ON the 19th of December Captain Bonneville and his confederate
Indians raised their camp, and entered the narrow gorge made by
the north fork of Salmon River. Up this lay the secure and
plenteous hunting region so temptingly described by the Indians.
Since leaving Green River the plains had invariably been of loose
sand or coarse gravel, and the rocky formation of the mountains
of primitive limestone. The rivers, in general, were skirted
with willows and bitter cottonwood trees, and the prairies
covered with wormwood. In the hollow breast of the mountains
which they were now penetrating, the surrounding heights were
clothed with pine; while the declivities of the lower hills
afforded abundance of bunch grass for the horses.
As the Indians had represented, they were now in a natural
fastness of the mountains, the ingress and egress of which was by
a deep gorge, so narrow, rugged, and difficult as to prevent
secret approach or rapid retreat, and to admit of easy defence.
The Blackfeet, therefore, refrained from venturing in after the
Nez Perces, awaiting a better chance, when they should once more
emerge into the open country.
