Godin's River--Preparations for trapping--An alarm--An
interruption--A rival band--Phenomena of Snake River Plain
Vast clefts and chasms--Ingulfed streams--Sublime scenery--A
grand buffalo hunt.

CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE found his caches perfectly secure, and having
secretly opened them he selected such articles as were necessary to
equip the free trappers and to supply the inconsiderable trade with
the Indians, after which he closed them again. The free trappers, being
newly rigged out and supplied, were in high spirits, and swaggered gayly
about the camp. To compensate all hands for past sufferings, and to give
a cheerful spur to further operations, Captain Bonneville now gave the
men what, in frontier phrase, is termed "a regular blow-out." It was a
day of uncouth gambols and frolics and rude feasting. The Indians joined
in the sports and games, and all was mirth and good-fellowship.

It was now the middle of March, and Captain Bonneville made preparations
to open the spring campaign. He had pitched upon Malade River for his
main trapping ground for the season. This is a stream which rises among
the great bed of mountains north of the Lava Plain, and after a winding
course falls into Snake River. Previous to his departure the captain
dispatched Mr. Cerre, with a few men, to visit the Indian villages and
purchase horses; he furnished his clerk, Mr. Hodgkiss, also, with a
small stock of goods, to keep up a trade with the Indians during the
spring, for such peltries as they might collect, appointing the caches
on Salmon River as the point of rendezvous, where they were to rejoin
him on the 15th of June following.

This done he set out for Malade River, with a band of twenty-eight men
composed of hired and free trappers and Indian hunters, together with
eight squaws. Their route lay up along the right fork of Salmon River,
as it passes through the deep defile of the mountains. They travelled
very slowly, not above five miles a day, for many of the horses were
so weak that they faltered and staggered as they walked. Pasturage,
however, was now growing plentiful. There was abundance of fresh grass,
which in some places had attained such height as to wave in the wind.
The native flocks of the wilderness, the mountain sheep, as they are
called by the trappers, were continually to be seen upon the hills
between which they passed, and a good supply of mutton was provided by
the hunters, as they were advancing