While They Lingered At Their Camp, They Were Visited
By Several Bands Of Friendly Indians.
The explorers traded
horses with their visitors, and, with what they already had,
they now found their band to
Number sixty-five, all told.
Having finished their trading, they invited the Indians
to take part in the games of prisoners' base and foot-racing;
in the latter game the Indians were very expert, being able
to distance the fleetest runner of the white men's party.
At night, the games were concluded by a dance. The account
of the expedition says that the captains were desirous of
encouraging these exercises before they should begin the passage
over the mountains, "as several of the men are becoming
lazy from inaction."
On the tenth of June the party set out for Quamash flats, each man
well mounted and leading a spare horse which carried a small load.
To their dismay, they found that their good friends, the Chopunnish,
unwilling to part with them, were bound to accompany them
to the hunting-grounds. The Indians would naturally expect
to share in the hunt and to be provided for by the white men.
The party halted there only until the sixth of June, and then,
collecting their horses, set out through what proved to be
a very difficult trail up the creek on which they were camped,
in a northeasterly direction. There was still a quantity of snow
on the ground, although this was in shady places and hollows.
Vegetation was rank, and the dogtooth violet, honeysuckle,
blue-bell, and columbine were in blossom. The pale blue flowers of
the quamash gave to the level country the appearance of a blue lake.
Striking Hungry Creek, which Captain Clark had very appropriately
named when he passed that way, the previous September,
they followed it up to a mountain for about three miles,
when they found themselves enveloped in snow; their limbs
were benumbed, and the snow, from twelve to fifteen feet deep,
so paralyzed their feet that further progress was impossible.
Here the journal should be quoted: -
"We halted at the sight of this new difficulty. We already knew
that to wait till the snows of the mountains had dissolved,
so as to enable us to distinguish the road, would defeat
our design of returning to the United States this season.
We now found also that as the snow bore our horses very well,
travelling was infinitely easier than it was last fall,
when the rocks and fallen timber had so much obstructed our march.
But it would require five days to reach the fish-weirs at the mouth
of Colt [-killed] Creek, even if we were able to follow the proper
ridges of the mountains; and the danger of missing our direction
is exceedingly great while every track is covered with snow.
During these five days, too, we have no chance of finding either
grass or underwood for our horses, the snow being so deep.
To proceed, therefore, under such circumstances, would be to hazard our
being bewildered in the mountains, and to insure the loss of our horses;
even should we be so fortunate as to escape with our lives,
we might be obliged to abandon all our papers and collections.
It was therefore decided not to venture any further; to deposit here
all the baggage and provisions for which we had no immediate use;
and, reserving only subsistence for a few days, to return while our
horses were yet strong to some spot where we might live by hunting,
till a guide could be procured to conduct us across the mountains.
Our baggage was placed on scaffolds and carefully covered,
as were also the instruments and papers, which we thought it safer
to leave than to risk over the roads and creeks by which we came."
There was nothing left to do but to return to Hungry Creek.
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