Montana to the falls and lakes of the Yellowstone, and return.  They will be supplied with thirty days’ rations, and one hundred rounds of ammunition per man.  The acting assistant quarter-master will furnish them with the necessary transportation.

By order of Major Baker.

J.G.  MacADAMS,
First Lieutenant Second Cavalry. 
Acting Post Adjutant.

The names of the soldiers are Sergeant William Baker and Privates John Williamson, George W. McConnell, William Leipler and Charles Moore.  This number, added to our own company of nine, will give us fourteen men for guard duty, a sufficient number to maintain a guard of two at all times, with two reliefs each night, each man serving half of a night twice each week.  Our entire number, including the packers and cooks, is nineteen (19).

Along the trail, after leaving Fort Ellis, we found large quantities of the “service” berry, called by the Snake Indians “Tee-amp.”  Our ascent of the Belt range was somewhat irregular, leading us up several sharp acclivities, until we attained at the summit an elevation of nearly two thousand feet above the valley we had left.  The scene from this point is excelled in grandeur only by extent and variety.  An amphitheatre of mountains 200 miles in circumference, enclosing a valley nearly as large as the State of Rhode Island, with all its details of pinnacle, peak, dome, rock and river, is comprehended at a glance.  In front of us at a distance of twenty miles, in sullen magnificence, rose the picturesque range of the Madison, with the insulated rock, Mount Washington, and the sharp pinnacle of Ward’s Peak prominently in the foreground.  Following the range to the right for the distance of twenty-five miles, the eye rests upon that singular depression where, formed by the confluent streams of the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin, the mighty Missouri commences its meanderings to the Gulf.  Far beyond these, in full blue outline, are defined the round knobs of the Boulder mountains, stretching away and imperceptibly commingling with the distant horizon.  At the left, towering a thousand feet above the circumjacent ranges, are the glowering peaks of the Yellowstone, their summits half enveloped in clouds, or glittering with perpetual snow.  At our feet, apparently within jumping distance, cleft centrally by its arrowy river, carpeted with verdure, is the magnificent valley of the Gallatin, like a rich emerald in its gorgeous mountain setting.  Fascinating as was this scene we gave it but a glance, and turned our horses’ heads towards the vast unknown.  Descending the range to the east, we reached Trail creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, where we are now camped for the night.  We are now fairly launched upon our expedition without the possibility of obtaining outside assistance in case we need it, and means for our protection have been fully considered since we camped, and our plans