d day, they came to a little island on which they
descried a gang of elk. Ben Jones landed, and was fortunate enough to
wound one, which immediately took to the water, but, being unable to
stem the current, drifted above a mile, when it was overtaken and drawn
to shore. As a storm was gathering, they now encamped on the margin of
the river, where they remained all the next day, sheltering themselves
as well as they could from the rain and snow--a sharp foretaste of the
impending winter. During their encampment, they employed themselves in
jerking a part of the elk for future supply. In cutting up the carcass,
they found that the animal had been wounded by hunters, about a week
previously, an arrow head and a musket ball remaining in the wounds.
In the wilderness, every trivial circumstance is a matter of anxious
speculation. The Snake Indians have no guns; the elk, therefore, could
not have been wounded by one of them. They were on the borders of
the country infested by the Blackfeet, who carry fire-arms. It was
concluded, therefore, that the elk had been hunted by some of
that wandering and hostile tribe, who, of course, must be in the
neighborhood. The idea put an end to the transient solace they had
enjoyed in the comparative repose and abundance of the river.

For three days longer they continued to navigate with their rafts.
The recent storm had rendered the weather extremely cold. They had
now floated down the river about ninety-one miles, when finding the
mountains on the right diminished to moderate sized hills, they landed,
and prepared to resume their journey on foot. Accordingly, having spent
a day in preparations, making moccasins, and parceling out their jerked
meat in packs of twenty pounds to each man, they turned their backs
upon the river on the 29th of September and struck off to the northeast,
keeping along the southern skirt of the mountain on which Henry's Fort
was situated.

Their march was slow and toilsome; part of the time through an alluvial
bottom, thickly grown with cotton-wood, hawthorn, and willows, and part
of the time over rough hills. Three antelopes came within shot, but they
dared not fire at them, lest the report of their rifles should betray
them to the Blackfeet. In the course of the day, they came upon a
large horse-track, apparently about three weeks old, and in the evening
encamped on the banks of a small stream, on a spot which had been the
camping place of this same band.

O