Accordingly, once more (June 26),
they set out for the mountains, travelling for the third time in twelve
days the route between Quamash flats and the Bitter Root range. For the
second time they ran up against a barrier of snow. They measured the
depth of the snow at the place where they had left their luggage at
their previous repulse and found it to be ten feet and ten inches deep;
and it had sunk four feet since they had been turned back at this point.
Pressing on, after they reached their old camp, they found a bare spot
on the side of the mountain where there was a little grass for their
horses; and there they camped for the night. They were fortunate in
having Indian guides with them; and the journal says:--
"The marks on the trees, which had been our chief dependence, are much
fewer and more difficult to be distinguished than we had supposed. But
our guides traverse this trackless region with a kind of instinctive
sagacity; they never hesitate, they are never embarrassed; and so
undeviating is their step, that wherever the snow has disappeared, for
even a hundred paces, we find the summer road. With their aid the snow
is scarcely a disadvantage; for though we are often obliged to slip
down, yet the fallen timber and the rocks, which are now covered, were
much more troublesome when we passed in the autumn. Travelling is indeed
comparatively pleasant, as well as more rapid, the snow being hard and
coarse, without a crust, and perfectly hard enough to prevent the horses
sinking more than two or three inches.
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