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drying buffaloe meat for the residue of the voyage, as in all probability those were the last animals of the kind they would meet with. From this camp, in one day, they crossed the dividing mountain, and pitched their tents on Hoback's fork of Mad river, where it was near one hundred and fifty feet broad, and in eight days more, having passed several stupendous ridges, they encamped in the vicinity of the establishment made by Mr. Henry in the fall of 1810, on a fork about seventy yards wide, bearing the name of that gentleman; having travelled from the main Missouri about nine hundred miles in fifty-four days.

Here, abandoning their horses, the party constructed canoes, and descended the Snake or Kyeyenem river (made by the junction of Mad river, south of Henry's fork) four hundred miles, in the course of which they were obliged, by the intervention of impassable rapids, to make a number of portages, till at length they found the river confined between gloomy precipices, at least two hundred feet perpendicular, whose banks for the most part were washed by this turbulent stream, which for thirty miles was a continual succession of falls, cascades and rapids. Mr. Cook's canoe had split aud upset in the middle of a rapid, by which one man was drowned, named Antonie Clappin, and that gentleman saved himself only by extreme exertion in swimming. From the repeated losses by the upsetting of canoes our stock of provisions were now reduced to a bare sufficiency for five days, totally ignorant of the country where they were, and unsuccessful in meeting any of the natives from whom they could hope for information.

Unable to proceed by water, messrs. M'Kenzie, M'Clellan, and Reed, set out in different directions inclining down the river, for the purpose of finding Indians and buying horses. Mr. Crooks with a few men returned to Henry's forks for those they had left, while Mr. Hunt remained with the main body of the men in trapping beaver for their support. Mr. C. finding the distance much greater by land than they had contemplated, returned at the end of three days, where, waiting five more, expecting relief from below, the near approach of winter made them determine on depositing all superfluous articles and prceeeding on foot. Accordingly on the 10th of November, messrs, Hunt and

Crooks set out, each with eighteen men, one party on the north, and the other on the south side of the river.

Mr. Hunt was fortunate in finding Indians with abundance of salmon and some horses; but Mr. Crooks saw but few, and in general too miserably poor to afford his party much assistance. Thirteen days travel brought the latter to a high range of mountains through which the river forced a passage, and the bank being their only guide, they still, by climbing over points of rocky ridges projecting into the stream, kept as near it as possible; till in the evening of the 3d December impassable precipices of immense height put an end to all hopes of following the margin of this water course, which here was not more than forty yards wide, ran with incredible velocity, and was withal so foamingly tumultuous, that even had the opposite bank been fit for their purposes, attempt at rafting would have been perfect madness; as they could only have the inducement of ending in a watery grave a series of hardships and privations, to which the most hardy and determined of the human race must have found himself inadequate. They attempted to climb the mountains, still bent on pushing on; but after ascending for half a day, they discovered to their sorrow that they were not half way to the summit, and the snow already too deep for men in their emaci ated state to proceed further.

Regaining the river bank they returned up, and on the third day met with Mr. Hunt and party, with one horse, proceeding downwards; a canoe was soon made of a horse hide, and in it transported what meat they could spare to Mr. Crooks's starv ing followers, who for the first eighteen days after leaving the place of deposit had subsisted on half a meal in twenty-four hours, and in the last nine days had eat only one beaver, a dog, a few wild cherries and old mockasin soals; having travelled during these twenty-seven days at least five hundred and fifty miles. For the next four days both parties continued up the river, without any other support than what little rosebuds and cherries they could find; but here they luckily fell in with some Snake Indians, from whom they got five horses, giving them three guns and some other articles for the same. Starvation had bereft J. B. Provost of his senses entirely, and, on seeing the horse flesh on

the opposite shore, was so agitated in crossing in a skin canoe, that he upset it and was unfortunately drowned. From hence Mr. Hunt went on to a camp of Shoshonees about ninety miles above, where, procuring a few horses and a guide, he set out for the main Columbia, across the mountains to the south west, leaving the river where it entered the range, and on it Mr. Crooks and five men unable to travel. Mr. H. lost a Canadian named Carriere by starvation, before he met the Shyeyetoga Indians in the Columbia plains; from whom getting a supply of provisions, he soon reached the main river, which he descended in canoes and arrived without any further loss at Astoria, in the month of February.

Messrs. McKenzie, M'Clellan, and Read had united their parties on the Snake river mountains, through which they travelled twenty-one days, to the Mulpot river, subsisting on an allowance by no means adequate to the toils they underwent daily; and to the smallness of their number, which was in all eleven, they attribute their success in getting with life to where they found some wild horses. They soon after reached the fork called by captains Lewis and Clarke Kooskooske; went down Lewis's partly, and the Columbia wholly, by water, without any misfortune, except the upsetting in a rapid of Mr. M'Clellan's canoe, and although it happened on the first day of the year, yet by great exertion they clung to the canoe till the others came to their assistance; making their escape with the loss of some rifles. They reached Astoria carly in January.

Three of the five men who remained with Mr. Crooks, afraid of perishing by want, left him in February on a small river on the road by which Mr. Hunt had passed in quest of Indians, and have not since been heard of. Mr. C. had followed Mr. H's track in the snow for seven days; but coming to a low prairie, he lost every appearance of the trace, and was compelled to pass the remaining part of winter in the mountains, subsisting sometimes on beaver and horse meat, and their skins, and at others on their success in finding roots. Finally, on the last of March, the other only Canadian being unable to proceed, was left with a lodge of Shoshonees, and Mr. C. with John Day, finding the snow sufficiently diminished, undertook, from Indian information, to

cross the last ridge, which they happily effected and reached the banks of the Columbia by the middle of April, where, in the beginning of May, they fell in with mr. Steuart, &c. having been a few days before stripped of every thing they possessed, by a band of villains near the falls. On the 10th of May they arrived

safe at Astoria, the principal establishment of the Pacific fur company, within fourteen miles of Cape Disappointment.

NEWLY INVENTED FIREARMS.

The following account of a singular and useful invention has been politely translated for our use, by a friend, from a late number of the Bulletin of the Soejety of Encouragement at Paris.

NEW FIREARMS INVENTED BY M. PAULY, OFFICER Of artillery,

IN THE SERVICE OF SWITZERLAND.

THE arms invented by M. Pauly, offer, in their mechanism and use, very great advantages over those now used.

The musket of M. Pauly has for its principal qualities:

I. To carry the ball twice as far as common guns.

II. To be capable of being discharged ten or twelve times in ene minute, without carrying the gun to the left, without going out of the horizontal line, parallel to that of aim, and without interruption, which exercise the inventor has rendered easy, and much less tiresome, than the one now practised: 1. In substituting to the strap which supports the cartridge-box, a leather belt, furnished with a metal plate, in the middle of which is a pin (or peg) which serves to steady the breach of the gun, and render the shock almost imperceptible; at the same time that it is used as a point of resistance in charging with the bayonet. 2. In composing that belt of several straps, in which slide boxes extremely light, containing cartridges, which by this means the soldier has at hand.

III. To require neither ramrod, nor flint, nor worm, nor priming wire.

IV. To render the infantry almost secure against any attack of cavalry, by means of bayonets, which being lengthened or shortened, in a manner always strong, and at will by the soldiers

of the second and third ranks, render the first flank always protected by that dreadful weapon.

V. To present the same advantages, in the most precipitate retreats, by the facility afforded the soldier to load, either in walking or running; the gun being placed horizontally on the shoulder, the left arm on the breach, so that he has only to turn half round, in carrying the left foot backward, to face the enemy with as much promptitude and accuracy as if he fired in front. The soldier may load either standing or lying down, or even at the same time that he is charging with the bayonet.

VI. This musket, as well as the fowling piece, is exempt from all hanging fire, and from all effects of rain upon powder, and has not, like the common guns, that smoke so inconvenient in battle and in hunting, as there is no touchhole. Its effect cannot be destroyed for want of a flint, a ram-rod, &c. nor be dangerous on account of double and triple charges, so common in platoon firing, as it is impossible to load more than once without discharging.

VII. It is as easy to load in the night without a light as in midday, and without any danger, which is an invaluable advantage in night attacks, in which the troops attacked cannot reload without a light, and without delays which often cost them their lives.

The fowling piece of M. Pauly, can also fire ten or twelve times in a minute. It requires neither ramrod nor shotbag, &c. &c. and the sportsman cannot be stopped by the fear of a double or false charge. The barrel upon its stock, is the only apparatus of the sportsman, excepting cartridges, which are made in an uniform and economical way, and being out of danger from rain, prevent the inconvenience of missing or hanging fire.

The horseman's pistols and duelling pistols of M. Pauly are rifle-barrelled, as well as his musket. It partakes of all its advantages as regards the promptitude of shooting. It can be loaded six times quicker than the common pistol, without the horseman being obliged to stop; and in charging the enemy without letting go the bridle, so that cavalry can imitate the fire of infantry. The loading is done without a ramrod, and it is phy

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