ous journey. The course they took was to the
southeast, towards the fated region of the Snake River. At an immense
distance rose a chain of craggy mountains, which they would have to
traverse; they were the same among which the travellers had experienced
such sufferings from cold during the preceding winter, and from their
azure tints, when seen at a distance, had received the name of the Blue
Mountains.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Route of Mr. Stuart--Dreary Wilds.--Thirsty Travelling.-A
Grove and Streamlet.--The Blue Mountains.--A Fertile Plain
With Rivulets.--Sulphur Spring--Route Along Snake River--
Rumors of White Men.--The Snake and His Horse.--A Snake
Guide.-A Midnight Decampment.--Unexpected Meeting With Old
Comrades--Story of Trappers' Hardships--Salmon Falls--A
Great Fishery.--Mode of Spearing Salmon.--Arrival at the
Caldron Linn.--State of the Caches.--New Resolution of the
Three Kentucky Trappers.

IN retracing the route which had proved so disastrous to Mr. Hunt's
party during the preceding winter, Mr. Stuart had trusted, in the
present more favorable season, to find easy travelling and abundant
supplies. On these great wastes and wilds, however, each season has its
peculiar hardships. The travellers had not proceeded far, before they
found themselves among naked and arid hills, with a soil composed of
sand and clay, baked and brittle, that to all appearance had never been
visited by the dews of heaven.

Not a spring, or pool, or running stream was to be seen; the sunburnt
country was seamed and cut up by dry ravines, the beds of winter
torrents, serving only to balk the hopes of man and beast with the sight
of dusty channels, where water had once poured along in floods.

For a long summer day they continued onward without halting, a burning
sky above their heads, a parched desert beneath their feet, with just
wind enough to raise the light sand from the knolls, and envelop them in
stifling clouds. The sufferings from thirst became intense; a fine young
dog, their only companion of the kind, gave out, and expired. Evening
drew on without any prospect of relief, and they were almost reduced
to despair, when they descried something that looked like a fringe of
forest along the horizon. All were inspired with new hope, for they knew
that on these arid wastes, in the neighborhood of trees, there is always
water.

They now quickened their pace; the horses seemed to