torm brought them to a pause. To struggle against it, in their
exhausted condition, was impossible, so cowering under an impending
rock at the foot of a steep mountain, they prepared themselves for that
wretched fate which seemed inevitable.

At this critical juncture, when famine stared them in the face, M'Lellan
casting up his eyes, beheld an ahsahta, or bighorn, sheltering itself
under a shelving rock on the side of the hill above them. Being in a
more active plight than any of his comrades, and an excellent marksman,
he set off to get within shot of the animal. His companions watched his
movements with breathless anxiety, for their lives depended upon his
success. He made a cautious circuit; scrambled up the hill with the
utmost silence, and at length arrived, unperceived, within a proper
distance. Here leveling his rifle he took so sure an aim, that the
bighorn fell dead on the spot; a fortunate circumstance, for, to pursue
it, if merely wounded, would have been impossible in his emaciated
state. The declivity of the hill enabled him to roll the carcass down
to his companions, who were too feeble to climb the rocks. They fell to
work to cut it up; yet exerted a remarkable self-denial for men in their
starving condition, for they contented themselves for the present with
a soup made from the bones, reserving the flesh for future repasts. This
providential relief gave them strength to pursue their journey, but they
were frequently reduced to almost equal straits, and it was only the
smallness of their party, requiring a small supply of provisions, that
enabled them to get through this desolate region with their lives.

At length, after twenty-one days of to 11 and suffering, they got
through these mountains, and arrived at a tributary stream of that
branch of the Columbia called Lewis River, of which Snake River forms
the southern fork. In this neighborhood they met with wild horses, the
first they had seen west of the Rocky Mountains. From hence they made
their way to Lewis River, where they fell in with a friendly tribe of
Indians, who freely administered to their necessities. On this river
they procured two canoes, in which they dropped down the stream to its
confluence with the Columbia, and then down that river to Astoria, where
they arrived haggard and emaciated, and perfectly in rags.

Thus, all the leading persons of Mr. Hunt's expedition were once
more gathered together, excepting Mr. Crooks, of whose safet