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CHAPTER 36
The difficult mountain - A smoke and consultation - The captain's speech - An icy turnpike - Danger of a false step - Arrival on Snake River - Return to Portneuf - Meeting of comrades
CONTINUING THEIR JOURNEY UP the course of the Immahah, the
travellers found, as they approached the headwaters, the snow
increased in quantity, so as to lie two feet deep. They were
again obliged, therefore, to beat down a path for their horses,
sometimes travelling on the icy surface of the stream. At length
they reached the place where they intended to scale the
mountains; and, having broken a pathway to the foot, were
agreeably surprised to find that the wind had drifted the snow
from off the side, so that they attained the summit with but
little difficulty. Here they encamped, with the intention of
beating a track through the mountains. A short experiment,
however, obliged them to give up the attempt, the snow lying in
vast drifts, often higher than the horses' heads.
Captain Bonneville now took the two Indian guides, and set out to
reconnoitre the neighborhood. Observing a high peak which
overtopped the rest, he climbed it, and discovered from the
summit a pass about nine miles long, but so heavily piled with
snow, that it seemed impracticable. He now lit a pipe, and,
sitting down with the two guides, proceeded to hold a
consultation after the Indian mode. For a long while they all
smoked vigorously and in silence, pondering over the subject
matter before them. At length a discussion commenced, and the
opinion in which the two guides concurred was, that the horses
could not possibly cross the snows. They advised, therefore, that
the party should proceed on foot, and they should take the horses
back to the village, where they would be well taken care of until
Captain Bonneville should send for them. They urged this advice
with great earnestness; declaring that their chief would be
extremely angry, and treat them severely, should any of the
horses of his good friends, the white men, be lost, in crossing
under their guidance; and that, therefore, it was good they
should not attempt it.
Captain Bonneville sat smoking his pipe, and listening to them
with Indian silence and gravity. When they had finished, he
replied to them in their own style of language.
"My friends," said he, "I have seen the pass, and have listened
to your words; you have little hearts. When troubles and dangers
lie in your way, you turn your backs. That is not the way with my
nation. When great obstacles present, and threaten to keep them
back, their hearts swell, and they push forward. They love to
conquer difficulties. But enough for the present. Night is coming
on; let us return to our camp."
He moved on, and they followed in silence. On reaching the camp,
he found the men extremely discouraged. One of their number had
been surveying the neighborhood, and seriously assured them that
the snow was at least a hundred feet deep. The captain cheered
them up, and diffused fresh spirit in them by his example. Still
he was much perplexed how to proceed. About dark there was a
slight drizzling rain. An expedient now suggested itself. This
was to make two light sleds, place the packs on them, and drag
them to the other side of the mountain, thus forming a road in
the wet snow, which, should it afterward freeze, would be
sufficiently hard to bear the horses. This plan was promptly put
into execution; the sleds were constructed, the heavy baggage was
drawn backward and forward until the road was beaten, when they
desisted from their fatiguing labor. The night turned out clear
and cold, and by morning, their road was incrusted with ice
sufficiently strong for their purpose. They now set out on their
icy turnpike, and got on well enough, excepting that now and then
a horse would sidle out of the track, and immediately sink up to
the neck. Then came on toil and difficulty, and they would be
obliged to haul up the floundering animal with ropes. One, more
unlucky than the rest, after repeated falls, had to be abandoned
in the snow. Notwithstanding these repeated delays, they
succeeded, before the sun had acquired sufficient power to thaw
the snow, in getting all the rest of their horses safely to the
other side of the mountain.
Their difficulties and dangers, however, were not yet at an end.
They had now to descend, and the whole surface of the snow was
glazed with ice. It was necessary; therefore, to wait until the
warmth of the sun should melt the glassy crust of sleet, and give
them a foothold in the yielding snow. They had a frightful
warning of the danger of any movement while the sleet remained. A
wild young mare, in her restlessness, strayed to the edge of a
declivity. One slip was fatal to her; she lost her balance,
careered with headlong velocity down the slippery side of the
mountain for more than two thousand feet, and was dashed to
pieces at the bottom. When the travellers afterward sought the
carcass to cut it up for food, they found it torn and mangled in
the most horrible manner.
It was quite late in the evening before the party descended to
the ultimate skirts of the snow. Here they planted large logs
below them to prevent their sliding down, and encamped for the
night. The next day they succeeded in bringing down their baggage
to the encampment; then packing all up regularly, and loading
their horses, they once more set out briskly and cheerfully, and
in the course of the following day succeeded in getting to a
grassy region.
Here their Nez Perce guides declared that all the difficulties of
the mountains were at an end, and their course was plain and
simple, and needed no further guidance; they asked leave,
therefore, to return home. This was readily granted, with many
thanks and presents for their faithful services. They took a long
farewell smoke with their white friends, after which they mounted
their horses and set off, exchanging many farewells and kind
wishes.
On the following day, Captain Bonneville completed his journey
down the mountain, and encamped on the borders of Snake River,
where he found the grass in great abundance and eight inches in
height. In this neighborhood, he saw on the rocky banks of the
river several prismoids of basaltes, rising to the height of
fifty or sixty feet.
Nothing particularly worthy of note occurred during several days
as the party proceeded up along Snake River and across its
tributary streams. After crossing Gun Creek, they met with
various signs that white people were in the neighborhood, and
Captain Bonneville made earnest exertions to discover whether
they were any of his own people, that he might join them. He soon
ascertained that they had been starved out of this tract of
country, and had betaken themselves to the buffalo region,
whither he now shaped his course. In proceeding along Snake
River, he found small hordes of Shoshonies lingering upon the
minor streams, and living upon trout and other fish, which they
catch in great numbers at this season in fish-traps. The greater
part of the tribe, however, had penetrated the mountains to hunt
the elk, deer, and ahsahta or bighorn.
On the 12th of May, Captain Bonneville reached the Portneuf
River, in the vicinity of which he had left the winter encampment
of his company on the preceding Christmas day. He had then
expected to be back by the beginning of March, but circumstances
had detained him upward of two months beyond the time, and the
winter encampment must long ere this have been broken up. Halting
on the banks of the Portneuf, he dispatched scouts a few miles
above, to visit the old camping ground and search for signals of
the party, or of their whereabouts, should they actually have
abandoned the spot. They returned without being able to ascertain
anything.
Being now destitute of provisions, the travellers found it
necessary to make a short hunting excursion after buffalo. They
made caches, therefore, on an island in the river, in which they
deposited all their baggage, and then set out on their
expedition. They were so fortunate as to kill a couple of fine
bulls, and cutting up the carcasses, determined to husband this
stock of provisions with the most miserly care, lest they should
again be obliged to venture into the open and dangerous hunting
grounds. Returning to their island on the 18th of May, they found
that the wolves had been at the caches, scratched up the
contents, and scattered them in every direction. They now
constructed a more secure one, in which they deposited their
heaviest articles, and then descended Snake River again, and
encamped just above the American Falls. Here they proceeded to
fortify themselves, intending to remain here, and give their
horses an opportunity to recruit their strength with good
pasturage, until it should be time to set out for the annual
rendezvous in Bear River valley.
On the first of June they descried four men on the other side of
the river, opposite to the camp, and, having attracted their
attention by a discharge of rifles, ascertained to their joy that
they were some of their own people. From these men Captain
Bonneville learned that the whole party which he had left in the
preceding month of December were encamped on Blackfoot River, a
tributary of Snake River, not very far above the Portneuf.
Thither he proceeded with all possible dispatch, and in a little
while had the pleasure of finding himself once more surrounded by
his people, who greeted his return among them in the heartiest
manner; for his long-protracted absence had convinced them that
he and his three companions had been cut off by some hostile
tribe.
The party had suffered much during his absence. They had been
pinched by famine and almost starved, and had been forced to
repair to the caches at Salmon River. Here they fell in with the
Blackfeet bands, and considered themselves fortunate in being
able to retreat from the dangerous neighborhood without
sustaining any loss.
Being thus reunited, a general treat from Captain Bonneville to
his men was a matter of course. Two days, therefore, were given
up to such feasting and merriment as their means and situation
afforded. What was wanting in good cheer was made up in good
will; the free trappers in particular, distinguished themselves
on the occasion, and the saturnalia was enjoyed with a hearty
holiday spirit, that smacked of the game flavor of the
wilderness.
Content of CHAPTER 36 [Washington Irving's book: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]
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