The Men, However, Were By No Means So Shy And Reserved; But
Importuned Captain Bonneville And His Companions Excessively By
Their Curiosity.
Nothing escaped their notice; and any thing they
could lay their hands on underwent the most minute examination.
To get rid of such inquisitive neighbors, the travellers kept on
for a considerable distance, before they encamped for the night.
The country, hereabout, was generally level and sandy; producing
very little grass, but a considerable quantity of sage or
wormwood. The plains were diversified by isolated hills, all cut
off, as it were, about the same height, so as to have tabular
summits. In this they resembled the isolated hills of the great
prairies, east of the Rocky Mountains; especially those found on
the plains of the Arkansas.
The high precipices which had hitherto walled in the channel of
Snake River had now disappeared; and the banks were of the
ordinary height. It should be observed, that the great valleys or
plains, through which the Snake River wound its course, were
generally of great breadth, extending on each side from thirty to
forty miles; where the view was bounded by unbroken ridges of
mountains.
The travellers found but little snow in the neighborhood of
Powder River, though the weather continued intensely cold. They
learned a lesson, however, from their forlorn friends, the Root
Diggers, which they subsequently found of great service in their
wintry wanderings. They frequently observed them to be furnished
with long ropes, twisted from the bark of the wormwood.
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