braving the perils of Mad River.

The weather for a few days past had been stormy, with rain and sleet.
The Rocky Mountains are subject to tempestuous winds from the west;
these sometimes come in flaws or currents, making a path through the
forests many yards in width, and whirling off trunks and branches to
a great distance. The present storm subsided on the third of October,
leaving all the surrounding heights covered with snow; for while rain
had fallen in the valley, it had snowed on the hill tops.

On the 4th, they broke up their encampment, and crossed the river, the
water coming up to the girths of their horses. After travelling four
miles, they encamped at the foot of the mountain, the last, as they
hoped, which they should have to traverse. Four days more took them
across it, and over several plains, watered by beautiful little streams,
tributaries of Mad River. Near one of their encampments there was a hot
spring continually emitting a cloud of vapor. These elevated plains,
which give a peculiar character to the mountains, are frequented by
large gangs of antelopes, fleet as the wind.

On the evening of the 8th of October, after a cold wintry day, with
gusts of westerly wind and flurries of snow, they arrived at the
sought-for post of Mr. Henry. Here he had fixed himself, after being
compelled by the hostilities of the Blackfeet, to abandon the upper
waters of the Missouri. The post, however, was deserted, for Mr. Henry
had left it in the course of the preceding spring, and, as it afterwards
appeared, had fallen in with Mr. Lisa, at the Arickara village on the
Missouri, some time after the separation of Mr. Hunt and his party.

The weary travellers gladly took possession of the deserted log huts
which had formed the post, and which stood on the bank of a stream
upwards of a hundred yards wide, on which they intended to embark.
There being plenty of suitable timber in the neighborhood, Mr. Hunt
immediately proceeded to construct canoes. As he would have to leave
his horses and their accoutrements here, he determined to make this a
trading post, where the trappers and hunters, to be distributed about
the country, might repair; and where the traders might touch on their
way through the mountains to and from the establishment at the mouth of
the Columbia. He informed the two Snake Indians of this determination,
and engaged them to remain in that neighborhood and take care of the
horses until the white men shou