Mountain Glens.--Wandering Band of Savages--Anecdotes of
Shoshonies and Flatheads.--Root Diggers--Their Solitary
Lurking Habits.--Gnomes of the Mountains.--Wind River.--
Scarcity of Food.--Alteration of Route.--The Pilot Knobs or
Tetons.--Branch of the Colorado.--Hunting Camp.
RESUMING their course on the following morning, Mr. Hunt and his
companions continued on westward through a rugged region of hills and
rocks, but diversified in many places by grassy little glens, with
springs of water, bright sparkling brooks, clumps of pine trees, and a
profusion of flowering plants, which were in bloom, although the weather
was frosty. These beautiful and verdant recesses, running through and
softening the rugged mountains, were cheering and refreshing to the
wayworn travellers.
In the course of the morning, as they were entangled in a defile, they
beheld a small band of savages, as wild-looking as the surrounding
scenery, who reconnoitred them warily from the rocks before they
ventured to advance. Some of them were mounted on horses rudely
caparisoned with bridles or halters of buffalo hide, one end trailing
after them on the ground. They proved to be a mixed party of Flatheads
and Shoshonies, or Snakes; and as these tribes will be frequently
mentioned in the course of this work, we shall give a few introductory
particulars concerning them.
The Flatheads in question are not to be confounded with those of the
name who dwell about the lower waters of the Columbia; neither do they
flatten their heads, as the others do. They inhabit the banks of a river
on the west side of the mountains, and are described as simple, honest,
and hospitable. Like all people of similar character, whether civilized
or savage, they are prone to be imposed upon; and are especially
maltreated by the ruthless Blackfeet, who harass them in their villages,
steal their horses by night, or openly carry them off in the face of
day, without provoking pursuit or retaliation.
The Shoshonies are a branch of the once powerful and prosperous tribe
of the Snakes, who possessed a glorious hunting country about the upper
forks of the Missouri, abounding in beaver and buffalo. Their hunting
ground was occasionally invaded by the Blackfeet, but the Snakes battled
bravely for their domains, and a long and bloody feud existed, with
variable success. At length the Hudson’s Bay Company, extending their
trade into the interior, had dealings with the Blackfeet, who were
nearest to them, and supplied them with fire-arms. The Snakes, who
occasionally traded with the Spaniards, endeavored, but in vain, to
obtain similar weapons; the Spanish traders wisely refused to arm
them so formidably. The Blackfeet had now a vast advantage, and soon
dispossessed the poor Snakes of their favorite hunting grounds, their
land of plenty, and drove them from place to place, until they were fain
to take refuge in the wildest and most desolate recesses of the Rocky
Mountains. Even here they are subject to occasional visits from their
implacable foes, as long as they have horses, or any other property to
tempt the plunderer. Thus by degrees the Snakes have become a scattered,
broken-spirited, impoverished people; keeping about lonely rivers and
mountain streams, and subsisting chiefly upon fish. Such of them as
still possess horses, and occasionally figure as hunters, are called
Shoshonies; but there is another class, the most abject and forlorn, who
are called Shuckers, or more commonly Diggers and Root Eaters. These are
a shy, secret, solitary race, who keep in the most retired parts of the
mountains, lurking like gnomes in caverns and clefts of the rocks, and
subsisting in a great measure on the roots of the earth. Sometimes,
in passing through a solitary mountain valley, the traveller comes
perchance upon the bleeding carcass of a deer or buffalo that has just
been slain. He looks round in vain for the hunter; the whole landscape
is lifeless and deserted: at length he perceives a thread of smoke,
curling up from among the crags and cliffs, and scrambling to the place,
finds some forlorn and skulking brood of Diggers, terrified at being
discovered.
The Shoshonies, however, who, as has been observed, have still “horse to
ride and weapon to wear,” are somewhat bolder in their spirit, and more
open and wide in their wanderings. In the autumn, when salmon disappear
from the rivers, and hunger begins to pinch, they even venture down into
their ancient hunting grounds, to make a foray among the buffaloes. In
this perilous enterprise they are occasionally joined by the Flatheads,
the persecutions of the Blackfeet having produced a close alliance
and cooperation between these luckless and maltreated tribes. Still,
notwithstanding their united force, every step they take within the
debatable ground is taken in fear and trembling, and with the utmost
precaution: and an Indian trader assures us that he has seen at least
five hundred of them, armed and equipped for action, and keeping watch
upon the hill tops, while about fifty were hunting in the prairie. Their
excursions are brief and hurried; as soon as they have collected and
jerked sufficient buffalo meat for winter provisions, they pack their
horses, abandon the dangerous hunting grounds, and hasten back to the
mountains, happy if they have not the terrible Blackfeet rattling after
them.
Such a confederate band of Shoshonies and Flatheads was the one met
by our travellers. It was bound on a visit to the Arrapahoes, a tribe
inhabiting the banks of the Nebraska. They were armed to the best of
their scanty means, and some of the Shoshonies had bucklers of buffalo
hide, adorned with feathers and leathern fringes, and which have a
charmed virtue in their eyes, from having been prepared, with mystic
ceremonies, by their conjurers.
In company with this wandering band our travellers proceeded all day.
In the evening they encamped near to each other in a defile of the
mountains, on the borders of a stream running north, and falling into
Bighorn River. In the vicinity of the camp, they found gooseberries,
strawberries, and currants in great abundance. The defile bore traces of
having been a thoroughfare for countless herds of buffaloes, though not
one was to be seen. The hunters succeeded in killing an elk and several
black-tailed deer.
They were now in the bosom of the second Bighorn ridge, with another
lofty and snow-crowned mountain full in view to the west. Fifteen miles
of western course brought them, on the following day, down into an
intervening plain, well stocked with buffalo. Here the Snakes and
Flatheads joined with the white hunters in a successful hunt, that soon
filled the camp with provisions.
On the morning of the 9th of September, the travellers parted company
with their Indian friends, and continued on their course to the west.
A march of thirty miles brought them, in the evening, to the banks of a
rapid and beautifully clear stream about a hundred yards wide. It is the
north fork or branch of the Bighorn River, but bears its peculiar
name of the Wind River, from being subject in the winter season to a
continued blast which sweeps its banks and prevents the snow from lying
on them. This blast is said to be caused by a narrow gap or funnel
in the mountains, through which the river forces its way between
perpendicular precipices, resembling cut rocks.
This river gives its name to a whole range of mountains consisting
of three parallel chains, eighty miles in length, and about twenty or
twenty-five broad. One of its peaks is probably fifteen thousand feet
above the level of the sea, being one of the highest of the Rocky
Sierra. These mountains give rise, not merely to the Wind or Bighorn
River, but to several branches of the Yellowstone and the Missouri on
the east, and of the Columbia and Colorado on the west; thus dividing
the sources of these mighty streams.
For five succeeding days, Mr. Hunt and his party continued up the course
of the Wind River, to the distance of about eighty miles, crossing and
recrossing it, according to its windings, and the nature of its banks;
sometimes passing through valleys, at other times scrambling over rocks
and hills. The country in general was destitute of trees, but they
passed through groves of wormwood, eight and ten feet in height, which
they used occasionally for fuel, and they met with large quantities of
wild flax.
The mountains were destitute of game; they came in sight of two grizzly
bears, but could not get near enough for a shot; provisions, therefore,
began to be scanty. They saw large flights of the kind of thrush
commonly called the robin, and many smaller birds of migratory species;
but the hills in general appeared lonely and with few signs of animal
life. On the evening of the 14th September, they encamped on the forks
of the Wind or Bighorn River. The largest of these forks came from the
range of Wind River Mountains.
The hunters who served as guides to the party in this part of their
route, had assured Mr. Hunt that, by following up Wind River, and
crossing a single mountain ridge, he would come upon the head waters
of the Columbia. This scarcity of game, however, which already had been
felt to a pinching degree, and which threatened them with famine among
the sterile heights which lay before them, admonished them to change
their course. It was determined, therefore, to make for a stream, which
they were informed passed the neighboring mountains, to the south of
west, on the grassy banks of which it was probable they would meet with
buffalo. Accordingly, about three o’clock on the following day, meeting
with a beaten Indian road which led in the proper direction, they struck
into it, turning their backs upon Wind River.
In the course of the day, they came to a height that commanded an
almost boundless prospect. Here one of the guides paused, and, after
considering the vast landscape attentively, pointed to three mountain
peaks glistening with snow, which rose, he said, above a fork of
Columbia River. They were hailed by the travellers with that joy with
which a beacon on a seashore is hailed by mariners after a long and
dangerous voyage.
It is true there was many a weary league to be traversed before they
should reach these landmarks, for, allowing for their evident height and
the extreme transparency of the atmosphere, they could not be much less
than a hundred miles distant. Even after reaching them, there would yet
remain hundreds of miles of their journey to be accomplished. All these
matters were forgotten in the joy at seeing the first landmarks of the
Columbia, that river which formed the bourne of the expedition. These
remarkable peaks were known as the Tetons; as guiding points for many
days, to Mr. Hunt, he gave them the names of the Pilot Knobs.
The travellers continued their course to the south of west for about
forty miles, through a region so elevated that patches of snow lay on
the highest summits and on the northern declivities. At length they came
to the desired stream, the object of their search, the waters of which
flowed to the west. It was, in fact, a branch of the Colorado, which
falls into the Gulf of California, and had received from the hunters
the name of Spanish River, from information given by the Indians that
Spaniards resided upon its lower waters.
The aspect of this river and its vicinity was cheering to the wayworn
and hungry travellers. Its banks were green, and there were grassy
valleys running from it various directions, into the heart of the rugged
mountains, with herds of buffalo quietly grazing. The hunters sallied
forth with keen alacrity, and soon returned laden with provisions.
In this part of the mountains Mr. Hunt met with three different kinds of
gooseberries. The common purple, on a low and very thorny bush; a yellow
kind, of an excellent flavor, growing on a stock free from thorns; and
a deep purple, of the size and taste of our winter grape, with a thorny
stalk. There were also three kinds of currants, one very large and well
tasted, of a purple color, and growing on a bush eight or nine feet
high. Another of a yellow color, and of the size and taste of the large
red currant, the bush four or five feet high; and the third a beautiful
scarlet, resembling the strawberry in sweetness, though rather insipid,
and growing on a low bush.
On the 17th they continued down the course of the river, making fifteen
miles to the southwest. The river abounded with geese and ducks, and
there were signs of its being inhabited by beaver and otters: indeed
they were now approaching regions where these animals, the great objects
of the fur trade, are said to abound. They encamped for the night
opposite the end of a mountain in the west, which was probably the last
chain of the Rocky Mountains. On the following morning they abandoned
the main course of the Spanish River, and taking a northwest direction
for eight miles, came upon one of its little tributaries, issuing out of
the bosom of the mountains, and running through green meadows, yielding
pasturage to herds of buffalo. As these were probably the last of that
animal they would meet with, they encamped on the grassy banks of the
river, determined to spend several days in hunting, so as to be able to
jerk sufficient meat to supply them until they should reach the waters
of the Columbia, where they trusted to find fish enough for their
support. A little repose, too, was necessary for both men and horses,
after their rugged and incessant marching; having in the course of the
last seventeen days traversed two hundred and sixty miles of rough, and
in many parts sterile, mountain country.