They
determined, therefore, to abandon him to his fate. Accordingly, under
presence of seeking food, and such simples as might be efficacious in
his malady, they deserted him and hastened forward upon the trail.
They succeeded in overtaking the party of which they were in quest, but
concealed their faithless desertion of Scott; alleging that he had died
of disease.
On the ensuing summer, these very individuals visiting these parts in
company with others, came suddenly upon the bleached bones and grinning
skull of a human skeleton, which, by certain signs they recognized for
the remains of Scott. This was sixty long miles from the place where
they had abandoned him; and it appeared that the wretched man had
crawled that immense distance before death put an end to his miseries.
The wild and picturesque bluffs in the neighborhood of his lonely grave
have ever since borne his name.
Amidst this wild and striking scenery, Captain Bonneville, for the first
time, beheld flocks of the ahsahta or bighorn, an animal which frequents
these cliffs in great numbers. They accord with the nature of such
scenery, and add much to its romantic effect; bounding like goats from
crag to crag, often trooping along the lofty shelves of the mountains,
under the guidance of some venerable patriarch with horns twisted lower
than his muzzle, and sometimes peering over the edge of a precipice,
so high that they appear scarce bigger than crows; indeed, it seems
a pleasure to them to seek the most rugged and frightful situations,
doubtless from a feeling of security.
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