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CHAPTER 44
Outfit of a trapper - Risks to which he is subjected - Partnership of trappers - Enmity of Indians - Distant smoke - A country on fire - Gun Greek - Grand Rond - Fine pastures - Perplexities in a smoky country - Conflagration of forests.
IT had been the intention of Captain Bonneville, in descending
along Snake River, to scatter his trappers upon the smaller
streams. In this way a range of country is trapped by small
detachments from a main body. The outfit of a trapper is
generally a rifle, a pound of powder, and four pounds of lead,
with a bullet mould, seven traps, an axe, a hatchet, a knife and
awl, a camp kettle, two blankets, and, where supplies are plenty,
seven pounds of flour. He has, generally, two or three horses, to
carry himself and his baggage and peltries. Two trappers
commonly go together, for the purposes of mutual assistance and
support; a larger party could not easily escape the eyes of the
Indians. It is a service of peril, and even more so at present
than formerly, for the Indians, since they have got into the
habit of trafficking peltries with the traders, have learned the
value of the beaver, and look upon the trappers as poachers, who
are filching the riches from their streams, and interfering with
their market. They make no hesitation, therefore, to murder the
solitary trapper, and thus destroy a competitor, while they
possess themselves of his spoils. It is with regret we add, too,
that this hostility has in many cases been instigated by traders,
desirous of injuring their rivals, but who have themselves often
reaped the fruits of the mischief they have sown.
When two trappers undertake any considerable stream, their mode
of proceeding is, to hide their horses in some lonely glen, where
they can graze unobserved. They then build a small hut, dig out
a canoe from a cotton-wood tree, and in this poke along shore
silently, in the evening, and set their traps. These they revisit
in the same silent way at daybreak. When they take any beaver
they bring it home, skin it, stretch the skins on sticks to dry,
and feast upon the flesh. The body, hung up before the fire,
turns by its own weight, and is roasted in a superior style; the
tail is the trapper s tidbit; it is cut off, put on the end of a
stick, and toasted, and is considered even a greater dainty than
the tongue or the marrow-bone of a buffalo.
With all their silence and caution, however, the poor trappers
cannot always escape their hawk-eyed enemies. Their trail has
been discovered, perhaps, and followed up for many a mile; or
their smoke has been seen curling up out of the secret glen, or
has been scented by the savages, whose sense of smell is almost
as acute as that of sight. Sometimes they are pounced upon when
in the act of setting their traps; at other times, they are
roused from their sleep by the horrid war-whoop; or, perhaps,
have a bullet or an arrow whistling about their ears, in the
midst of one of their beaver banquets. In this way they are
picked off, from time to time, and nothing is known of them,
until, perchance, their bones are found bleaching in some lonely
ravine, or on the banks of some nameless stream, which from that
time is called after them. Many of the small streams beyond the
mountains thus perpetuate the names of unfortunate trappers that
have been murdered on their banks.
A knowledge of these dangers deterred Captain Bonneville, in the
present instance, from detaching small parties of trappers as he
had intended; for his scouts brought him word that formidable
bands of the Banneck Indians were lying on the Boisee and Payette
Rivers, at no great distance, so that they would be apt to detect
and cut off any stragglers. It behooved him, also, to keep his
party together, to guard against any predatory attack upon the
main body; he continued on his way, therefore, without dividing
his forces. And fortunate it was that he did so; for in a little
while he encountered one of the phenomena of the western wilds
that would effectually have prevented his scattered people from
finding each other again. In a word, it was the season of setting
fire to the prairies. As he advanced he began to perceive great
clouds of smoke at a distance, rising by degrees, and spreading
over the whole face of the country. The atmosphere became dry and
surcharged with murky vapor, parching to the skin, and irritating
to the eyes. When travelling among the hills, they could
scarcely discern objects at the distance of a few paces; indeed,
the least exertion of the vision was painful. There was evidently
some vast conflagration in the direction toward which they were
proceeding; it was as yet at a great distance, and during the day
they could only see the smoke rising in larger and denser
volumes, and rolling forth in an immense canopy. At night the
skies were all glowing with the reflection of unseen fires,
hanging in an immense body of lurid light high above the horizon.
Having reached Gun Creek, an important stream coming from the
left, Captain Bonneville turned up its course, to traverse the
mountain and avoid the great bend of Snake River. Being now out
of the range of the Bannecks, he sent out his people in all
directions to hunt the antelope for present supplies; keeping the
dried meats for places where game might be scarce.
During four days that the party were ascending Gun Creek, the
smoke continued to increase so rapidly that it was impossible to
distinguish the face of the country and ascertain landmarks.
Fortunately, the travellers fell upon an Indian trail. which led
them to the head-waters of the Fourche de Glace or Ice River,
sometimes called the Grand Rond. Here they found all the plains
and valleys wrapped in one vast conflagration; which swept over
the long grass in billows of flame, shot up every bush and tree,
rose in great columns from the groves, and set up clouds of smoke
that darkened the atmosphere. To avoid this sea of fire, the
travellers had to pursue their course close along the foot of the
mountains; but the irritation from the smoke continued to be
tormenting.
The country about the head-waters of the Grand Rond spreads out
into broad and level prairies, extremely fertile, and watered by
mountain springs and rivulets. These prairies are resorted to by
small bands of the Skynses, to pasture their horses, as well as
to banquets upon the salmon which abound in the neighboring
waters. They take these fish in great quantities and without the
least difficulty; simply taking them out of the water with their
hands, as they flounder and struggle in the numerous long shoals
of the principal streams. At the time the travellers passed over
these prairies, some of the narrow, deep streams by which they
were intersected were completely choked with salmon, which they
took in great numbers. The wolves and bears frequent these
streams at this season, to avail themselves of these great
fisheries.
The travellers continued, for many days, to experience great
difficulties and discomforts from this wide conflagration, which
seemed to embrace the whole wilderness. The sun was for a great
part of the time obscured by the smoke, and the loftiest
mountains were hidden from view. Blundering along in this region
of mist and uncertainty, they were frequently obliged to make
long circuits, to avoid obstacles which they could not perceive
until close upon them. The Indian trails were their safest
guides, for though they sometimes appeared to lead them out of
their direct course, they always conducted them to the passes.
On the 26th of August, they reached the head of the Way-lee-way
River. Here, in a valley of the mountains through which this
head-water makes its way, they found a band of the Skynses, who
were extremely sociable, and appeared to be well disposed, and as
they spoke the Nez Perce language, an intercourse was easily kept
up with them.
In the pastures on the bank of this stream, Captain Bonneville
encamped for a time, for the purpose of recruiting the strength
of his horses. Scouts were now sent out to explore the
surrounding country, and search for a convenient pass through the
mountains toward the Wallamut or Multnomah. After an absence of
twenty days they returned weary and discouraged. They had been
harassed and perplexed in rugged mountain defiles, where their
progress was continually impeded by rocks and precipices. Often
they had been obliged to travel along the edges of frightful
ravines, where a false step would have been fatal. In one of
these passes, a horse fell from the brink of a precipice, and
would have been dashed to pieces had he not lodged among the
branches of a tree, from which he was extricated with great
difficulty. These, however, were not the worst of their
difficulties and perils. The great conflagration of the country,
which had harassed the main party in its march, was still more
awful the further this exploring party proceeded. The flames
which swept rapidly over the light vegetation of the prairies
assumed a fiercer character and took a stronger hold amid the
wooded glens and ravines of the mountains. Some of the deep
gorges and defiles sent up sheets of flame, and clouds of lurid
smoke, and sparks and cinders that in the night made them
resemble the craters of volcanoes. The groves and forests, too,
which crowned the cliffs, shot up their towering columns of fire,
and added to the furnace glow of the mountains. With these
stupendous sights were combined the rushing blasts caused by the
rarefied air, which roared and howled through the narrow glens,
and whirled forth the smoke and flames in impetuous wreaths. Ever
and anon, too, was heard the crash of falling trees, sometimes
tumbling from crags and precipices, with tremendous sounds.
In the daytime, the mountains were wrapped in smoke so dense and
blinding, that the explorers, if by chance they separated, could
only find each other by shouting. Often, too, they had to grope
their way through the yet burning forests, in constant peril from
the limbs and trunks of trees, which frequently fell across their
path. At length they gave up the attempt to find a pass as
hopeless, under actual circumstances, and made their way back to
the camp to report their failure.
Content of CHAPTER 44 [Washington Irving's book: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]
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