CHAPTER XXIX
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.