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Show 182 JOURNAL Ol·! A VOYAGE him; he and his companion immediately joined me; they said they had not known whether we were before or in the rear ; that they had eaten nothing for the last two days, and that this night they had intended to have boiled a deer skin to subsist on. W cat length di~covcrcd a narrow ra. vine, where was the trace of the doctor and his compa. nion ; as the water had ran down it and frozen hard, it was one continued sheet of icc ; we ascended it with the utmo t difriculty and danger, loaded with the baggage. On the summit of the first ridge we found an encampment ~f the doctor, and where they had killed a deer, but they had now no n1cat. lie afterwards informed me that they had left the greatest part of it hanging on a tree, but suppo ed the birds had destroyed it. I left the boys to bring up the r emainder of the baggage, and went out in order to kill some subsistence: wounJed a deer, but the darkness of the night approaching, could not find him, when Ireturned hungry, weary and dry, and had only snow to supply the calls of nature. Distance 8 miles. 5th January, Monday. - I went out in the morning to hunt, whilst the two lads were bringing up some of their loads still left at the foot of the mountain. Wounded several deer, but was surprised to find I killed none, and on exanlining my gun, discovered her bent, owing as I sup· pose, to some fall on the ice, or rocks ; shortly after received a fall, on the side of a hill, which broke her offby the breach; this put me into descspoir, as I calculated on it, as my grandest resource for great part of my party; r eturned to my companions sorely fatigued and hungry; I then took a double barrelled gun and left them, with as~ urances that the first animal I killed, I would return with part for their relief. About ten o'clock r ose the highest summit of the mountaiu, when the unbounded space of the prairies again presented themselves to my view, and TO TilE SOURCES 01·' THE Al{KANSA \V, &c. 182 from some distant peaks, I immediately r ecognized it to be the outlet of the Arkansaw, which we had left nearly one month sinco! This was a gr eat n1ortification, but at the same time I consoled my~clf with the knowledge I had ~cquired of the source of the La Platte and Arkansaw rivers, with the river to the north west, supposed to be the Pierre Jaun, which scarcely any person but a madman would ever purposely attempt to trace any further than the entrance of those mountains, which had hitherto se .. cured their sources fron1 the scrutinizing eye of civilized man. I arrived at the foot of the n1ountain, and bank of the river, in the afternoon, and at the same time discovered on the other shore, Baroney with the horses ; they had found quite an eligible pass, and had killed one buffalo and some deer. W c proceeded to our old camp, which we had left the 1Oth of D ecember, and r e-occupied it. Saw the traces of the doctor and his companion, but could not discover their r etreat. This was my birth-day, and most fervently did I hope never to pass another so miserably. Distance 7 miles. Fired a gun off as a signal for the doctor. 6tb January, T ucsday.-Dispatched the two sol<.licrs back with some provision to 1nect the first lads, and assist them on, and the interpreter a hunting. About eight o'clock the doctor came in, having seen some of the men. He had been confmed to the camp for one or two days, by a vertigo which proceeded f.rmn some berrie~ he had eaten on the mountains. I-Iis companion brought down six deer, which they had at their camp ; thus we again began to be out of danger of starving. In the afternoon, some of the men arrived, and part were immediately returned with provisions, &c. Killed three deer. 7th January, Wcdnesday.-f>cnt more n1en back to |