LIFE INTHEFAR WEST. 119 



mountaineer bereft of his better half; and when he returned to 

 the rendezvous, a troop of wolves were feasting on the bodies of 

 his late companions, and of the Indians killed in the affray, of 

 which he only heard the particulars a long time after from a trap- 

 per, who had been present when one of the squaws was offered at 

 the trading post for sale, and had heard her recount the miserable 

 fate of her husband and his companions on the forks of the creek 

 which, from the fact of La Bonte being the leader of the party has 

 since borne his name. 



Undaunted by this misfortune, the trapper continued his solitary 

 hunt, passing through the midst of the Crow and Blackfeet coun- 

 try ; encountering many perils, often hunted by the Indians, but 

 always escaping. He had soon loaded both his animals with 

 beaver, and then thought of bending his steps to some of the trading 

 rendezvous on the other side of the mountains, where employes of 

 the Great Northwest Fur Company meet the trappers with the 

 produce of their hunts, on Lewis's fork of the Columbia, or one of 

 its numerous affluents. His intention was to pass the winter at 

 some of the company's trading posts in Oregon, into which country 

 he had never yet penetrated. 



