The Trappers Had Not Long Departed, When Two Snake Indians
Wandered Into The Camp.
When they perceived that the strangers
were fabricating canoes, they shook their heads and gave them to
understand that the river was not navigable.
Their information,
however, was scoffed at by some of the party, who were
obstinately bent on embarkation, but was confirmed by the
exploring party, who returned after several days' absence. They
had kept along the river with great difficulty for two days, and
found it a narrow, crooked, turbulent stream, confined in a rocky
channel, with many rapids, and occasionally overhung with
precipices. From the summit of one of these they had caught a
bird's-eye view of its boisterous career for a great distance
through the heart of the mountain, with impending rocks and
cliffs. Satisfied from this view that it was useless to follow
its course, either by land or water, they had given up all
further investigation.
These concurring reports determined Mr. Hunt to abandon Mad
River, and seek some more navigable stream. This determination
was concurred in by all his associates excepting Mr. Miller, who
had become impatient of the fatigue of land travel, and was for
immediate embarkation at all hazards. This gentleman had been in
a gloomy and irritated state of mind for some time past, being
troubled with a bodily malady that rendered travelling on
horseback extremely irksome to him, and being, moreover,
discontented with having a smaller share in the expedition than
his comrades.
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