230 SADDLE AND CAMP 



Grand Canon of the Snake. Since then he had 

 hunted and trapped in this and the canon of 

 John Grey's River, which flows into the Snake 

 near the ferry. During the summer he and 

 Rogers operate the ferry and work a salt mine 

 up Salt River Valley, which Booth discovered 

 some years ago. 



A short distance below the ferry Salt River 

 empties into Snake River. This is the south 

 fork of Snake River, known to the old fur 

 trappers and traders as Mad River, as the north 

 fork was known as Henry's River. It was here 

 at the confluence of Salt and Snake Rivers that 

 a band of Crow Indians on the morning of Sep- 

 tember 19th, 1 8 12, stampeded the horses of a 

 party of Astoria trappers under command of 

 Robert Stuart en route from the Columbia 

 River to the Missouri, leaving Stuart and his 

 men afoot in a vast and unknown wilderness. 

 Stuart burned his outfit, that it might not fall 

 into the hands of the Indians, reserving only so 

 much as his men could carry upon their backs, 

 and boldly set out to walk the remaining dis- 

 tance and to wrest from the wilderness the food 

 necessary to keep them alive. 



It is easy at this distance to criticize them for 

 many things they did, as it is always easy to 

 criticize when the critic has knowledge of facts 



