Gloomy Council.--Exploring Parties--Discouraging Reports--
Disastrous Experiment.--Detachments in Quest of Succor.--
Caches, How Made.--Return of One of the Detachments--
Unsuccessful.--Further Disappointments--The Devil’s
Scuttle-Hole
MR. HUNT and his companions encamped upon the borders of the Caldron
Linn, and held gloomy counsel as to their future course. The recent
wreck had dismayed even the voyageurs, and the fate of their popular
comrade, Clappine, one of the most adroit and experienced of their
fraternity, had struck sorrow to their hearts, for with all their
levity, these thoughtless beings have great kindness towards each other.
The whole distance they had navigated since leaving Henry’s Fort was
computed to be about three hundred and forty miles; strong apprehensions
were now entertained that the tremendous impediments before them would
oblige them to abandon their canoes. It was determined to send exploring
parties on each side of the river to ascertain whether it was possible
to navigate it further. Accordingly, on the following morning, three men
were despatched along the south bank, while Mr. Hunt and three others
proceeded along the north. The two parties returned after a
weary scramble among swamps, rocks, and precipices, and with very
disheartening accounts. For nearly forty miles that they had explored,
the river foamed and roared along through a deep and narrow channel,
from twenty to thirty yards wide, which it had worn, in the course of
ages, through the heart of a barren, rocky country. The precipices
on each side were often two and three hundred feet high, sometimes
perpendicular, and sometimes overhanging, so that it was impossible,
excepting in one or two places, to get down to the margin of the stream.
This dreary strait was rendered the more dangerous by frequent rapids,
and occasionally perpendicular falls from ten to forty feet in height;
so that it seemed almost hopeless to attempt to pass the canoes down it.
The party, however, who had explored the south side of the river, had
found a place, about six miles from the camp, where they thought it
possible the canoes might be carried down the bank and launched upon
the stream, and from whence they might make their way with the aid of
occasional portages. Four of the best canoes were accordingly selected
for the experiment, and were transported to the place on the shoulders
of sixteen of the men. At the same time Mr. Reed, the clerk, and three
men were detached to explore the river still further down than the
previous scouting parties had been, and at the same time to look out for
Indians, from whom provisions might be obtained, and a supply of horses,
should it be found necessary to proceed by land.
The party who had been sent with the canoes returned on the following
day, weary and dejected. One of the canoes had been swept away with all
the weapons and effects of four of the voyageurs, in attempting to pass
it down a rapid by means of a line. The other three had stuck fast among
the rocks, so that it was impossible to move them; the men returned,
therefore, in despair, and declared the river unnavigable.
The situation of the unfortunate travellers was now gloomy in the
extreme. They were in the heart of an unknown wilderness, untraversed as
yet by a white man. They were at a loss what route to take, and how far
they were from the ultimate place of their destination, nor could
they meet in these uninhabited wilds with any human being to give them
information. The repeated accidents to their canoes had reduced their
stock of provisions to five days’ allowance, and there was now every
appearance of soon having famine added to their other sufferings.
This last circumstance rendered it more perilous to keep together than
to separate. Accordingly, after a little anxious but bewildered counsel,
it was determined that several small detachments should start off in
different directions, headed by the several partners. Should any of
them succeed in falling in with friendly Indians, within a reasonable
distance, and obtaining a supply of provisions and horses, they were
to return to the aid of the main body: otherwise they were to shift for
themselves, and shape their course according to circumstances;
keeping the mouth of the Columbia River as the ultimate point of their
wayfaring. Accordingly, three several parties set off from the camp at
Caldron Linn, in opposite directions. Mr. M’Lellan, with three men, kept
down along the bank of the river. Mr. Crooks, with five others, turned
their steps up it; retracing by land the weary course they had made by
water, intending, should they not find relief nearer at hand, to keep
on until they should reach Henry’s Fort, where they hoped to find the
horses they had left there, and to return with them to the main body.
The third party, composed of five men, was headed by Mr. M’Kenzie, who
struck to the northward, across the desert plains, in hopes of coming
upon the main stream of the Columbia.
Having seen these three adventurous bands depart upon their forlorn
expeditions, Mr. Hunt turned his thoughts to provide for the subsistence
of the main body left to his charge, and to prepare for their future
march. There remained with him thirty-one men, besides the squaw and
two children of Pierre Dorion. There was no game to be met with in the
neighborhood; but beavers were occasionally trapped about the river
banks, which afforded a scanty supply of food; in the meantime they
comforted themselves that some one or other of the foraging detachments
would be successful, and return with relief.
Mr. Hunt now set to work with all diligence, to prepare caches, in which
to deposit the baggage and merchandise, of which it would be necessary
to disburden themselves, preparatory to their weary march by land: and
here we shall give a brief description of those contrivances, so noted
in the wilderness.
A cache is a term common among traders and hunters, to designate a
hiding-place for provisions and effects. It is derived from the French
word “cacher”, to conceal, and originated among the early colonists of
Canada and Louisiana; but the secret depository which it designates was
in use among the aboriginals long before the intrusion of the white men.
It is, in fact, the only mode that migratory hordes have of preserving
their valuables from robbery, during their long absences from their
villages or accustomed haunts, on hunting expeditions, or during the
vicissitudes of war. The utmost skill and caution are required to render
these places of concealment invisible to the lynx eye of an Indian. The
first care is to seek out a proper situation, which is generally some
dry, low, bank of clay, on the margin of a water-course. As soon as
the precise spot is pitched upon, blankets, saddle-cloths, and other
coverings are spread over the surrounding grass and bushes, to prevent
foot-tracks, or any other derangement; and as few hands as possible are
employed. A circle of about two feet in diameter is then nicely cut in
the sod, which is carefully removed, with the loose soil immediately
beneath it, and laid aside in a place where it will be safe from
anything that may change its appearance. The uncovered area is then
digged perpendicularly to the depth of about three feet, and is then
gradually widened so as to form a conical chamber six or seven feet
deep. The whole of the earth displaced by this process, being of a
different color from that an the surface, is handed up in a vessel, and
heaped into a skin or cloth, in which it is conveyed to the stream and
thrown into the midst of the current, that it may be entirely carried
off. Should the cache not be formed in the vicinity of a stream, the
earth thus thrown up is carried to a distance, and scattered in such
manner as not to leave the minutest trace. The cave, being formed, is
well lined with dry grass, bark, sticks, and poles, and occasionally a
dried hide. The property intended to be hidden is then laid in, after
having been well aired: a hide is spread over it, and dried grass,
brush, and stones thrown in, and trampled down until the pit is filled
to the neck. The loose soil which had been put aside is then brought
and rammed down firmly, to prevent its caving in, and is frequently
sprinkled with water, to destroy the scent, lest the wolves and bears
should be attracted to the place, and root up the concealed treasure.
When the neck of the cache is nearly level with the surrounding surface,
the sod is again fitted in with the utmost exactness, and any bushes,
stocks, or stones, that may have originally been about the spot, are
restored to their former places. The blankets and other coverings are
then removed from the surrounding herbage; all tracks are obliterated;
the grass is gently raised by the hand to its natural position, and the
minutest chip or straw is scrupulously gleaned up and thrown into the
stream. After all this is done, the place is abandoned for the night,
and, if all be right next morning, is not visited again, until there be
a necessity for reopening the cache. Four men are sufficient, in this
way, to conceal the amount of three tons weight of merchandise in the
course of two days. Nine caches were required to contain the goods and
baggage which Mr. Hunt found it necessary to leave at this place.
Three days had been thus employed since the departure of the several
detachments, when that of Mr. Crooks unexpectedly made its appearance. A
momentary joy was diffused through the camp, for they supposed succor
to be at hand. It was soon dispelled. Mr. Crooks and his companions had
been completely disheartened by this retrograde march through a bleak
and barren country; and had found, computing from their progress and
the accumulating difficulties besetting every step, that it would be
impossible to reach Henry’s Fort and return to the main body in the
course of the winter. They had determined, therefore, to rejoin their
comrades, and share their lot.
One avenue of hope was thus closed upon the anxious sojourners at the
Caldron Linn; their main expectation of relief was now from the two
parties under Reed and M’Lellan, which had proceeded down the river;
for, as to Mr. M’Kenzie’s detachment, which had struck across the
plains, they thought it would have sufficient difficulty in struggling
forward through the trackless wilderness. For five days they continued
to support themselves by trapping and fishing. Some fish of tolerable
size were speared at night by the light of cedar torches; others, that
were very small, were caught in nets with fine meshes. The product
of their fishing, however, was very scanty. Their trapping was also
precarious; and the tails and bellies of the beavers were dried and put
by for the journey.
At length two of the companions of Mr. Reed returned, and were hailed
with the most anxious eagerness. Their report served but to increase the
general despondency. They had followed Mr. Reed for some distance below
the point to which Mr. Hunt had explored, but had met with no Indians
from whom to obtain information and relief. The river still presented
the same furious aspect, brawling and boiling along a narrow and rugged
channel, between rocks that rose like walls.
A lingering hope, which had been indulged by some of the party, of
proceeding by water, was now finally given up: the long and terrific
strait of the river set all further progress at defiance, and in their
disgust at the place, and their vexation at the disasters sustained
there, they gave it the indignant, though not very decorous, appellation
of the Devil’s Scuttle Hole.