The trapper now
gives up the contest of ingenuity, and shouldering his traps,
marches off, admitting that he is not yet "up to beaver."
On the day following Captain Bonneville's supervision of the
industrious and frolicsome community of beavers, of which he has
given so edifying an account, he succeeded in extricating himself
from the Wind River Mountains, and regaining the plain to the
eastward, made a great bend to the south, so as to go round the
bases of the mountains, and arrived without further incident of
importance, at the old place of rendezvous in Green River valley,
on the 17th of September.
He found the caches, in which he had deposited his superfluous
goods and equipments, all safe, and having opened and taken from
them the necessary supplies, he closed them again; taking care to
obliterate all traces that might betray them to the keen eyes of
Indian marauders.
27.
Route toward Wind River Dangerous neighborhood Alarms and
precautions A sham encampment Apparition of an Indian
spy Midnight move A mountain defile The Wind River
valley Tracking a party Deserted camps Symptoms of Crows Meeting
of comrades A trapper entrapped Crow pleasantry Crow spies A
decampment Return to Green River valley Meeting with
Fitzpatrick's party Their adventures among the Crows Orthodox
Crows
ON THE 18TH of September, Captain Bonneville and his three
companions set out, bright and early, to rejoin the main party,
from which they had parted on Wind River.
