The rapid currents of the rivers which run into the Pacific render the ascent of them very exhausting to the salmon.  When the fish first run up the rivers, they are fat and in fine order.  The struggle against impetuous streams and frequent rapids gradually renders them thin and weak, and great numbers are seen floating down the rivers on their backs.  As the season advances and the water becomes chilled, they are flung in myriads on the shores, where the wolves and bears assemble to banquet on them.  Often they rot in such quantities along the river banks as to taint the atmosphere.  They are commonly from two to three feet long.

Captain Bonneville now made his arrangements for the autumn and the winter.  The nature of the country through which he was about to travel rendered it impossible to proceed with wagons.  He had more goods and supplies of various kinds, also, than were required for present purposes, or than could be conveniently transported on horseback; aided, therefore, by a few confidential men, he made caches, or secret pits, during the night, when all the rest of the camp were asleep, and in these deposited the superfluous effects, together with the wagons.  All traces of the caches were then carefully obliterated.  This is a common expedient with the traders and trappers of the mountains.  Having no established posts and magazines, they make these caches or deposits at certain points, whither they repair, occasionally, for supplies.  It is an expedient derived from the wandering tribes of Indians.

Many of the horses were still so weak and lame, as to be unfit for a long scramble through the mountains.  These were collected into one cavalcade, and given in charge to an experienced trapper, of the name of Matthieu.  He was to proceed westward, with a brigade of trappers, to Bear River; a stream to the west of the Green River or Colorado, where there was good pasturage for the horses.  In this neighborhood it was expected he would meet the Shoshonie villages or bands, on their yearly migrations, with whom he was to trade for peltries and provisions.  After he had traded with these people, finished his trapping, and recruited the strength of the horses, he was to proceed to Salmon River and rejoin Captain Bonneville, who intended to fix his quarters there for the winter.

While these arrangements were in progress in the camp of Captain Bonneville, there was a sudden bustle and stir in the camp of Fontenelle.  One of the partners of the American Fur Company had arrived, in all haste, from the rendezvous at Pierre’s Hole, in quest of the supplies.  The competition between the two rival companies was just now at its height, and prosecuted with unusual zeal.  The tramontane concerns of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company were managed by two resident partners, Fitzpatrick and Bridger; those of the American Fur Company, by Vanderburgh and Dripps.  The latter were ignorant of the mountain regions, but trusted to make up by vigilance and activity for their want of knowledge of the country.