26.
A Retrogade Move Channel Of A Mountain Torrent Alpine
Scenery Cascades Beaver Valleys Beavers At Work Their
Architecture Their Modes Of Felling Trees Mode Of Trapping
Beaver Contests Of Skill A Beaver "Up To Trap" Arrival At The
Green River Caches
THE VIEW from the snowy peak of the Wind River Mountains, while
it had excited Captain Bonneville's enthusiasm, had satisfied him
that it would be useless to force a passage westward, through
multiplying barriers of cliffs and precipices.
Turning his face
eastward, therefore, he endeavored to regain the plains,
intending to make the circuit round the southern point of the
mountain. To descend, and to extricate himself from the heart of
this rock-piled wilderness, was almost as difficult as to
penetrate it. Taking his course down the ravine of a tumbling
stream, the commencement of some future river, he descended from
rock to rock, and shelf to shelf, between stupendous cliffs and
beetling crags that sprang up to the sky. Often he had to cross
and recross the rushing torrent, as it wound foaming and roaring
down its broken channel, or was walled by perpendicular
precipices; and imminent was the hazard of breaking the legs of
the horses in the clefts and fissures of slippery rocks. The
whole scenery of this deep ravine was of Alpine wildness and
sublimity. Sometimes the travellers passed beneath cascades which
pitched from such lofty heights that the water fell into the
stream like heavy rain. In other places, torrents came tumbling
from crag to crag, dashing into foam and spray, and making
tremendous din and uproar.
On the second day of their descent, the travellers, having got
beyond the steepest pitch of the mountains, came to where the
deep and rugged ravine began occasionally to expand into small
levels or valleys, and the stream to assume for short intervals a
more peaceful character. Here, not merely the river itself, but
every rivulet flowing into it, was dammed up by communities of
industrious beavers, so as to inundate the neighborhood, and make
continual swamps.
During a mid-day halt in one of these beaver valleys, Captain
Bonneville left his companions, and strolled down the course of
the stream to reconnoitre. He had not proceeded far when he came
to a beaver pond, and caught a glimpse of one of its painstaking
inhabitants busily at work upon the dam. The curiosity of the
captain was aroused, to behold the mode of operating of this
far-famed architect; he moved forward, therefore, with the utmost
caution, parting the branches of the water willows without making
any noise, until having attained a position commanding a view of
the whole pond, he stretched himself flat on the ground, and
watched the solitary workman. In a little while, three others
appeared at the head of the dam, bringing sticks and bushes. With
these they proceeded directly to the barrier, which Captain
Bonneville perceived was in need of repair. Having deposited
their loads upon the broken part, they dived into the water, and
shortly reappeared at the surface.
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