a wood on the very peak. Some of the trees more than a foot thick but gnarled. Delicious pine fragrance. Rather misty in distance or might have seen the Rocky Mts clearly. As it was they only appeared very dimly. Though probably the first whites to ascend the peak, Indians had evidently been there frequently & had used the place as a watchtower or beacon. Found remains of fires & half burned logs. Also a rude circular shelter composed of logs piled together with some stones for a fireplace in the centre. Also a partially destroyed cairn of stones. Took bearing of all principal points in view & after spending about an hour on the top turned to return.

Saw from the top some (3) U.S. soldiers with horses on one of the foothills. Afterwards spoke to them & found that they came from a camp of cavalry which part of Comission escort & which situated about 15 m. N [which] we had taken for Featherstonehaugh's camp, from the mountain. They were out hunting.

Got back to camp about 6. The evening turning very cold.

Geol. The Butte & higher surrounding peaks are porphyritic trap. The felspar [sic] are grey & very prominent. In some specimens small hornblend [sic] crystels & nodular looking portions including much hornblend are surrounded pebble like in a more felspathic matrix in places. The mineralogical character of the rock appears however to be remarkably uniform in all parts of the butte.

The sedimentary rocks rise within about 1000 feet of the top of the Butte in places & are there found dipping very steeply away from it. On descending towards the plain the angle of dip becomes less & less & the beds finally appear horizontal. Near the igneous mass the beds are much hardened & altered & both the trap & altered rocks are traversed by small viens of quartz.

Several trap dykes radiating from the centre like that of yesterday & forming the crests of ridges were seen.

The thickness of beds exposed is not very great as the ground rises almost equally with the increasing dip. No very complete sections were seen. Nearest the trap, & lowest were hardened sandstones of no great thickness. Then a considerable bredth [sic] of hard blackish fissile shales. Next a rather extensive sandstone formation. Much of it well & regularly bedded, but in some places nodular & giving rise in the