CHAPTER XLVIII.
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."