considerable portion of the baggage must be
cached and left behind. At a time when the needs of the men would be
greatest, they were obliged to provide themselves with least.

The Shoshones were hospitable and kindly folk. Throughout these days of
preparation, the women were engaged in making and repairing moccasins
and clothing for the men, and the fishermen gave to them a good share
of the daily catch. Nor was the kindness all upon the one side. The
white hunters, with their guns, had greater success than the Indians,
who were armed only with bows and arrows and lances. Share and share
alike was the rule in the village. Once when the hunters brought in a
deer, Captain Clark directed that it be given to the women and
children, who were in an extremity of hunger, and himself went
supperless to bed.

One of the older men was induced to accompany them as a guide. By the
middle of September they were deep in the mountains, and also deep in
peril and suffering. The cold had a depressing effect upon the men,
overworked and underfed as they were. For several days they got along
somehow, with a few odds and ends of small game; but on the 14th of
September, Captain Clark's prevision was fulfilled, and they were
reduced to supping upon the flesh of one of their ponies. Then on the
next day,--

"September 15th. Camped near an old snow-bank, some of which was
melted, in the absence of water; and here the party supped on the
remains of the colt killed yesterday. Our only game to-day was two
pheasants; the horses, on which we calculated as a last resource, began
to fail us, for two of them were so poor and worn out with fatigue that
we were obliged to leave them behind.

"September 16th. Three hours before daybreak it began to snow, and
continued all day, so that by evening it was six or eight inches deep.
This covered the track so completely that we were obliged constantly to
halt and examine, lest we should lose the route. In many places we had
nothing to guide us, except the branches of the trees, which, being
low, had been rubbed by the burdens of the Indian horses.... Wet to the
skin, and so cold that we were anxious lest our feet should be frozen,
as we had only thin moccasins to defend them.... We camped on a piece
of low ground, thickly timbered, but scarcely large enough to permit us
to lie level. We had now made thirteen miles. We were all very wet,
cold, and hungry.... Were obliged to kill a second colt for our
supp