FOREST AND STREAM. 
tApRiL 29, igo$. 
ers.— ^XXXL 
Fremont — II. 
At Fort Laramie, Fremont heard much about the 
hostilities of the Sioux and Cheyennes, who, the year 
before, had had a severe fight with a party of sixty men, 
under the command of Mr. Frapp, of St. Louis. The 
Indians had lost eight or ten men; and the whites, half 
as many, including their leader. This left the Indians in 
a bad frame of mind, and many of the young men had 
gone off on a war path, threatening to kill emigrants, 
and, in fact, any whites passing through the country. One 
or two parties had already been saved, through the efforts 
of Fitzpatrick, of the "Broken Hand"; but the Indians 
were clearly in a bad temper. A large village of Sioux 
was camped here, and Fremont had many savage visi- 
tors who were very much interested in him and his curi- 
ous actions. His astronomical observations and instru- 
ments especially excited their awe and admiration; but 
the chiefs were careful to keep the younger men and the 
women and children from annoying the astronomer. Here 
the services of Joseph Bissonette as interpreter were se- 
cured, and the party prepared to start. Before this was 
done, however, a delegation of chiefs warned Fremont 
not to go further. He, however, explained to them that 
he must obey his orders, and was finally allowed to go 
at his own risk. 
The party proceeded up the North Platte River, and 
the first night out were joined by Bissonette, the in- 
terpreter, and by his Indian wife and a young Sioux sent 
forward by the chiefs at Fort Laramie, partly as guide 
and partly to vouch for the explorers in case they should 
meet with hostile Sioux. Fremont imagined, from 
Bissonette's long residence in the country, that he was a 
guide, and followed his advice as to the route to be pur- 
sued. He afterward learned that Bissonette had seldom 
been out of sight of the fort, and his suggestions obliged 
the party to travel over a very rough road. They met 
a party of Indians who gave very discouraging accounts 
of the country ahead, saying that buffalo were scarce, that 
there was no grass to support the horses, partly because 
of the excessive drouth, and partly on account of the 
grasshoppers, which were unusually numerous. The next 
day they killed five or six cows and made dried meat of 
them. Buffalo continued plenty and they pushed forward, 
meeting Indians, who again gave them bad accounts of 
the country ahead, so that Bissonette strongly advised 
Fremont to turn about. This he declined to do, but told 
his men what he had heard and left it to each man to 
say whether he would go on or turn back. Fremont had 
absolute confidence in a number of the best men, and felt 
sure that thev would stay with him ; but to his great satis- 
faction all a'greed to go forward. Here, however, the 
-interpreter and his Indians left him, and with them Fre- 
mont sent back one of his men, who, from the effect of 
an old wound, was unable to travel on foot and his horse 
seemed on the point of giving out. The carts were taken 
to pieces and cached in some willow brush, while every- 
thing that could be spared was buried in the ground. Pack 
saddles were arranged and the animals from here were 
to carry their loads, not to haul them. Carson was ap- 
pointed guide, for the region they were now entering had 
long been his residence. 
Instead of following the emigrant trail, which left the 
Platte and crossed over to the Sweetwater, Fremont de- 
termined to keep on up the Platte until he reached the 
Sweetwater, thinking that in this way he would find ; 
better feed for his animals. The decision proved a wise 
one. The day after leaving their cache thev found abun- 
dant grass as well as some buffalo, and although when 
they passed the ford where the Indian village had crossed 
the river they found there the skeletons of horses lying all 
about ; nevertheless, they had no trouble in finding grass 
for their animals. Many mountain sheep were seen dur- 
ing the day's journey and some were killed; and in this 
day's itinerary Fremont perpetuates the story, no doubt 
long before heard from others, that the horns of the sheep 
are useful to it in going down hill. His exact language 
is, "The use of these horns seems to be to protect the 
animal's head in pitching down precipices to avoid pur- 
suing wolves— their only safety being in places where 
they cannot be followed." He notes also that these ani- 
mals were called, indifferently, sheep or goats. 
On Aug. I they camped near Independence Rock, an 
isolated granite rock about 650 yards long and forty m 
height. "Everywhere within six or eight feet of the 
ground, where the- surface is sufficiently smooth and in 
some places sixty or eighty feet above," he relates, "the 
rock is inscribed with the names of travelers. Many a 
name famous in the his'.ory of this country, and some 
well known to science, are to be found mixed among 
those of the traders and of travelers for. pleasure and 
curiosity, and of missionaries among the savages." 
It was on Aug. 3 that the party had their first sight of 
the Wind River Mountains, distant then about seventy 
miles, and appearing as a low, dark, mountainous region. 
Soon after this they came to the cafion where the Sweet- 
water comes out of the mountains, and they followed the 
river up for some distance, but finally left it and turned 
up a ravine leading to the high prairie above. For some 
time recently they had found fuel very scarce, and had 
been obliged to burn buffalo chips and sage brush as they 
did here. The rain, which from time to time had been 
falling upon them down in the valley, now showed as 
snow on the white peaks that they had approached, for 
they were within a short distance of the South Pass, 
which was the obj ective point for the expedition. Soon 
they reached the highest point of the Pass, which Fre- 
mont estimates at about 7,000 feet, passed over it and 
camped on the Little Sandy, a tributary of Green River. 
But a few days before, when he had his first glimpse of 
the Wind River Mountains, Fremont had spoken rather 
contemptuously of them, saying that, "The view dissipated 
in a moment the pictures which had been created m our 
minds by many descriptions of travelers, who had com- 
pared these mountains to the Alps in Switzerland, and 
speak of the glittering peaks which rise in icy majesty 
amidst the eternal glaciers nine or ten thousand feet into 
the region of eternal snows." But on Aug. 10 he says, 
"The air at sunrise is clear and pure and the morning 
extremely cold but beautiful. A lofty snow peak of the 
mountains is glittering in the first rays of the sun, which 
has not yet reached us. The long mountain wall to the 
east, rising two thousand feet abruptly from the plain, 
behind which we see the peaks, is stilL dark, aiid cuts 
clear against the glowing sky. * * * Though these 
snow mountains are not the Alps, they have their own 
character of grandeur and magnificence, and will doubt- 
less find pens and pencils to do them justice." 
The party was now approaching the loftiest part of the 
Wind River chain. "Here a view of the utmost magni- 
ficence and grandeur burst upon our eyes. With nothing 
between us and their feet to lessen the effect of the whole 
height, a grand bed of snow-capped mountains rose before 
us, pile upon pile, glowing in the bright light of an 
August day." 
These fine snow-covered mountains made a great im- 
pression, not only upon Fremont, but upon all the other 
members of the party ; and he was very desirous to as- 
cend some of the peaks. Unhappily, however, the last 
barometer was broken on this day ; and as soon as camp 
was made, Fremont began to repair it, and succeeded so 
well that it was quite an efficient instrument, until a few 
days_ later, when it was again broken beyond hope of 
repair. 
The explorer felt a natural longing to push northward 
from this point, wishing to cross the heads of the Yellow- 
stone, which he justly sttpposed arose among the moun- 
tains which lay to the north of him, but the party were 
in no condition to make such a journey; the men were 
more or less exhausted by the difficulties of past travel, 
provisions were almost gone and game was scarce. He, 
however, built a stout corral and felled timber on the 
margin of a lake not far off, where there was abundant 
food for the animals ; and, dividing his party, left some 
of the men and the weakest animals here, and taking 
fourteen men with fifteen of the best mules, set out to 
penetrate further into the mountains, and perhaps to 
climb some of them. Travel through the mountains, 
though slow and difficult, was very attractive; it was 
down one steep slope and then up another and then down 
again. Every hilltop showed some deep and beautiful 
valley, often occupied by lakes, always showing the course 
of some pure and rapid mountain torrent. The vegeta- 
tion was fresh and green, as different as possible from 
the parched grass and juiceless wormwood through which 
they had so long been traveling. Fremont says, "The 
air was fragrant with the odor of the pine, and I realized 
this delightful morning the pleasure of breathing that 
mountain air, which makes a constant theme of the hun- 
ter's praise, and which now made us feel as if we had 
all been drinking some exhilarating gas. The depths of 
this unexplored forest were a place to delight the heart 
of a botanist. There was a rich undergrowth of plants, 
and nmnerous gay colored flowers in brilliant bloom. 
We reached the outlet at length, where some freshly 
barked willows that lay in the water showed that beaver 
had been recently at work. There were some small 
brown squirrels jumping about in the pines and a couple 
of large mallard ducks swimming about in the stream." 
At their camp of Aug. 13 the upward way became so 
steep and rough that it was determined to leave the ani- 
mals here, and to continue the journey on foot. The men 
carried with them nothing but arms and instruments ; and- 
as the day was warm many of them left their coats in 
camp. They climbed and climbed, finding, as always hap- 
pens in the mountains, that the distances were much 
greater than they supposed. At night they were still far 
from their objective point, and they lay down without 
anything to eat. The next morning, however, starting, 
early, and of course without food, they got among the 
snow fields. The elevation was now great, and several 
of the men, Fremont among the number, were taken ill 
and were unable to proceed. From here Basil Lajeunesse 
with four men was sent back to. the place where the mules 
had been left, with instructions to bring on, if possible, 
four or five animals, with provisions and blankets. Soon 
after this Fremont and the remaining men returned to 
their camp, and that night the men sent back for the ani- 
mals returned with food and bedding. The next day, 
encouraged by rest and a cOuple of hearty meals, they 
determined once more to- essay the peaks. They rode 
their animals well up. on to the mountains, and then turn- 
ing them loose, again began to climb. Their previous ex- 
perience stood them in good stead ; they climbed slowly, 
and at last reached the summit of the mountains, presum- 
ably the peak now known as Fremont's Peak. From this 
point . the Three Tetons bore north fifty degrees west, 
and Fremont's elevation he gives as 13,570 feet. He says, 
with reasonable pride, "We had climbed the loftiest peak 
of the Rocky Mountains and looked down upon the snow 
a thousand feet below, and, standing where never human 
foot had stood before, felt the exultation of first ejir 
plorers." 
They returned to th.e camp where they had left their 
animals, and traveled rapidly eastward, through South 
Pass, and down on to the Sweetwater and the Platte. 
An effort was made to run this river with the india- 
rubber boat, which for daring and hardihood really de- 
served success. However, although they ran some dis- 
tance and passed a number of threatening places, they 
did not get through. "We pushed off again, but after 
making' a little distance the force of the current became 
too great for the men on shore, and two of them let go 
the rope. Lajeunesse, the third man, hung on and was 
jerked headforemost into the river from a rock about 
twelve feet high, and down the boat shot like an arrow, . 
Basil following us in the rapid current and exerting all 
his strength to keep in mid channel — his head only seen 
occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. How 
far we went I do not exactly know, but we succeeded 
in turning the boat into an eddy below. 'Cre Dieu,'- said 
Basil Lajeunesse, as he arrived immediately after us. 
'Je crois bien que fai nage un demi mile.'* He had owed 
his life to his skill as a swimmer, and I determined to 
take him and the two others on board and trust to skill 
and fortune to reach the other end in safety. We placed 
ourselves on our knees and with the short paddles in our 
hands, the most skillful boatman being at the bow, and 
again we commenced our rapid descent. We cleared rock 
after rock and shot past fall after fall, our little boat 
seeming to play with the cataract. We became flushed 
with success and familiar with the danger, and, yielding 
to the excitement of the occasion, broke forth together 
into a Canadian boat song. Singing, or rather shouting. 
*"Good Lordl I believe I have swum half a mile." 
we dashed along, and were, I believe, in the midst of the , 
chorus ' when " the boat struck a concealed ' rock imme- ' 
diately at the foot of a fall which whirled her over in an 
instant. Three of my men could not swim and my first- 
feeling was to assist them and save some of our effects; . 
but a sharp concussion or two convinced me that I had. 
not . yet saved myself. A few strokes brought me., into" ' - 
an eddy, and I landed on a pile of crocks on the left side. 
Looking around I saw that Mr. Preuss had gained the 
shore on the same side, about twenty yards below,, and a 
little climbing and swimming soon brought him to my 
side. On the opposite side, against the wall, lay the boat, 
bottom up, and Lambert was in the act of saving Desco-. 
teaux, whom he had grasped by the hair, and who could 
not swim. 'Lache pas.' said he, as I afterward- learned, - 
'lache paj, cher frere.' 'Crams, pas' was the reply, 7^ 
ffi'en vais mourir avant que de te Idchffr.'f Such was the 
reply of courage and generosity in this danger. For. a 
hundred yards below the current was covered with float- 
ing books and boxes, bales of blankets and scattered ar- 
ticles of clothing; and so strong and boiling was the 
stream that even our heavy instruments which were all 
in cases, kept on the surface, and the sextant, circle and 
the long black box of the telescope were in view at once. 
For a moment I felt somewhat disheartened. All our 
books — almost every record of the journey — our journals 
and registers of astronomical and barometrical observa- 
tions—had been lost in a moment. But it was no time 
to indulge in regrets, and I immediately set about en- 
deavoring to save something from the wreck. Making , 
ourselves understood as well as possible by signs (for 
nothing could be heard in the roar of the waters), we 
commenced our operations. Of everything on board the 
only article that had been saved was my double barreled 
gun, which Descoteaux had caught and clung to with 
drowning tenacity. The men continued down the river on: 
the left bank. Mr. Preuss and myself descended on the 
side ^e were on, and Lajeunesse, with a paddle in his, 
hand, jumped on the boat alone and continued down the 
canon. She was now light and cleared every bad place 
with much less difficblty. In a short time he was joined, 
by Lambert, and the search was continued for about a: 
mile and a half, which was as far as the boat could pro- 
ceed in the pass. 
"Here the walls were about five hundred feet high, and 
the fragments of rock from above had choked the river, 
into a hollow pass but one or two feet above the surface. 
Through this and the interstices of the rock the water 
found its way. Favored beyond our expectations, all of 
our registers had been recovered with the exceptions of 
one of my journals, which contained the notes and inci- 
dents of travel, and topographical descriptions, a number 
of scattered astronomical observations, principally meri- 
dian altitudes of the sun, and our barometrical register 
west of Laramie. Fortunately, our other journals con- 
tained_ duplicates of the most important barometrical ob- 
servations which had been taken in the mountains. These, 
with a few scattered notes were all that had been pre- 
served of our meteorological observations. In addition 
to these we saved the circle, and these, with a few blank-! 
ets, constituted everything that had been rescued from 
the waters." 
Having gathered up the things which they left on the 
shore, the members of the party, half naked, started on, 
foot for the camp below where the other men had been 
sent. They reached there that night and found the much 
needed food and clothing. 
After passing Fort Laramie, Fremont made another 
effort to navigate the Platte River, trying to descend it' 
in a bull boat ; but this descent, instead of being a^ trip 
by water, resolved itself into dragging the vessel over ' 
the sands and finally abandoning- it. On the 22d of Sep- 
tember, Fremont reached the village of the Grand 
Pawnees, about thirty miles above the mouth of .the Loup 
fork, on the Platte River, and on Oct. i he found himself . 
at the: settlements on the Missouri River. From here the .. 
river was descended in a boat and St. Louis was reached 
Oct. 17. 
f'Don't let go; don't let go, dear brother." • . 
"Don't fear, I will die before I let y.ou go." 
The Si\z Game Case. 
In the suit brought by the Attorney-General against 
August Silz, in the Supreme Court, this city, last week, to 
recover penalties for the possession of imported game in. 
the close season, it was determined by the jury that the 
game involved, English pheasants, English and German: 
partridges, blackcock and Russian (tame) ducks were' 
not of the species indigenous to this State and concerned; 
in the law. On this showing Justice Greenbauiti directed 
a verdict in favor of the defendant. 
Justice Greenbaum, upon the application of the .At- : 
torney-General, said he would accept briefs .on a question 
of law raised as to whether the difference between .for-^ 
eign and domestic game having been conceded, penalties 
could be inflicted under the statute in force in this State, 
and would hand down his decision after consideration of 
the authorities. 
The Attorney-General has published a statement setting 
forth that the points of law involved in the case are not 
yet settled, and warning all dealers that they will make 
themselves liable to prosepution if they deal in foreign 
game in close season. 
Bainbfidge Bishop. 
Elizabethtown, N. Y., April 24.— Bainbridge Bishop, 
a frequent contributor to Forest and Stream, and a man 
well versed in woodcraft generally, died ■ at his ■ New 
Russia home in this town early Monday morning of 
pneumonia, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. As a 
hunter and fisherman he had few equals and no superiors ' 
in this region. It is probable that he was the- best posted 
man on fish and fishing in Lake Champlain which this 
region eve? produced. He invented the color organ and. 
was the author of a book on the soul of the rainbow 
and the barmony . of light, which was gladly received in : 
the British Museum at. London, England. Mr. Bishop 
was a bachelor and had always resided on the homestead 
at New Russia, where his grandfather settled in 1793. 
A man of unusual ability, strict integrity and proverbial 
kindness of heart, he will be much missed in the com- 
munity where his active, useful life was passed. 
George L. Brown. 
