212 TJic Home of tJie Wolverene a) id Beaver. 



band of Shoshone Indians, in whose vicinity the 

 famished men were left, and whose vengeance they 

 had just cause to dread. Most fortunately the 

 Shoshones had never seen white men before, and 

 therefore regarded them with a kind of superstitious 

 fear ; thus, although they speedily found out the 

 retreat of the wanderers — for the illness of John 

 Day caused Mr. Crooks to remain encamped at one 

 spot for three weeks — they never attempted to 

 molest them, though their tents were pitched close 

 by, and finally the Indians withdrew altogether and 

 were seen no more. 



Day having recovered in some measure, the 

 forlorn band crawled westward, subsisting on roots 

 and crows, until the month of February, when three 

 out of the four Canadians gave up the struggle for 

 life, and refusing to go any further, were left — by 

 their own wish — on the banks of a small stream, 

 the three remaining men following Mr. Hunt's 

 almost obliterated trail, and when that disappeared, 

 wandering hopelessly in the mountains, living on 

 such roots and berries as they could find, and 

 occasionally killing a beaver, which was devoured 

 to the very skin. At the end of March they fell in 

 v/ith another tribe of Shoshones, with whom the 

 remaining Canadian decided to cast in his lot, but 

 the more resolute Anglo-Saxons kept steadily on, 



