At night, the games
were concluded by a dance. The account of the expedition says that the
captains were desirous of encouraging these exercises before they
should begin the passage over the mountains, "as several of the men are
becoming lazy from inaction."
On the tenth of June the party set out for Quamash flats, each man well
mounted and leading a spare horse which carried a small load. To their
dismay, they found that their good friends, the Chopunnish, unwilling to
part with them, were bound to accompany them to the hunting-grounds. The
Indians would naturally expect to share in the hunt and to be provided
for by the white men. The party halted there only until the sixth of
June, and then, collecting their horses, set out through what proved to
be a very difficult trail up the creek on which they were camped, in
a northeasterly direction. There was still a quantity of snow on the
ground, although this was in shady places and hollows. Vegetation was
rank, and the dogtooth violet, honeysuckle, blue-bell, and columbine
were in blossom. The pale blue flowers of the quamash gave to the level
country the appearance of a blue lake. Striking Hungry Creek, which
Captain Clark had very appropriately named when he passed that way, the
previous September, they followed it up to a mountain for about three
miles, when they found themselves enveloped in snow; their limbs were
benumbed, and the snow, from twelve to fifteen feet deep, so paralyzed
their feet that further progress was impossible.
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