, where it lay to the depth of thirty inches. It was sufficiently
incrusted to bear a pedestrian, but the poor horses broke through the
crust, and plunged and strained at every step. So lacerated were they by
the ice that it was necessary to change the front every hundred yards,
and put a different one in advance to break the way. The open prairies
were swept by a piercing and biting wind from the northwest. At night,
they had to task their ingenuity to provide shelter and keep from
freezing. In the first place, they dug deep holes in the snow, piling
it up in ramparts to windward as a protection against the blast. Beneath
these they spread buffalo skins, upon which they stretched themselves
in full dress, with caps, cloaks, and moccasins, and covered themselves
with numerous blankets; notwithstanding all which they were often
severely pinched with the cold.

On the 28th of February they arrived on the banks of Godin River. This
stream emerges from the mountains opposite an eastern branch of the
Malade River, running southeast, forms a deep and swift current about
twenty yards wide, passing rapidly through a defile to which it gives
its name, and then enters the great plain where, after meandering about
forty miles, it is finally lost in the region of the Burned Rocks.

On the banks of this river Captain Bonneville was so fortunate as to
come upon a buffalo trail. Following it up, he entered the defile, where
he remained encamped for two days to allow the hunters time to kill and
dry a supply of buffalo beef. In this sheltered defile the weather was
moderate and grass was already sprouting more than an inch in height.
There was abundance, too, of the salt weed which grows most plentiful
in clayey and gravelly barrens. It resembles pennyroyal, and derives its
name from a partial saltness. It is a nourishing food for the horses
in the winter, but they reject it the moment the young grass affords
sufficient pasturage.

On the 6th of March, having cured sufficient meat, the party resumed
their march, and moved on with comparative ease, excepting where they
had to make their way through snow-drifts which had been piled up by the
wind.

On the 11th, a small cloud of smoke was observed rising in a deep part
of the defile. An encampment was instantly formed and scouts were
sent out to reconnoitre. They returned with intelligence that it was a
hunting party of Flatheads, returning from the buffalo range laden with
meat. Capt