The Country Bordering On The River Is Finely Diversified
With Prairies And Hills, And Forests Of Oak, Ash, Maple, And
Cedar.
It abounded, at that time, with elk and deer, and the
streams were well stocked with beaver.
Here the party, after
supplying their own wants, were enabled to pack up quantities of
dried meat, and send it by canoes to Astoria.
The month of October elapsed without the return of the Beaver.
November, December, January, passed away, and still nothing was
seen or heard of her. Gloomy apprehensions now began to be
entertained: she might have been wrecked in the course of her
coasting voyage, or surprised, like the Tonquin, by some of the
treacherous tribes of the north.
No one indulged more in these apprehensions than M'Dougal, who
had now the charge of the establishment. He no longer evinced the
bustling confidence and buoyancy which once characterized him.
Command seemed to have lost its charms for him, or rather, he
gave way to the most abject despondency, decrying the whole
enterprise, magnifying every untoward circumstance, and
foreboding nothing but evil.
While in this moody state, he was surprised, on the 16th of
January, by the sudden appearance of M'Kenzie, wayworn and
weather-beaten by a long wintry journey from his post on the
Shahaptan, and with a face the very frontispiece for a volume of
misfortune. M'Kenzie had been heartily disgusted and disappointed
at his post. It was in the midst of the Tushepaws, a powerful and
warlike nation, divided into many tribes, under different chiefs,
who possessed innumerable horses, but, not having turned their
attention to beaver trapping, had no furs to offer.
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