138 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



La Bonte and Killbuck sought a passage in the mountain by 

 which to cross over to the head waters of the Columbia, and there 

 fall in with some of the traders or trappers of the Northwest. 

 They became involved in the mountains, in a part where was no 

 game of any description, and no pasture for their miserable ani- 

 mals. One of these they killed for food ; the other, a bag of 

 bones, died from sheer starvation. They had very httle ammuni- 

 tion, their moccasins were worn out, and they were unable to pro- 

 cure skins to supply themselves with fresh ones. Winter was fast 

 approaching ; the snow already covered the mountains ; and 

 storms of sleet and hail poured incessantly through the valleys, 

 benumbing their exhausted limbs, hardly protected by scanty and 

 ragged covering. To add to their miseries, poor Killbuck was 

 taken ill. He had been wounded in the groin by a bullet, some 

 time before, and the ball still remained. The wound, aggravated 

 by walking and the excessive cold, assumed an ugly appearance, 

 and soon rendered him incapable of sustained exertion, all motion 

 even being attended with intolerable pain. La Bonte had made 

 a shanty for his suffering companion, and spread a soft bed of pine 

 branches for him, by the side of a small creek at the point where 

 it came out of the mountain and followed its course through a little 

 prairie. They had been three days without other food than a 

 piece of parfleche, which had formed the back of La Bonte's 

 bullet-pouch, and which, after soaking in the creek, they eagerly 

 devoured. Killbuck was unable to move, and sinking fast from 

 exhaustion. His companion had hunted from morning till night, 

 as well as his failing strength would allow him, but had not seen 

 the traces of any kind of game, with the exception of some old 

 buffalo tracks, made apparently months before by a band of bulls 

 crossing the mountain. 



The morning of the fourth day La Bonte, as usual, rose at day- 

 break from his blanket, and was proceeding to collect wood for the 

 fire during his absence while hunting, when Killbuck called to 



