Spanish River Scenery.--Trail of Crow Indians.--A Snow-
Storm.--A Rousing Fire and a Buffalo Feast.--A Plain of
Salt.--Climbing a Mountain.--Volcanic Summit.--Extinguished
Crater.--Marine Shells.--Encampment on a Prairie.--
Successful Hunting.--Good Cheer.--Romantic Scenery--Rocky
Defile.--Foaming Rapids.--The Fiery Narrows.
BY sunrise on the following morning (October 19th), the travellers
had loaded their old horse with buffalo meat, sufficient for five
days’ provisions, and, taking leave of their new allies, the poor, but
hospitable Snakes, set forth in somewhat better spirits, though the
increasing cold of the weather, and the sight of the snowy mountains
which they had yet to traverse, were enough to chill their very hearts.
The country along this branch of the Spanish River, as far as they could
see, was perfectly level, bounded by ranges of lofty mountains, both to
the east and west. They proceeded about three miles to the south, where
they came again upon the large trail of Crow Indians, which they had
crossed four days previously, made, no doubt, by the same marauding band
that had plundered the Snakes; and which, according to the account of
the latter, was now encamped on a stream to the eastward. The trail kept
on to the southeast, and was so well beaten by horse and foot, that they
supposed at least a hundred lodges had passed along it. As it formed,
therefore, a convenient highway, and ran in a proper direction, they
turned into it, and determined to keep along it as far as safety would
permit: as the Crow encampment must be some distance off, and it was
not likely those savages would return upon their steps. They travelled
forward, therefore, all that day, in the track of their dangerous
predecessors, which led them across mountain streams, and long ridges,
and through narrow valleys, all tending generally towards the southeast.
The wind blew coldly from the northeast, with occasional flurries of
snow, which made them encamp early, on the sheltered banks of a brook.
The two Canadians, Vallee and Le Clerc, killed a young buffalo bull in
the evening, which was in good condition, and afforded them a plentiful
supply of fresh beef. They loaded their spits, therefore, and crammed
their camp kettle with meat, and while the wind whistled, and the snow
whirled around them, huddled round a rousing fire, basked in its warmth,
and comforted both soul and body with a hearty and invigorating meal. No
enjoyments have greater zest than these, snatched in the very midst
of difficulty and danger; and it is probable the poor wayworn and
weather-beaten travellers relished these creature comforts the more
highly from the surrounding desolation, and the dangerous proximity of
the Crows.
The snow which had fallen in the night made it late in the morning
before the party loaded their solitary packhorse, and resumed their
march. They had not gone far before the Crow trace which they were
following changed its direction, and bore to the north of east. They had
already begun to feel themselves on dangerous ground in keeping along
it, as they might be descried by some scouts and spies of that race of
Ishmaelites, whose predatory life required them to be constantly on the
alert. On seeing the trace turn so much to the north, therefore, they
abandoned it, and kept on their course to the southeast for eighteen
miles, through a beautifully undulating country, having the main chain
of mountains on the left, and a considerably elevated ridge on the
right. Here the mountain ridge which divides Wind River from the head
waters of the Columbia and Spanish Rivers, ends abruptly, and winding to
the north of east, becomes the dividing barrier between a branch of the
Big Horn and Cheyenne Rivers, and those head waters which flow into the
Missouri below the Sioux country.
The ridge which lay on the right of the travellers having now become
very low, they passed over it, and came into a level plain, about ten
miles in circumference, and incrusted to the depth of a foot or eighteen
inches with salt as white as snow. This is furnished by numerous salt
springs of limpid water, which are continually welling up, overflowing
their borders, and forming beautiful crystallizations. The Indian tribes
of the interior are excessively fond of this salt, and repair to the
valley to collect it, but it is held in distaste by the tribes of the
sea-coast, who will eat nothing that has been cured or seasoned by it.
This evening they encamped on the banks of a small stream, in the open
prairie. The northeast wind was keen and cutting; they had nothing
wherewith to make a fire, but a scanty growth of sage, or wormwood, and
were fain to wrap themselves up in their blankets, and huddle themselves
in their “nests,” at an early hour. In the course of the evening, Mr.
M’Lellan, who had now regained his strength, killed a buffalo, but it
was some distance from the camp, and they postponed supplying themselves
from the carcass until the following morning.
The next day (October 21st), the cold continued, accompanied by snow.
They set forward on their bleak and toilsome way, keeping to the
east northeast, towards the lofty summit of a mountain, which it was
necessary for them to cross. Before they reached its base they passed
another large trail, steering a little to the right of the point of the
mountain. This they presumed to have been made by another band of Crows,
who had probably been hunting lower down on the Spanish River.
The severity of the weather compelled them to encamp at the end
of fifteen miles, on the skirts of the mountain, where they found
sufficient dry aspen trees to supply them with fire, but they sought in
vain about the neighborhood for a spring or rill of water.
At daybreak they were up and on the march, scrambling up the mountain
side for the distance of eight painful miles. From the casual hints
given in the travelling memoranda of Mr. Stuart, this mountain would
seem to offer a rich field of speculation for the geologist. Here was
a plain three miles in diameter, strewed with pumice stones and other
volcanic reliques, with a lake in the centre, occupying what had
probably been the crater. Here were also, in some places, deposits of
marine shells, indicating that this mountain crest had at some remote
period been below the waves.
After pausing to repose, and to enjoy these grand but savage and awful
scenes, they began to descend the eastern side of the mountain. The
descent was rugged and romantic, along deep ravines and defiles,
overhung with crags and cliffs, among which they beheld numbers of the
ahsahta or bighorn, skipping fearlessly from rock to rock. Two of
them they succeeded in bringing down with their rifles, as they peered
fearlessly from the brow of their airy precipices.
Arrived at the foot of the mountain, the travellers found a rill of
water oozing out of the earth, and resembling in look and taste, the
water of the Missouri. Here they encamped for the night, and supped
sumptuously upon their mountain mutton, which they found in good
condition, and extremely well tasted.
The morning was bright, and intensely cold. Early in the day they came
upon a stream running to the east, between low hills of bluish earth,
strongly impregnated with copperas. Mr. Stuart supposed this to be one
of the head waters of the Missouri, and determined to follow its banks.
After a march of twenty-six miles, however, he arrived at the summit
of a hill, the prospect of which induced him to alter his intention. He
beheld, in every direction south of east, a vast plain, bounded only
by the horizon, through which wandered the stream in question, in a
south-south-east direction. It could not, therefore, be a branch of the
Missouri. He now gave up all idea of taking the stream for his guide,
and shaped his course towards a range of mountains in the east, about
sixty miles distant, near which he hoped to find another stream.
The weather was now so severe, and the hardships of travelling so great,
that he resolved to halt for the winter, at the first eligible place.
That night they had to encamp on the open prairie, near a scanty pool
of water, and without any wood to make a fire. The northeast wind blew
keenly across the naked waste, and they were fain to decamp from their
inhospitable bivouac before the dawn.
For two days they kept on in an eastward direction, against wintry
blasts and occasional snow storms. They suffered, also, from scarcity
of water, having occasionally to use melted snow; this, with the want of
pasturage, reduced their old pack-horse sadly. They saw many tracks of
buffalo, and some few bulls, which, however, got the wind of them, and
scampered off.
On the 26th of October, they steered east-northeast, for a wooded ravine
in a mountain, at a small distance from the base of which, to their
great joy, they discovered an abundant stream, running between willowed
banks. Here they halted for the night, and Ben Jones having luckily
trapped a beaver, and killed two buffalo bulls, they remained all the
next day encamped, feasting and reposing, and allowing their jaded horse
to rest from his labors.
The little stream on which they were encamped, was one of the head
waters of the Platte River, which flows into the Missouri; it was,
in fact, the northern fork, or branch of that river, though this the
travellers did not discover until long afterwards. Pursuing the course
of this stream for about twenty miles, they came to where it forced
a passage through a range of high hills, covered with cedars, into an
extensive low country, affording excellent pasture to numerous herds of
buffalo. Here they killed three cows, which were the first they had been
able to get, having hitherto had to content themselves with bull beef,
which at this season of the year is very poor. The hump meat afforded
them a repast fit for an epicure.
Late on the afternoon of the 30th, they came to where the stream, now
increased to a considerable size, poured along in a ravine between
precipices of red stone, two hundred feet in height. For some distance
it dashed along, over huge masses of rock, with foaming violence, as if
exasperated by being compressed into so narrow a channel, and at length
leaped down a chasm that looked dark and frightful in the gathering
twilight.
For a part of the next day, the wild river, in its capricious
wanderings, led them through a variety of striking scenes. At one time
they were upon high plains, like platforms among the mountains, with
herds of buffaloes roaming about them; at another among rude rocky
defiles, broken into cliffs and precipices, where the blacktailed deer
bounded off among the crags, and the bighorn basked in the sunny brow of
the precipice.
In the after part of the day, they came to another scene, surpassing in
savage grandeur those already described. They had been travelling for
some distance through a pass of the mountains, keeping parallel with
the river, as it roared along, out of sight, through a deep ravine.
Sometimes their devious path approached the margin of cliffs below which
the river foamed, and boiled, and whirled among the masses of rock that
had fallen into its channel. As they crept cautiously on, leading their
solitary pack-horse along these giddy heights, they all at once came to
where the river thundered down a succession of precipices, throwing up
clouds of spray, and making a prodigious din and uproar. The travellers
remained, for a time, gazing with mingled awe and delight, at this
furious cataract, to which Mr. Stuart gave, from the color of the
impending rocks, the name of “The Fiery Narrows.”