Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/152

142 several years been the refuge of a band of Snakes which had plundered white travelers and settlers, successfully eluding pursuit or discovery.

The march from the Weiser to Boise River proved "a pleasant country to travel through." When the Oregon troops arrived at the latter river they found Major Lugenbeel of the regular army, from Fort Colville, on the ground, having arrived the day previous, July 1, 1863, with men, materials, and supplies for the establishment of a post, which was named Fort Boise, near which Boise City soon grew up.

Here Maury's command was encamped for several days awaiting supplies and preparing for the long march to Fort Hall, that was eagerly anticipated, but which proved in experience to be more wearisome by its monotony than the mountains by their roughness and dangers. The prairies and streams passed on the march are now well known and need not be mentioned.

No serious encounters with Indians occurred on the march to Fort Hall. Only one scout of any importance was made, which was from Little Camas Prairie, in search of a considerable band of Snake Indians rumored to be encamped fifty miles off, and near the trail. But the night march brought to light no Indian camps. A depot of supplies was established at Trail Creek, and while it was being made secure, Currey with twenty men was sent to look for Indians down the Malade, which, the report says, is called a river more from the habit of calling every running stream a river, than from the quantity of water in its channel. "For miles this industrious little stream has mortised its way through a lava bed by the process known as 'pot-holing.' The walls of the stream vary from five to twenty feet in height, resembling an unfinished mortise before the concave clefts of the auger have been cut away by the chisel. The concaves