Here one of the guides paused, and, after
considering the vast landscape attentively, pointed to three mountain
peaks glistening with snow, which rose, he said, above a fork of
Columbia River. They were hailed by the travellers with that joy with
which a beacon on a seashore is hailed by mariners after a long and
dangerous voyage.
It is true there was many a weary league to be traversed before they
should reach these landmarks, for, allowing for their evident height and
the extreme transparency of the atmosphere, they could not be much less
than a hundred miles distant. Even after reaching them, there would yet
remain hundreds of miles of their journey to be accomplished. All these
matters were forgotten in the joy at seeing the first landmarks of the
Columbia, that river which formed the bourne of the expedition. These
remarkable peaks were known as the Tetons; as guiding points for many
days, to Mr. Hunt, he gave them the names of the Pilot Knobs.
The travellers continued their course to the south of west for about
forty miles, through a region so elevated that patches of snow lay on
the highest summits and on the northern declivities. At length they came
to the desired stream, the object of their search, the waters of which
flowed to the west.
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