He Also Built A Fire, The Smoke Of Which
Might Attract The Attention Of The Indians.
At the same time,
be placed on a pole near the fire a small assortment
of beads, trinkets, awls,
And paints, in order that the Indians,
if they returned that way, might discover them and be
thereby assured the strangers were white men and friends.
Next morning, while trying to follow the trail of the lone Indian,
they found traces of freshly turned earth where people had been
digging for roots; and, later on, they came upon the fresh
track of eight or ten horses. But these were soon scattered,
and the explorers only found that the general direction of
the trails was up into the mountains which define the boundary
between Montana and Idaho. Skirting the base of these mountains
(the Bitter Root), the party endeavored to find a plain trail,
or Indian road, leading up to a practicable pass.
Travelling in a southwesterly direction along the main stream,
they entered a valley which led into the mountains.
Here they ate their last bit of fresh meat, the remainder of a deer
they had killed a day or two before; they reserved for their
final resort, in case of famine, a small piece of salt pork.
The journal says: -
"They then continued through the low bottom, along the
main stream, near the foot of the mountains on their right.
For the first five miles, the valley continues toward the southwest,
being from two to three miles in width; then the main stream,
which had received two small branches from the left in the valley,
turned abruptly to the west through a narrow bottom between the mountains.
The road was still plain, and, as it led them directly on toward
the mountain, the stream gradually became smaller, till, after going
two miles, it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the men,
in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the river,
thanked God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri.
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