As the Indians at that town possessed horses in abundance,
he might purchase a sufficient number of them for his great journey
overland, which would commence at that place.
After reflecting on this advice, and consulting with his associates, Mr.
Hunt came to the determination to follow the route thus pointed out, to
which the hunters engaged to pilot him.
The party continued their voyage with delightful May weather. The
prairies bordering on the river were gayly painted with innumerable
flowers, exhibiting the motley confusion of colors of a Turkey carpet.
The beautiful islands, also, on which they occasionally halted,
presented the appearance of mingled grove and garden. The trees were
often covered with clambering grapevines in blossom, which perfumed
the air. Between the stately masses of the groves were grassy lawns and
glades, studded with flowers, or interspersed with rose-bushes in full
bloom. These islands were often the resort of the buffalo, the elk,
and the antelope, who had made innumerable paths among the trees and
thickets, which had the effect of the mazy walks and alleys of parks and
shrubberies. Sometimes, where the river passed between high banks and
bluffs, the roads made by the tramp of buffaloes for many ages along
the face of the heights, looked like so many well-travelled highways.
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