Chapter 28

28.

A region of natural curiosities The plain of white clay Hot

springs The Beer Spring Departure to seek the free trappers Plain

of Portneuf Lava Chasms and gullies Bannack Indians Their hunt

of the buffalo Hunter's feast Trencher heroes Bullying of an

absent foe The damp comrade The Indian spy Meeting with

Hodgkiss His adventures Poordevil Indians Triumph of the

Bannacks Blackfeet policy in war

CROSSING AN ELEVATED RIDGE, Captain Bonneville now came upon Bear

River, which, from its source to its entrance into the Great Salt

Lake, describes the figure of a horse-shoe. One of the principal

head waters of this river, although supposed to abound with

beaver, has never been visited by the trapper; rising among

rugged mountains, and being barricadoed [sic] by fallen pine

trees and tremendous precipices.

Proceeding down this river, the party encamped, on the 6th of

November, at the outlet of a lake about thirty miles long, and

from two to three miles in width, completely imbedded in low

ranges of mountains, and connected with Bear River by an

impassable swamp. It is called the Little Lake, to distinguish it

from the great one of salt water.

On the 10th of November, Captain Bonneville visited a place in

the neighborhood which is quite a region of natural curiosities.

An area of about half a mile square presents a level surface of

white clay or fuller's earth, perfectly spotless, resembling a

great slab of Parian marble, or a sheet of dazzling snow. The

effect is strikingly beautiful at all times: in summer, when it

is surrounded with verdure, or in autumn, when it contrasts its

bright immaculate surface with the withered herbage. Seen from a

distant eminence, it then shines like a mirror, set in the brown

landscape. Around this plain are clustered numerous springs of

various sizes and temperatures. One of them, of scalding heat,

boils furiously and incessantly, rising to the height of two or

three feet. In another place, there is an aperture in the earth,

from which rushes a column of steam that forms a perpetual cloud.

The ground for some distance around sounds hollow, and startles

the solitary trapper, as he hears the tramp of his horse giving

the sound of a muffled drum. He pictures to himself a mysterious

gulf below, a place of hidden fires, and gazes round him with awe

and uneasiness.

The most noted curiosity, however, of this singular region, is

the Beer Spring, of which trappers give wonderful accounts. They

are said to turn aside from their route through the country to

drink of