The sight of one was
sufficient, at any time, to throw them into a paroxysm of eagerness and
delight; and they were ready to give anything they had for the smallest
fragment in which they might behold their squalid features. With this
simple instance of vanity, in its primitive but vigorous state, we shall
close our remarks on the Root Diggers.
30.
Temperature of the climate--Root Diggers on horseback--An
Indian guide--Mountain prospects--The Grand Rond--
Difficulties on Snake River--A scramble over the Blue
Mountains--Sufferings from hunger--Prospect of the Immahah
Valley--The exhausted traveller
THE TEMPERATURE of the regions west of the Rocky Mountains is much
milder than in the same latitudes on the Atlantic side; the upper
plains, however, which lie at a distance from the sea-coast, are
subject in winter to considerable vicissitude; being traversed by lofty
"sierras," crowned with perpetual snow, which often produce flaws and
streaks of intense cold This was experienced by Captain Bonneville and
his companions in their progress westward. At the time when they left
the Bannacks Snake River was frozen hard: as they proceeded, the ice
became broken and floating; it gradually disappeared, and the weather
became warm and pleasant, as they approached a tributary stream called
the Little Wyer; and the soil, which was generally of a watery clay,
with occasional intervals of sand, was soft to the tread of the horses.
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