202 TJie Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 



Three exploring parties had set off in difterent 

 directions, and after wandering for several days in 

 search of game or Indians, neither of which they 

 found, had all accidentally met among the Snake 

 River mountains. They now numbered eleven, 

 namely, Messrs. McLellan, McKenzie, Reed, and 

 eight men, chiefly Canadians. Being all equally 

 destitute, and without horses, provisions, or infor- 

 mation, the little band resolved to push their own 

 way to the Columbia River in place of returning to 

 Mr. Hunt and becoming a further drag on his 

 already painfully scanty resources. In accordance 

 with this self-devoted project they made their way 

 down the course of the Snake River, scaling 

 precipices and traversing a frightfully rugged 

 country, in whose every feature was legibly written 

 famine and misery. 



Though close to the river, and often within sight of 

 its sparkling flood, their, greatest enemy was thirst, 

 for the precipitous banks prevented them reaching 

 the waters beneath, whose babbling murmur added 

 tenfold to their agony. Nor was hunger absent to 

 alleviate in some measure their misery. Not a head 

 of game could be met with, and for some days 

 their only subsistence was strips of beaver-skin, 

 warmed through on the ashes. Weary, fainting, 

 and dejected, they crept slowly onward, meeting at 



