In pursuing his course westward, Captain Bonneville generally kept several miles fromSnake River, crossing the heads of its tributary streams; though he often found theopen country so encumbered by volcanic rocks, as to render travelling extremelydifficult. Whenever he approached Snake River, he found it running through a broadchasm, with steep, perpendicular sides of basaltic rock. After several days' travel acrossa level plain, he came to a part of the river which filled him with astonishment andadmiration. As far as the eye could reach, the river was walled in by perpendicular cliffstwo hundred and fifty feet high, beetling like dark and gloomy battlements, while blocksand fragments lay in masses at their feet, in the midst of the boiling and whirlingcurrent. Just above, the whole stream pitched in one cascade above forty feet in height,with a thundering sound, casting up a volume of spray that hung in the air like a silvermist. These are called by some the Fishing Falls, as the salmon are taken here inimmense quantities. They cannot get by these falls.
After encamping at this place all night, Captain Bonneville, at sunrise, descended withhis party through a narrow ravine, or rather crevice, in the vast wall of basaltic rockwhich bordered the river; this being the only mode, for many miles, of getting to themargin of the stream.
The snow lay in a thin crust along the banks of the river, so that their travelling wasmuch more easy than it had been hitherto. There were foot tracks, also, made by thenatives, which greatly facilitated their progress. Occasionally, they met the inhabitantsof this wild region; a timid race, and but scantily provided with the necessaries of life.
Their dress consisted of a mantle about four feet square, formed of strips of rabbit skinssewed together; this they hung over their shoulders, in the ordinary Indian mode ofwearing the blanket. Their weapons were bows and arrows; the latter tipped withobsidian, which abounds in the neighborhood. Their huts were shaped like haystacks,and constructed of branches of willow covered with long grass, so as to be warm andcomfortable. Occasionally, they were surrounded by small inclosures of wormwood,about three feet high, which gave them a cottage-like appearance. Three or four ofthese tenements were occasionally grouped together in some wild and strikingsituation, and had a picturesque effect. Sometimes they were in sufficient number toform a small hamlet. From these people, Captain Bonneville's party frequentlypurchased salmon, dried in an admirable manner, as were likewise the roes. Thisseemed to be their prime article of food; but they were extremely anxious to get buffalomeat in exchange.
The high walls and rocks, within which the travellers had been so long inclosed, nowoccasionally presented openings, through which they were enabled to ascend to theplain, and to cut off considerable bends of the river.
Throughout the whole extent of this vast and singular chasm, the scenery of the river issaid to be of the most wild and romantic character. The rocks present every variety ofmasses and grouping. Numerous small streams come rushing and boiling throughnarrow clefts and ravines: one of a considerable size issued from the face of aprecipice, within twenty-five feet of its summit; and after running in nearly a horizontalline for about one hundred feet, fell, by numerous small cascades, to the rocky bank ofthe river.
In its career through this vast and singular defile, Snake River is upward of threehundred yards wide, and as clear as spring water. Sometimes it steals along with atranquil and noiseless course; at other times, for miles and miles, it dashes on in athousand rapids, wild and beautiful to the eye, and lulling the ear with the soft tumult ofplashing waters.
Many of the tributary streams of Snake River, rival it in the wildness andpicturesqueness of their scenery. That called the Bruneau; is particularly cited. It runsthrough a tremendous chasm, rather than a valley, extending upwards of a hundredand fifty miles. You come upon it on a sudden, in traversing a level plain. It seems as ifyou could throw a stone across from cliff to cliff; yet, the valley is near two thousandfeet deep: so that the river looks like an inconsiderable stream. Basaltic rocks riseperpendicularly, so that it is impossible to get from the plain to the water, or from theriver margin to the plain. The current is bright and limpid. Hot springs are found on theborders of this river. One bursts out of the cliffs forty feet above the river, in a streamsufficient to turn a mill, and sends up a cloud of vapor.
We find a characteristic picture of this volcanic region of mountains and streams,furnished by the journal of Mr. Wyeth, which lies before us; who ascended a peak in theneighborhood we are describing. From this summit, the country, he says, appears anindescribable chaos; the tops of the hills exhibit the same strata as far as the eye canreach; and appear to have once formed the level of the country; and the valleys to beformed by the sinking of the earth, rather than the rising of the hills. Through the deepcracks and chasms thus formed, the rivers and brooks make their way, which renders itdifficult to follow them. All these basaltic channels are called cut rocks by the trappers.
Many of the mountain streams disappear in the plains; either absorbed by their thirstysoil, and by the porous surface of the lava, or swallowed up in gulfs and chasms.
