112 NARKATIVE OF A JOURNKY 



far the larger part, having been deposited in the fort for the 

 subsistence of the men who remain. We have no flour, nor 

 vegetables of any kind, and our meat may be aptly compai-ed to 

 dry chips, breaking short off in our fingers; and when boiled to 

 soften it a little, and render it fit for mastication, not a star 

 appears in the pot. It seems astonishing that life can be sus- 

 tained upon such miserable fare, and yet our men (except 

 when under the influence of liquor) have never murmered, 

 but have always eaten their crusty meal, and drunk their 

 cold water with light and excellent spirits. We hope soon 

 to fall in with the buffalo, and we shall then endeavor to 

 prepare some good provision to serve until we reach the 

 salmon region. 



We shall now, for about ten days, be travelling through the 

 most dangerous country west of the mountains, the regular 

 hunting ground of the Blackfeet Indians, who are said to be 

 often seen here in parties of hundreds, or even thousands, scour- 

 ing the plains in pursuit of the buffalo. Traders, therefore, 

 seldom travel this route without meeting them, and being com- 

 pelled to prove their valor upon them ; the white men are, how- 

 ever, generally the victors, although their numbers are always 

 vastly inferior. 



1th. — We were moving this morning with the dawn, and 

 travelled steadily the whole day, over one of the most arid 

 plains we have seen, covered thickly with jagged masses of lava, 

 and twisted wormwood bushes. Both horses and men were 

 jaded to the last degree ; the former from the rough, and at times 

 almost impassable nature of the track, and the latter from ex- 

 cessive heat and parching thirst. We saw not a drop of water 

 during the day, and our only food was the dried meat before 

 spoken of, which we carried, and chewed like biscuits as we 

 travelled. There are two reasons by which the extreme thirst 

 which the way-farer suffers in these regions, may be accounted 



