On That Route, The Chopunnish Inform Us,
There Is A Passage Not Obstructed By Snow At This Period Of The Year."
On their return to Quamash flats the party met two Indians who,
after some parley, agreed to pilot them over
The mountains;
these camped where they were, and the party went on to the flats,
having exacted a promise from the Indians that they would
wait there two nights for the white men to come along.
When the party reached their old camp, they found that one of
their hunters had killed a deer, which was a welcome addition
to their otherwise scanty supper. Next day, the hunters met with
astonishing luck, bringing into camp eight deer and three bears.
Four of the men were directed to go to the camp of the two Indians,
and if these were bent on going on, to accompany them and so mark,
or blaze, the trees that the rest of the party would have no
difficulty in finding the way, later on.
Meanwhile, the men who had been sent back for guides returned,
bringing with them the pleasing information that three Indians
whom they brought with them had consented to guide the party
to the great falls of the Missouri, for the pay of two guns.
Accordingly, once more (June 26), they set out for
the mountains, travelling for the third time in twelve days
the route between Quamash flats and the Bitter Root range.
For the second time they ran up against a barrier of snow.
They measured the depth of the snow at the place where they
had left their luggage at their previous repulse and found
it to be ten feet and ten inches deep; and it had sunk
four feet since they had been turned back at this point.
Pressing on, after they reached their old camp, they found
a bare spot on the side of the mountain where there was a little
grass for their horses; and there they camped for the night.
They were fortunate in having Indian guides with them;
and the journal says: -
"The marks on the trees, which had been our chief dependence,
are much fewer and more difficult to be distinguished than we
had supposed. But our guides traverse this trackless region
with a kind of instinctive sagacity; they never hesitate,
they are never embarrassed; and so undeviating is their step,
that wherever the snow has disappeared, for even a hundred paces,
we find the summer road. With their aid the snow is scarcely
a disadvantage; for though we are often obliged to slip down,
yet the fallen timber and the rocks, which are now covered,
were much more troublesome when we passed in the autumn.
Travelling is indeed comparatively pleasant, as well as more rapid,
the snow being hard and coarse, without a crust, and perfectly hard
enough to prevent the horses sinking more than two or three inches.
After the sun has been on it for some hours it becomes softer
than it is early in the morning; yet they are almost always
able to get a sure foothold."
On the twenty-ninth of June the party were well out of the snows
in which they had been imprisoned, although they were by no means
over the mountain barrier that had been climbed so painfully during
the past few days.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 169 of 201
Words from 92629 to 93188
of 110166
