8.
Plans for the winter--Salmon River--Abundance of salmon west
of the mountains--New arrangements--Caches--Cerre's
detachment--Movements in--Fontenelle's camp--Departure of
the--Blackfeet--Their fortunes--Wind--Mountain streams--
Buckeye, the Delaware hunter, and the grizzly bear--Bones of
murdered travellers--Visit to Pierre's Hole--Traces of the
battle--Nez--Perce--Indians--Arrival at--Salmon River
THE INFORMATION derived from the free trappers determined Captain
Bonneville as to his further movements. He learned that in the Green
River valley the winters were severe, the snow frequently falling to the
depth of several feet; and that there was no good wintering ground in
the neighborhood. The upper part of Salmon River was represented as far
more eligible, besides being in an excellent beaver country; and thither
the captain resolved to bend his course.
The Salmon River is one of the upper branches of the Oregon or Columbia;
and takes its rise from various sources, among a group of mountains to
the northwest of the Wind River chain. It owes its name to the immense
shoals of salmon which ascend it in the months of September and October.
The salmon on the west side of the Rocky Mountains are, like the buffalo
on the eastern plains, vast migratory supplies for the wants of man,
that come and go with the seasons. As the buffalo in countless throngs
find their certain way in the transient pasturage on the prairies, along
the fresh banks of the rivers, and up every valley and green defile of
the mountains, so the salmon, at their allotted seasons, regulated by a
sublime and all-seeing Providence, swarm in myriads up the great
rivers, and find their way up their main branches, and into the minutest
tributory streams; so as to pervade the great arid plains, and to
penetrate even among barren mountains.
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