We have heard this also called the Soda Spring, and described as
containing iron and sulphur. It probably possesses some of the
properties of the Ballston water.
The time had now arrived for Captain Bonneville to go in quest of the
party of free trappers, detached in the beginning of July, under the
command of Mr. Hodgkiss, to trap upon the head waters of Salmon River.
His intention was to unite them with the party with which he was at
present travelling, that all might go into quarters together for the
winter. Accordingly, on the 11th of November, he took a temporary leave
of his band, appointing a rendezvous on Snake River, and, accompanied by
three men, set out upon his journey. His route lay across the plain
of the Portneuf, a tributary stream of Snake River, called after an
unfortunate Canadian trapper murdered by the Indians. The whole country
through which he passed bore evidence of volcanic convulsions and
conflagrations in the olden time. Great masses of lava lay scattered
about in every direction; the crags and cliffs had apparently been under
the action of fire; the rocks in some places seemed to have been in
a state of fusion; the plain was rent and split with deep chasms and
gullies, some of which were partly filled with lava.
They had not proceeded far, however, before they saw a party of
horsemen, galloping full tilt toward them. They instantly turned, and
made full speed for the covert of a woody stream, to fortify themselves
among the trees.
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