Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/279

 from the upper parts of the Wallah Wallah river, where she intended to remain the rest of the winter. This place she reached on the next day in a state of great exhaustion from the want of food. Fortunately she had a buffalo robe, and two or three deer skins, with which, aided by some pine bark and cedar branches, she constructed a wigwam, that served to shelter her tolerably well from the inclemency of the weather. The spot she chose was a rocky recess close by a mountain spring. She was obliged to kill the two horses for food, the meat of which she smoke-dried, and the skins served as an additional covering to her frail habitation. In this cheerless and melancholy solitude, the wretched widow and her two poor orphans dragged on a miserable existence during a severe season. Towards the latter end of March, she had nearly consumed the last of her horseflesh, in consequence of which she found it necessary to change her quarters. During the whole of this period she saw none of the natives, or any indication of human habitations. Having packed up as much covering and dried meat as she could carry, she placed it with her younger child on her back, and taking the elder by the hand, she bade adieu to her wintry encampment. After crossing the