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Show • [ 174: J 172 I is altocrethcr different from that of the river ~lain, bein~ in many places black,bin others sandy and gravelly? ~)ut o~ a firm a.nd good chHr.aet~r, appearing to result fron1 the decompositiOn o( the granite rocks, whtch ts pro. ceediug rapidly. . . . In quitting for a time the artemiSia (sage) throup;.h w.htch \\~e ha~ b~en So lonw voy~crin" and the sombre appearance of whtch 1 so dt~couragtng, 1 haveb to remt~a rk,.,,, that I have been ~· nlorrne<1 t h n~ . l\1 . I t . to . ex1co w ~ea JS grow~ upon the ground which produces till sbru?; whtch, .1f tru.c, reltcves the. sot! from the cht\racter of sterility imputed to It. Be th1 as It m:1y, there 1s no dispute about the gras~,. which is a.lm?st universal on the hills and mountains, and always nutnt10us, even 1n 1ts dry .state. We passed on the way masses of granite on the slop.e of.a pur, \~lllch w.as ver:y much weathered and abraded. This is a wh1te feld pathtc gratute, wrth small scales of black mica; moky quartz and garnets appear to constitute this portion of the mountain. The road at noon reached a broken ridge, OQ which were scattered ma~y boulders or blo(•ks of granite; and, passing very small streams, ~her '· wtth a little more than the usual timber, was sometimes gathered a httlc wtlder· ness of plants, we encamped on a small stream, after a march of 22 mi.les, in company with a few Indians. Temperature nt su11se! ?.It); an~ the mght was partially clear, with a few stars vi sible through dnftwg wh1te clouds. T11e Indians made an unsuccessful attempt to steal a few horses from us-a thing of course with them, nnd to prevent which the traveller is on per· petual watch. October 7.-The day was bright, clear, and pleasant, wit~ a temperature of 45°; and we breakfasted ~.1t sunrise, the birds singing In the trees as menily as if we wete in the midst of summer. On the upper edge of the ' hills on the oppo ite side of the creek, the black volcanic rock reaJ~pears i an~ ascending these, the road passed through a basin, aro~1nd winch the hills swept in such a manner as to give it the appearance of an ol.d crater. lien~ were strata and broken beds of black scoriated rock, and htlls com· posed of the same, on the surnmit of one of which there was an opening re· sembling a rent. We travelled to-day through a country resembling that of yesterday, whore, although the surface was hilly, the road was good, be· ing firm, and entirely free from rocks and artemisia. 'T'o our lett, bcl~w, was the ~reat sage plain ; and on the right were the near mountains, wl~tch presented a smoothly broken character or rather a su1 face waved wto numberless hills. The road was occasi'onally enlivened by meeting In· dians, and the day was extremely beautiful and pleasant; and W/3 were pleased to be free from the sage, even for a uay. When we ~lad trav· elled a~out 8 miles, we were nearly opposite to the highest po ~·tw.n of th~ mount~ms on the left side of the Smoke river valley; and, contmutn~ on f few mtles beyond, we came suddrnly in sight of the broad green ltne. 0 the valley of the Riviere Boisee, (wooded river,) black near the gorge where it debouches into the plains, with high precipices of bas;dt, betw~en walls of which it passes ou E-merO'irw from the mountain . ~,ollowtng w~·t h t 11 e c.Je its upward c'o urse, it apt-pe!a::" rs to be shut in among 1o 1 ·t y 111 oun· tams, conftning its valley in a very rurrcred eountry. . Descending the hills, after travellit~,;. a few miles along the hi~h plain, t~c road brought us dow.n upon the hoftoms of the river. whirh is a.ucijU· hf\tl rapid stream, with ck~·u· mountain \Vater, and, a tl;c name indtcatc~, well wooded with sonte varieties of timber-amonu· whieh are handsome cod ton woods. Such a stream had become quite a no~elty in this country, an • 173 [ 174 ] we were delighted this afternoon to make a pleasant camp under fine old trees acrain. There were several Indian encampments scattered along the river· ~nd a number of their inhabitants, in the course of the evening, came 'to the camp on horsehack with dried and fro h fish to trade. The evening was clear, and the tempe~·aturc at .sunse.t 57°. . . At the time of the first occupatiOn of th1s reg10n by parttes engaged 1n the fur trade, a small party of men under the command of Heid, conslitutin~ all the garrison of a little fort on this ri\'er, were ~urprisr~ and massacred by the Indians ; and to this event the st ream owes 1ts occas10nal name of Reid's 1·iver. On tlte 8th we travelled about 26 miles, the ridge on the right having scattcrrrl pines on the upper parts; and, continuin ~ tho next day our ro~d along the rt\'er bottom, after a day's travel of 24. miles we encamped tn the cveninn· on the right bank of the river, a mi le above the mouth, and early the n~xt morning arrived at F'ort Boise. This is a ;,imple dwellinghouse on the right bank of Snake riv<.'r, :'lbout a mile below the mouth of Rivi(~re Hoissce · and on our arrival we werr received with an agreeable hospitality by M'r . Payette, an officer of the ITuclson Bay Company, l.R charge of the fort; all of who:;e p;arr ison <·onsisted in a C:llladian enga~e. Ilr.re the road recrosses the river, which is broad and deep ; but, wtth our good boat, aiucd by two canoes, whieh were found at the place, the camp was very soon ttansferred to the left hank. Here we found ourselves again sunounded by the sage; artemi5ia tridentata, aud the differf'nt shrubs which durint! our voyage had always made their appeara11cc a1>11nd:mtly on saline soils1 beint-; here the prevai ling and almost tile only plants. Among them the surface was covered with the usual saline cmore cences, which here <'onsist almost entirely of carbonate of soda, with a smal l portion of chloride of sodium. Mr. Payrttc had made but slight attempts at culti\.·atiun, his cfll.>rt5 being limited to raibjng a few vegetables, in which he succeeded tolerably well; the post being principally supported by salmon. lfe was very hospitable and kind to us, and wr made a sensible impres~ ion upon all his comestibles; but our principal inroad was into the dairy, which was abundantly supplied, stock appearing to thrive cxlrern~ly well; and we hau an unusual luxury in a pre~ent of fresh butter, "vhtch was, however, hy no mea 11s equal to that of Fort Jlall-probably from som~ accidental cause. During the day we remained here, tiler e were consHlcrable numbers of miserable half nakeu Indians arou11d the fort, nho lJad arrived from the nri,rhborin'r mountains. During the su u1me .. , the only subsistence of these p~ople is~Jerivecl from the salmon, of wllich tl~ey arc. not provid<'nl enough to lay up a sufncient store fvr the winter, duJ wg whtch many of them die from absolute ~tarvation. l\1any little <tccounts and scatte1 ed hi~torics, together with an ~~c·quainta~ ce ~vhich [ ~l'adually acquit·rd of their modes of life) had left the ~lboriglllalmhabitants of this vast rehion pictured in my mind .a~ a rac.e of pcoP. lc whose gmat and constant occ11pation was the means of proeunng a subststencc; and thoucrh want of spae(', and other reasontl, will prevent me fr~m detail.in~ tlw 1~any incidc11 ts wltich made these thii1~s fa:uiliar to me, tlus great feature amont~ the chal'adcri~tic~ of til<• country will p;radually be ~01.ce.d upon your mind. . . I Olnt111.g to a ~roup of fndians who had .Jli.St arnvrd from the mountnms on t.h~ ~cit .side of the ,·alley, and who \\ t• re regarding our usual nppliances of ctvahzataon with an air of bewildered cui io!:!ity, lVl r. Payette iuformcd me |