So Exhausted And Dispirited Were They, That They Began
To Think It Would Be Better To Remain And Run The Risk Of Being
Killed By The Indians, Than To Drag On Thus Painfully, With The
Probability Of Perishing By The Way.
Their miserable horse fared
no better than themselves, having for the first day or two no
other fodder than the ends of willow twigs, and the bark of the
cotton-wood tree.
They all, however, appeared to gain patience and hardihood as
they proceeded, and for fourteen days kept steadily on, making a
distance of about three hundred and thirty miles. For some days,
the range of mountains which had been near to their wigwam kept
parallel to the river at no great distance, but at length
subsided into hills. Sometimes they found the river bordered with
alluvial bottoms, and groves with cotton-wood and willows;
sometimes the adjacent country was naked and barren. In one place
it ran for a considerable distance between rocky hills and
promontories covered with cedar and pitch pines, and peopled with
the bighorn and the mountain deer; at other places it wandered
through prairies well stocked with buffaloes and antelopes. As
they descended the course of the river, they began to perceive
the ash and white oak here and there among the cotton-wood and
willow; and at length caught a sight of some wild horses on the
distant prairies.
The weather was various; at one time the snow lay deep; then they
had a genial day or two, with the mildness and serenity of
autumn; then, again, the frost was so severe that the river was
sufficiently frozen to bear them upon the ice.
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