Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/113

Having crossed the Burnt Mountains, we found that it would be necessary for us to leave Truckies River, as it now bore too much to the North: and accordingly, we remained one day encamped, in order to rest our animals, for a hard travel, across a sandy, unproductive plain, thirty- five miles, to the sink of Marie's River; which distance was without drinkable water. We passed three springs in the plain, but the first was salt, and the other two, which were close together, were both hot; the largest one, which was ten feet in diameter, was boiling furiously; and we could see the steam arising from it, several miles. These springs rise through volcanic rock; and large fragments of the same are scattered over the ground, around them. At the sink of Marie's River, the stream is lost in the sand. This sink is a large sandy marsh, about three miles wide, and ten miles long, full of bull-rushes, and very miry; the water which it contains, is also warm, and has a very disagreeable taste. From this point, we traveled up Marie's River, which flows from North East to the South West, through a sandy plain, almost entirely destitute of vegetation. This plain is about twenty miles wide, and is bordered on each side, by high, rugged, and perfectly barren mountains. On the lower part of the River, we could find but little grass for our animals, and we had traveled two hundred miles up it, before we found water, coming in on either side. Unlike any other stream, perhaps, it is larger in the middle than any where else; it continued to increase in size as we proceeded up, until we came to where it receives its last tributary. Here we encamped, one night, in the bend of the river, which we used as a coral, the guard standing at the entrance. During the night, the animals made several attempts to rush by the guard; and it was with the greatest difficulty, that they were able to keep them. In the morning, we were astonished to find four of them fatally wounded; they had been shot by the Indians, who had swam across in the night; we also found several arrows in the encampment, some of which had evidently been shot at the men. We left one of the animals dead, in camp, and another was able to go only a half a mile. The Indians had killed them to eat, and we were determined to disappoint them as much as possible, by driving those that were able to travel, away. After we had packed up, two of us remained behind; and the rest of the company proceeded, taking all the animals. We then concealed ourselves in the brush, intending to kill, if we could, whoever came to the dead beast. The company had been gone