Chapter 33 - Page 2

they were succeeded by delightful valleys carpeted with

green-award. The whole of this wild and varied scenery was

dominated by immense mountains rearing their distant peaks into

the clouds. "The grandeur and originality of the views, presented

on every side," says Captain Bonneville, "beggar both the pencil

and the pen. Nothing we had ever gazed upon in any other region

could for a moment compare in wild majesty and impressive

sternness, with the series of scenes which here at every turn

astonished our senses, and filled us with awe and delight."

Indeed, from all that we can gather from the journal before us,

and the accounts of other travellers, who passed through these

regions in the memorable enterprise of Astoria, we are inclined

to think that Snake River must be one of the most remarkable for

varied and striking scenery of all the rivers of this continent.

From its head waters in the Rocky Mountains, to its junction with

the Columbia, its windings are upward of six hundred miles

through every variety of landscape. Rising in a volcanic region,

amid extinguished craters, and mountains awful with the traces of

ancient fires, it makes its way through great plains of lava and

sandy deserts, penetrates vast sierras or mountainous chains,

broken into romantic and often frightful precipices, and crowned

with eternal snows; and at other times, careers through green and

smiling meadows, and wide landscapes of Italian grace and beauty.

Wildness and sublimity, however, appear to be its prevailing

characteristics.

Captain Bonneville and his companions had pursued their journey a

considerable distance down the course of Snake River, when the

old chief halted on the bank, and dismounting, recommended that

they should turn their horses loose to graze, while he summoned a

cousin of his from a group of lodges on the opposite side of the

stream. His summons was quickly answered. An Indian, of an active

elastic form, leaped into a light canoe of cotton-wood, and

vigorously plying the paddle, soon shot across the river.

Bounding on shore, he advanced with a buoyant air and frank

demeanor, and gave his right hand to each of the party in turn.

The old chief, whose hard name we forbear to repeat, now

presented Captain Bonneville, in form, to his cousin, whose name,

we regret to say, was no less hard being nothing less than

Hay-she-in-cow-cow. The latter evinced the usual curiosity to

know all about the strangers, whence they came whither they were

going, the object of their journey, and the adventures they had