amerivan mathematicae
...t water, so he tasted it. The road that day was fairly level, except for a small part. Some of the mountains that they could see from the path were covered in snow. On September 14, it began to snow. Old Toby, who was an Indian guide from the Shoshone tribe, got the party lost. He led the party down to a fishing camp, near a creek. Indians had recently been there, and their ponies had eaten all of the grass. The road they were traveling was much worse than the day before. It was covered with thick underbrush and fallen timber. Since the hunters were unsuccessful this day, the expedition party killed a colt for meat. They named the creek they found Colt Killed Creek. The next day, the party reached elevations as high as seven thousand feet, on today’s Wendover Ridge. Travel was incredibly difficult. There was a steep descent that was made even more difficult, by the excessive quantity of fallen timber. Several horses slipped and crashed down the hills. The horse carrying Captain Clark’s field desk rolled down the hill for forty yards, until it lodged against a tree. The desk was smashed, but the horse was uninjured. Captain Lewis said, “Two of our horses gave out, pore and too much hurt to proceed on and left in the rear” (De Voto 239). When the party reached the ridgeline, they made camp. Having no water, the men had to melt snow to drink. Patrick Gass said, “There was here no water; but a bank of snow answered as a substitute” (MacGregor 130). September 16, began with snow falling three hours before dawn, and would continue all day. The snow piled up to six to eigh...