f such a
capital shot. Mr. Stuart, however, represented what might have been the
consequence of so rash an act. Life for life is the Indian maxim. The
whole tribe would have made common cause in avenging the death of a
warrior. The party were but seven dismounted men, with a wide mountain
region to traverse, infested by these people, and which might all be
roused by signal fires. In fact, the conduct of the band of marauders in
question, showed the perseverance of savages when once they have fixed
their minds upon a project. These fellows had evidently been silent and
secretly dogging the party for a week past, and a distance of a
hundred and fifty miles, keeping out of sight by day, lurking about the
encampment at night, watching all their movements, and waiting for a
favorable moment when they should be off their guard. The menace of
Mr. Stuart, in their first interview, to shoot the giant chief with
his pistol, and the fright caused among the warriors by presenting
the rifles, had probably added the stimulus of pique to their usual
horse-stealing propensities. And in this mood of mind they would
doubtless have followed the party throughout their whole course over the
Rocky Mountains, rather than be disappointed in their scheme.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Travellers Unhorsed--Pedestrian Preparations--Prying Spies.
--Bonfires of Baggage--A March on Foot.--Rafting a River--The
Wounded Elk.--Indian Trails.--Willful Conduct of Mr.
M'Lellan.--Grand Prospect From a Mountain.--Distant Craters
of Volcanoes--Illness of Mr. Crooks.

FEW reverses in this changeful world are more complete and disheartening
than that of a traveller, suddenly unhorsed, in the midst of the
wilderness. Our unfortunate travellers contemplated their situation,
for a time, in perfect dismay. A long journey over rugged mountains and
immeasurable plains lay before them, which they must painfully perform
on foot, and everything necessary for subsistence or defense must be
carried on their shoulders. Their dismay, however, was but transient,
and they immediately set to work, with that prompt expediency produced
by the exigencies of the wilderness, to fit themselves for the change in
their condition.

Their first attention was to select from their baggage such articles
as were indispensable to their journey; to make them up into convenient
packs, and to deposit the residue in caches. The whole day was consumed
in these occupations; a