Chapter 36

36.

The difficult mountain A smoke and consultation The captain's

speech An icy turnpike Danger of a false step Arrival on Snake

River Return to Portneuf Meeting of comrades

CONTINUING THEIR JOURNEY UP the course of the Immahah, the

travellers found, as they approached the headwaters, the snow

increased in quantity, so as to lie two feet deep. They were

again obliged, therefore, to beat down a path for their horses,

sometimes travelling on the icy surface of the stream. At length

they reached the place where they intended to scale the

mountains; and, having broken a pathway to the foot, were

agreeably surprised to find that the wind had drifted the snow

from off the side, so that they attained the summit with but

little difficulty. Here they encamped, with the intention of

beating a track through the mountains. A short experiment,

however, obliged them to give up the attempt, the snow lying in

vast drifts, often higher than the horses' heads.

Captain Bonneville now took the two Indian guides, and set out to

reconnoitre the neighborhood. Observing a high peak which

overtopped the rest, he climbed it, and discovered from the

summit a pass about nine miles long, but so heavily piled with

snow, that it seemed impracticable. He now lit a pipe, and,

sitting down with the two guides, proceeded to hold a

consultation after the Indian mode. For a long while they all

smoked vigorously and in silence, pondering over the subject

matter before them. At length a discussion commenced, and the

opinion in which the two guides concurred was, that the horses

could not possibly cross the snows. They advised, therefore, that

the party should proceed on foot, and they should take the horses

back to the village, where they would be well taken care of until

Captain Bonneville should send for them. They urged this advice

with great earnestness; declaring that their chief would be

extremely angry, and treat them severely, should any of the

horses of his good friends, the white men, be lost, in crossing

under their guidance; and that, therefore, it was good they

should not attempt it.

Captain Bonneville sat smoking his pipe, and listening to them

with Indian silence and gravity. When they had finished, he

replied to them in their own style of language.

"My friends," said he, "I have seen the pass, and have listened

to your words; you have little hearts. When troubles and dangers

lie in your way, you turn your backs. That is not the way with my

nation. When great obstacles present, and threaten to keep them