APPENDIX. 
30& 
Crooks with a few men returned to Henry’s fork for those they 
had left, while Mr. Hunt remained with the main body of the men, 
in trapping beaver for their support. Mr. Crooks finding the 
distance much greater by land than he had contemplated, return¬ 
ed at the end of three days, where waiting five more, expecting 
relief from below—the near approach of winter made them de¬ 
termine on depositing ail superfluous articles, and proceed oil 
foot. Accordingly, on the 1 Oth of Nov. Messrs. Hunt &; Crooks 
set out, each with 18 men, one party on the S. side of the river. 
Mr. Hunt was fortunate in finding Indians with abundance 
of salmon and some horses, but Mr. Crooks saw but few and 
in general too miserably poor to afford his party assistance f 
thirteen days travel brought the latter to a high range of moun¬ 
tains through which the river forced a passage, and the banks 
being their only guide, they still by climbing over points of roc¬ 
ky ridges projecting into the stream, kept as near it as possible, 
till in the evening of the 3d Dec. impassible precipices of im¬ 
mense height put an end to all hopes of following the margin 
of this water course, which here was no more than 40 yards 
wide, ran with incredible velocity and was ivithal so foamingly 
tumultuous, that even had the opposite bank been fit for their 
purpose, attempt at rafting wonld have been perfect madness, 
as they could only have the inducement of ending in a watery 
grave a series of hardships and privations, to which the most 
hardy and determined of the human race, must have found him¬ 
self inadequate. They attempted to climb the mountains, stift 
bent on pushing on, but after ascending for half a day, they dis¬ 
covered to their sorrow that they were not halfway to the 
summit, and the snow already too deep for men in their emaci¬ 
ated state to proceed further. 
Regaining the river bank, they returned up, and on the third 
day met with Mr Hunt and party, with one horse proceeding 
•downwards; a canoe was soon made of a horse hide and in k 
transported some meat, what they could spare to Mr. Crooks’s 
starving followers, who for the first 18 days after leaving the 
place of deposite, had subsisted on half a meal in 24 hours, and 
La the last nine days had eat only one beaver, a dog, a few wild 
cherries, and old moccasin soals, having travelled during these 
-27 days at least 550 miles. For the next four days, both par¬ 
ties continued on up the river, without any other support than 
what little rosebuds and cherries they could find, but here they 
luckily fell in with some Snako Indians, from whom they got 
five horses, giving them three guns and some other articles for 
the same. Starvation had bereft J. B. Provost of his senses en¬ 
tirely, and on seeing the horse flesh on the opposite side of the 
river, was so agitated in crossing in a skin canoe, that he upset 
it and was unfortunately drowned. From hence Mr. Hunt went 
4n to a camp of Shosbonies abqut 90,miles above> where, pro- 
