usly organised a fur-trading
company in St. Louis, then the centre of all Western commerce, had
established himself in Green River Valley with a large band of
expert trappers which included now famous names like Henry, Bridger,
Fitzpatrick, Green, Sublet, and Beckwourth. Provo (or Provost) was
already encamped in Brown's Hole. One of Ashley's principal camps
was what they called the "rendezvous" (there were a great many
French-Canadians engaged in the fur business, and hence numerous French
words were in common use among the trappers of the period), just above
"The Suck," on Green River. This Suck was at the entrance to Flaming
Gorge, as it has since been named. Beckwourth says of this: "The
current, at a small distance from our camp, became exceedingly rapid,
and drew toward the centre from each shore." The river here narrows
suddenly and attacks a high ridge. Doubling around a point to the left
and then as suddenly to the right, the swift water or "Suck" slackens
up in the quieter reach of Flaming Gorge. In their journeys after
beaver the Ashley party had been able to go into this gorge and the two
following ones, Horseshoe and Kingfisher, and had doubtless trapped in
them. Here were many beaver, and Ashley drew the inference that as
many existed below in the deeper canyon. Though he had discovered the
dangerous character of the river he decided to build boats and set forth
on the current in order to trap the canyon, the length of which he did
not know and underestimated. A purpose of reaching St. Louis by this
route has been attributed to Ashley, but as Hunt and others some years
before understood this to be a stream on whose lower waters Spaniards
lived, Ashley doubtless had the same information, and from that he would
have known that it was no practicable route to St. Louis. Beckwourth,
who relates the story of the trip,** makes no suggestion of any far-off
destination, nor does he say they took their packs along, as they would
have done if going to a commercial centre. It seems to have been purely
a trapping expedition, and was probably the very first attempt to
navigate Green River. They took along few provisions, expecting to find
beaver plentiful to the end of the canyon, but after a few miles the
beaver were absent, and, having preserved none of the meat, the party
began to suffer for food. They were six days without eating, and, the
high precipitous walls running ever on and on, they became disheartened,
or, i