conveniences could be found, passing through cañons, and clambering rocks, filled the path of empire through western America with discouragement and disaster. [Illustration: GRANVILLE STUART _Who set the first sluices in Montana_ ]