The winter
may be dated from the first of November; there was every prospect,
therefore, that it would be closed with ice long before Mr. Hunt could
reach its upper waters. To avoid, however, the expense of wintering at
St. Louis, he determined to push up the river as far as possible, to
some point above the settlements, where game was plenty, and where his
whole party could be subsisted by hunting, until the breaking up of the
ice in the spring should permit them to resume their voyage.
Accordingly on the twenty-first of October he took his departure from
St. Louis. His party was distributed in three boats. One was the barge
which he had brought from Mackinaw; another was of a larger size, such
as was formerly used in navigating the Mohawk River, and known by the
generic name of the Schenectady barge; the other was a large keel boat,
at that time the grand conveyance on the Mississippi.
In this way they set out from St. Louis, in buoyant spirits, and soon
arrived at the mouth of the Missouri. This vast river, three thousand
miles in length, and which, with its tributary streams, drains such
an immense extent of country, was as yet but casually and imperfectly
navigated by the adventurous bark of the fur trader. A steamboat had
never yet stemmed its turbulent current.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182