Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/174

 166 .J. NEILSON BARRY Snake flows through a canyon, and above which through a level plain, determines the locality as being in the vicinity of what is now Huntington, Oregon, and this point being estab- lished it becomes possible to identify other places along the route, and while there is naturally a considerable variation be- tween the distances traveled, as estimated by Mr. Hunt, and the accurate surveys of the Government, they are at least ap- proximately correct, considering the circumstances. "Caldron Linn" where Mr. Hunt and his party abandoned their boats and set out on foot, October 9th, 1811 (Chapter XXXIV), may have been the vicinity of Twin Falls and Sho- shone Falls, Idaho. Having followed along the river for ten days, they took the advice of Indians whom they met, and leaving the river went along a trail across the prairie, through a dreary waste, till on November 21st they came "to the banks of a beautiful little stream, running to the West, and fringed with groves of cotton-wood and willow," probably the Boise River, which they followed to "its junction with the Snake River, which they found still running to the north. Before them was a wintry looking mountain covered with snow on all sides," possibly Malheur Butte. "In three days more they made seventy miles; fording two small rivers, the waters of which were very cold," the Payette River and the Weiser, which was described as "A little willowed stream, running from the east" which they crossed on November 26th and to which they re- turned twenty days later, after "their ineffectual attempt to find a passage down the river" (Chapter XXXVI). The town of Weiser, Idaho, is now situated at this point. It was here that they were able to prevail upon an Indian to guide them along the route, well-known to the Indians, to the Columbia River, and along which Mr. Stuart and his party re- turned the following summer, so that these members of the Hunt expedition were the first white men to travel the "Old Oregon Trail" so famous in song and story. On December 21st they left their encampment where the City of Weiser now stands, and crossed the Snake River in a canoe