up its course, to traverse the mountain and avoid the great bend of Snake River. Being now out ofthe range of the Bannecks, he sent out his people in all directions to hunt the antelope for presentsupplies; keeping the dried meats for places where game might be scarce.
During four days that the party were ascending Gun Creek, the smoke continued to increaseso
rapidly that it was impossible to distinguish the face of the country and ascertain landmarks.
Fortunately, the travellers fell upon an Indian trail. which led them to the head-waters of theFourche
de Glace or Ice River, sometimes called the Grand Rond. Here they found all the plains andvalleys
wrapped in one vast conflagration; which swept over the long grass in billows of flame, shot upevery bush and tree, rose in great columns from the groves, and set up clouds of smoke thatdarkened
the atmosphere. To avoid this sea of fire, the travellers had to pursue their course close along thefoot
of the mountains; but the irritation from the smoke continued to be tormenting.
The country about the head-waters of the Grand Rond spreads out into broad and levelprairies,
extremely fertile, and watered by mountain springs and rivulets. These prairies are resorted to bysmall bands of the Skynses, to pasture their horses, as well as to banquets upon the salmon whichabound in the neighboring waters. They take these fish in great quantities and without the leastdifficulty; simply taking them out of the water with their hands, as they flounder and struggle inthe
numerous long shoals of the principal streams. At the time the travellers passed over theseprairies,
some of the narrow, deep streams by which they were intersected were completely choked withsalmon, which they took in great numbers. The wolves and bears frequent these streams at thisseason, to avail themselves of these great fisheries.
The travellers continued, for many days, to experience great difficulties and discomfortsfrom this
wide conflagration, which seemed to embrace the whole wilderness. The sun was for a great partof
the time obscured by the smoke, and the loftiest mountains were hidden from view. Blunderingalong in this region of mist and uncertainty, they were frequently obliged to make long circuits,to
avoid obstacles which they could not perceive until close upon them. The Indian trails were theirsafest guides, for though they sometimes appeared to lead them out of their direct course, theyalways conducted them to the passes.
On the 26th of August, they reached the head of the Way-lee-way River. Here, in a valleyof the
mountains through which this head-water makes its way, they found a band of the Skynses, whowere extremely sociable, and appeared to be well disposed, and as they spoke the Nez Percelanguage, an intercourse was easily kept up with them.
In the pastures on the bank of this stream, Captain Bonneville encamped for a time, for thepurpose
of recruiting the strength of his horses. Scouts were now sent out to explore the surroundingcountry, and search for a convenient pass through the mountains toward the Wallamut orMultnomah. After an absence of twenty days they returned weary and discouraged. They hadbeen
harassed and perplexed in rugged mountain defiles, where their progress was continuallyimpeded
by rocks and precipices. Often they had been obliged to travel along the edges of frightfulravines,
where a false step would have been fatal. In one of these passes, a horse fell from the brink of aprecipice, and would have been dashed to pieces had he not lodged among the branches of a tree,from which he was extricated with great difficulty. These, however, were not the worst of theirdifficulties and perils. The great conflagration of the country, which had harassed the main partyin
its march, was still more awful the further this exploring party proceeded. The flames whichswept
rapidly over the light vegetation of the prairies assumed a fiercer character and took a strongerhold
amid the wooded glens and ravines of the mountains. Some of the deep gorges and defiles sentup
sheets of flame, and clouds of lurid smoke, and sparks and cinders that in the night made themresemble the craters of volcanoes. The groves and forests, too, which crowned the cliffs, shot uptheir
towering columns of fire, and added to the furnace glow of the mountains. With these stupendoussights were combined the rushing blasts caused by the rarefied air, which roared and howledthrough
the narrow glens, and whirled forth the smoke and flames in impetuous wreaths. Ever and anon,too,
was heard the crash of falling trees, sometimes tumbling from crags and precipices, withtremendous
sounds.
In the daytime, the mountains were wrapped in smoke so dense and blinding, that theexplorers, if by chance they separated, could only find each other by shouting. Often,too, they had to grope their way through the yet burning forests, in constant perilfrom the limbs and trunks of trees, which frequently fell across their path. At lengththey gave up the attempt to find a pass as hopeless, under actual circumstances, andmade their way back to the camp to report their failure. [Return to Contents].
