Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/106

96 the back, on which the infant is placed. The more the head is misshaped the greater the supposed beauty.

September 20—We met Mr. Sublette and Mr. Frap. They went to the southwest. There was little timber in this region. When two or three of us went up trapping, we tied our horses' halters to our arms at night, so as to be sure not to lose them. We traveled slowly, trapping- on the streams coming from the west. At last we got tired, not having good luck, and the fish being bad. We tried to make the Indians understand that we wanted to go to Walla Walla. That being the only word in common between us, the conversation had to be by signs. An Indian drew a map on the sand; one sign meant river, making a motion of paddling; another the trail, by pointing to a horse. We understood that we were to keep down the river three sleeps (laying his head on his hand and shutting his eyes three times) thus giving us to understand we were to go by day, and if we whipped up, could cover the ground in two days. There the river went into the mountains, and we were to go over these mountains, and sleep; then another range, and sleep; then making a sign of a plain, then two more sleeps, and then Walla Walla. I was quite confident I understood him, if it was by signs. It proved as he said, and was a great help to us. Lewis and Clark speak of the destitute condition of these Plathead Indians. Not knowing just where we were, and not taking the precaution to buy a supply of dried fish, and meeting no more Indians, we soon got short of food. We made some thirty miles a day some days over the prairie, for when we arrived at the mountains we were in a sad plight. We were thoroughly exhausted by hard travel and the horses were no better.

October 12—Having nothing to eat, we killed an old horse, and as hungry as we were, we did not relish it. We vowed if we killed another we would take a young one. The meat of a good horse tastes like venison.

October 13—Captain Wyeth took four men and the best horses and started ahead for Walla Walla, requesting me to follow the next day. Traveling was hard and the ground frozen. We continued traveling north northwest and came to a broken plain.

October 14—I had schooled myself to one meal a day, so had reserved part of my rations. Here I noticed in the western horizon something stationary, although it looked like a cloud in the bright sky. It proved (I afterwards found) the grand and snowy Mount Hood. I called the attention of the men to it. This we hailed as a discovery, and the grandest sight we had yet seen. We saw no water all day, but encamped at night on the bank of a creek which came from the west. Here we found berries which was all we had for supper. Here were many trails.