ater zest than these, snatched in the very midst
of difficulty and danger; and it is probable the poor wayworn and
weather-beaten travellers relished these creature comforts the more
highly from the surrounding desolation, and the dangerous proximity of
the Crows.

The snow which had fallen in the night made it late in the morning
before the party loaded their solitary packhorse, and resumed their
march. They had not gone far before the Crow trace which they were
following changed its direction, and bore to the north of east. They had
already begun to feel themselves on dangerous ground in keeping along
it, as they might be descried by some scouts and spies of that race of
Ishmaelites, whose predatory life required them to be constantly on the
alert. On seeing the trace turn so much to the north, therefore, they
abandoned it, and kept on their course to the southeast for eighteen
miles, through a beautifully undulating country, having the main chain
of mountains on the left, and a considerably elevated ridge on the
right. Here the mountain ridge which divides Wind River from the head
waters of the Columbia and Spanish Rivers, ends abruptly, and winding to
the north of east, becomes the dividing barrier between a branch of the
Big Horn and Cheyenne Rivers, and those head waters which flow into the
Missouri below the Sioux country.

The ridge which lay on the right of the travellers having now become
very low, they passed over it, and came into a level plain, about ten
miles in circumference, and incrusted to the depth of a foot or eighteen
inches with salt as white as snow. This is furnished by numerous salt
springs of limpid water, which are continually welling up, overflowing
their borders, and forming beautiful crystallizations. The Indian tribes
of the interior are excessively fond of this salt, and repair to the
valley to collect it, but it is held in distaste by the tribes of the
sea-coast, who will eat nothing that has been cured or seasoned by it.

This evening they encamped on the banks of a small stream, in the open
prairie. The northeast wind was keen and cutting; they had nothing
wherewith to make a fire, but a scanty growth of sage, or wormwood, and
were fain to wrap themselves up in their blankets, and huddle themselves
in their "nests," at an early hour. In the course of the evening, Mr.
M'Lellan, who had now regained his strength, killed a buffalo, but it
was some distance from the camp, and they postpo