pany, called Fort Vermilion. My inability to find a good guide to lead me to Fort Pierre, the great post of the Missouri, made me lose five days of excellent weather.
At last I succeeded in finding a companion who had crossed backward and forward, for the last thirty-three years, every plain, mountain, forest and prairie of the West. I set out the day before the weather changed. On the third day the snow overtook us. On reaching James river we found it impassable; the water was too high and too cold for our horses to swim it. We had to ascend it to find a ford. We traveled eight or nine days without finding any place or means to cross. A violent north wind set in, so that we were nearly frozen to death. We accordingly began to descend the valley of the river, but had not made over five or six miles when night surprised us, and we had to encamp in a spot which offered scarce wood enough for one night. We had hardly encamped when the north v ind began to blow with horrible violence; the snow fell so thick and fast, that you would have said the clouds had burst. You may imagine our position, and how much we pitied each other. Sleep was out of the question. The next morning we struck our camp. The snow and wind raged with unabated fury for two days and two nights. In some spots there were six, fifteen, and even twenty feet of snow. Conceive our position if you can, as we made our way along, the valley of James river, which runs between two chains of mountains, with deep ravines near each other.
We were almost out of provisions, entirely alone, in a sad desert, where we could see nothing but snow; we had no one to encourage us, except the spirit of divine charity, at whose voice I had undertaken this painful journey. The snow grew high around us, our horses would not proceed. The gloomy thought that we could never cross the river crushed out all courage; but I was consoled when I remembered the words of divine wisdom: " It is good for you to suffer temptation." To fill up our misery, rheumatism seized both my knees, so that I could not set one foot before