es were lined with dead
salmon, which tainted the whole atmosphere. The natives whom they met
spoke of Mr. Reed's party having passed through that neighborhood. In
the course of the day Mr. Hunt saw a few horses, but the owners of them
took care to hurry them out of the way. All the provisions they were
able to procure were two dogs and a salmon. On the following day they
were still worse off, having to subsist on parched corn and the remains
of their dried meat. The river this day had resumed its turbulent
character, forcing its way through a narrow channel between steep rocks
and down violent rapids. They made twenty miles over a rugged road,
gradually approaching a mountain in the northwest, covered with snow,
which had been in sight for three days past.

On the 17th they met with several Indians, one of whom had a horse. Mr.
Hunt was extremely desirous of obtaining it as a pack-horse; for the
men, worn down by fatigue and hunger, found the loads of twenty pounds'
weight which they had to carry, daily growing heavier and more galling.
The Indians, however, along this river, were never willing to part with
their horses, having none to spare. The owner of the steed in question
seemed proof against all temptation; article after article of great
value in Indian eyes was offered and refused. The charms of an old
tin-kettle, however, were irresistible, and a bargain was concluded.

A great part of the following morning was consumed in lightening the
packages of the men and arranging the load for the horse. At this
encampment there was no wood for fuel, even the wormwood on which they
had frequently depended having disappeared. For the two last days they
had made thirty miles to the northwest.

On the 19th of November, Mr. Hunt was lucky enough to purchase another
horse for his own use, giving in exchange a tomahawk, a knife, a fire
steel, and some beads and gartering. In an evil hour, however, he took
the advice of the Indians to abandon the river, and follow a road or
trail leading into the prairies. He soon had cause to regret the change.
The road led across a dreary waste, without verdure; and where there
was neither fountain, nor pool, nor running stream. The men now began
to experience the torments of thirst, aggravated by their diet of dried
fish. The thirst of the Canadian voyageurs became so insupportable as to
drive them to the most revolting means of allaying it. For twenty-five
miles did they toll on across th