Chapter 17

17.

Opening of the caches Detachments of Cerre and Hodgkiss

Salmon River Mountains Superstition of an Indian trapper

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