A LAND OF TRAGIC MEMORIES 237 



ried them across the southern end of the Gros 

 Ventre Range, on the western slope of which 

 they encountered a stream flowing to the west- 

 ward. 



This stream Hoback told Mr. Hunt was a 

 stream upon which he had trapped, and was a 

 headwater stream of the Columbia. It was 

 hailed with joy, and following its rugged 

 course to its junction with the Snake, they felt 

 that at last their troubles were at an end. The 

 Snake, or Mad, River, as they afterward called 

 it, appeared capable of floating their canoes, 

 and they prepared at once to abandon their 

 horses and navigate the stream. They forded 

 the Hoback at the very point where I made my 

 fording, camped on the Snake a little below 

 where timber for canoe building was available, 

 and the Canadian voyageurs set gaily to work to 

 build the necessary canoes. They had only be- 

 gun the work when two Snake Indians entering 

 the camp warned them that the river below 

 could not be navigated. Scouts despatched 

 down the canon returned to verify this state- 

 ment. The river, mad and wild, rushed down 

 over rocks and between perpendicular walls, 

 and the canon they claimed was too narrow and 

 rugged for even the horses to pass through. 



The animals were repacked, the party filed 



