The difficult mountain--A smoke and consultation--The captain's speech--An icyturnpike-- 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 twofeet 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 placewhere 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, sothat they attained the summit with but little difficulty. Here they encamped, with theintention 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 thehorses' heads.
Captain Bonneville now took the two Indian guides, and set out to reconnoitre theneighborhood. Observing a high peak which overtopped the rest, he climbed it, anddiscovered from the summit a pass about nine miles long, but so heavily piled withsnow, that it seemed impracticable. He now lit a pipe, and, sitting down with the twoguides, proceeded to hold a consultation after the Indian mode. For a long while they allsmoked vigorously and in silence, pondering over the subject matter before them. Atlength a discussion commenced, and the opinion in which the two guides concurredwas, that the horses could not possibly cross the snows. They advised, therefore, thatthe 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 beextremely 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 goodthey should not attempt it.
Captain Bonneville sat smoking his pipe, and listening to them with Indian silence andgravity. 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 havelittle hearts. When troubles and dangers lie in your way, you turn your backs. That is notthe way with my nation. When great obstacles present, and threaten to keep themback, their hearts swell, and they push forward. They love to conquer difficulties. Butenough for the present. Night is coming on; let us return to our camp."He moved on, and they followed in silence. On reaching the camp, he found the menextremely discouraged. One of their number had been surveying the neighborhood, andseriously assured them that the snow was at least a hundred feet deep. The captaincheered them up, and diffused fresh spirit in them by his example. Still he was muchperplexed how to proceed. About dark there was a slight drizzling rain. An expedientnow suggested itself. This was to make two light sleds, place the packs on them, anddrag them to the other side of the mountain, thus forming a road in the wet snow,which, should it afterward freeze, would be sufficiently hard to bear the horses. Thisplan was promptly put into execution; the sleds were constructed, the heavy baggagewas drawn backward and forward until the road was beaten, when they desisted fromtheir fatiguing labor. The night turned out clear and cold, and by morning, their road wasincrusted with ice sufficiently strong for their purpose. They now set out on their icyturnpike, and got on well enough, excepting that now and then a horse would sidle outof the track, and immediately sink up to the neck. Then came on toil and difficulty, andthey would be obliged to haul up the floundering animal with ropes. One, more unluckythan the rest, after repeated falls, had to be abandoned in the snow. Notwithstandingthese repeated delays, they succeeded, before the sun had acquired sufficient power tothaw the snow, in getting all the rest of their horses safely to the other side of themountain.
Their difficulties and dangers, however, were not yet at an end. They had now todescend, and the whole surface of the snow was glazed with ice. It was necessary;therefore, to wait until the warmth of the sun should melt the glassy crust of sleet, andgive them a foothold in the yielding snow. They had a frightful warning of the danger ofany movement while the sleet remained. A wild young mare, in her restlessness,strayed to the edge of a declivity. One slip was fatal to her; she lost her balance,careered with headlong velocity down the slippery side of the mountain for more thantwo thousand feet, and was dashed to pieces at the bottom. When the travellersafterward sought the carcass to cut it up for food, they found it torn and mangled in themost horrible manner.
