Chapter 29 - Page 2

were encamped in the neighborhood of a tribe as

honest as they were valiant, and satisfied that they would pass

their winter unmolested, Captain Bonneville prepared for a

reconnoitring expedition of great extent and peril. This was, to

penetrate to the Hudson's Bay establishments on the banks of the

Columbia, and to make himself acquainted with the country and the

Indian tribes; it being one part of his scheme to establish a

trading post somewhere on the lower part of the river, so as to

participate in the trade lost to the United States by the capture

of Astoria. This expedition would, of course, take him through

the Snake River country, and across the Blue Mountains, the

scenes of so much hardship and disaster to Hunt and Crooks, and

their Astorian bands, who first explored it, and he would have to

pass through it in the same frightful season, the depth of

winter.

The idea of risk and hardship, however, only served to stimulate

the adventurous spirit of the captain. He chose three companions

for his journey, put up a small stock of necessaries in the most

portable form, and selected five horses and mules for themselves

and their baggage. He proposed to rejoin his band in the early

part of March, at the winter encampment near the Portneuf. All

these arrangements being completed, he mounted his horse on

Christmas morning, and set off with his three comrades. They

halted a little beyond the Bannack camp, and made their Christmas

dinner, which, if not a very merry, was a very hearty one, after

which they resumed their journey.

They were obliged to travel slowly, to spare their horses; for

the snow had increased in depth to eighteen inches; and though

somewhat packed and frozen, was not sufficiently so to yield firm

footing. Their route lay to the west, down along the left side of

Snake River; and they were several days in reaching the first, or

American Falls. The banks of the river, for a considerable

distance, both above and below the falls, have a volcanic

character: masses of basaltic rock are piled one upon another;

the water makes its way through their broken chasms, boiling

through narrow channels, or pitching in beautiful cascades over

ridges of basaltic columns.

Beyond these falls, they came to a picturesque, but

inconsiderable stream, called the Cassie. It runs through a level

valley, about four miles wide, where the soil is good; but the

prevalent coldness and dryness of the climate is unfavorable to

vegetation. Near to this stream there is a small mountain of mica

slate, including