Rocky Mountains. 465 



From the limited information communicated to the pub- 

 lic, on the subject of Mr. Hunt's Expedition to the mouth 

 of the Columbia, commenced in the year 1811, it appears 

 that a part of the men, engaged in that undertaking, in their 

 return from the Pacific, crossed the Rocky Mountains from 

 some one of the upper branches of Lewis' river, and falling 

 upon the sources of the North fork of the Platte, descended 

 thence to the Missouri. 



On the 28th of June 1812, Mr. Robert Stewart, one of the 

 partners of the Pacific Fur Company, with two Frenchmen, 

 M'Clellan and Crooks, left the Pacific ocean with despatches 

 for New York. 



Having proceeded about seven hundred miles, they met 

 Mr. Joseph Miller, on his way to the mouth of the Colum- 

 bia. He had been considerably to the south and east, and 

 had fallen in with the Black-arms, and Arrapahoes, who 

 wander about the sources of the Arkansa. By the latter of 

 these he had been robbed, in consequence of which, he was 

 now reduced to starvation and nakedness. 



beaver taken in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, is almost equally 

 good during the year. 



Mr. Frazer, a gentleman who has been several years engaged in the 

 fur trade, in the interior of North America, on the Columbia, and in North 

 California, in speaking of the beaver, mentioned a circumstance, which 

 we do not remember to have seen recorded. The lodges are usually so 

 placed, that the animals ascend the stream some distance, to arrive at the 

 spot whence they procure their food. They make their excursions un- 

 der water, and they have at equal distances, excavations under the bank, 

 called washes, into which they go and raise their heads above the surface, 

 in order to breathe, without exposing themselves to be seen. In winter the 

 position of these washes is ascertained, by the hollow souud the ground 

 returns when beaten; and the beavers are sometimes tauen, by being pur- 

 sued into these holes, the entrances to which are afterwards closed. 



Otters are frequent on the Missouri. We had an opportunity of seeing 

 on the ice of Boyer creek, a considerable number of the tracks or paths of 

 Otters; they were the more readily distinguishable, from there being snow 

 of but little depth on the ice, and they appeared as if the animal was ac- 

 customed to slide in his movements on the ice, as there were, in the first 

 place, the impressions of two feet, then a long mark clear of snow a dis- 

 tance of three or four feet, then the impressions of the feet of the animal, 

 after which the sliding mark, and so on alternately. These paths were 

 numerous, and passed between the bank and a situation, where a hole had 

 been in the ice, now frozen over. 



vol. i. 59 



