On the tenth of June the party set out for Quamash flats, each man well mounted and leading a spare horse which carried a small load.  To their dismay, they found that their good friends, the Chopunnish, unwilling to part with them, were bound to accompany them to the hunting-grounds.  The Indians would naturally expect to share in the hunt and to be provided for by the white men.  The party halted there only until the sixth of June, and then, collecting their horses, set out through what proved to be a very difficult trail up the creek on which they were camped, in a northeasterly direction.  There was still a quantity of snow on the ground, although this was in shady places and hollows.  Vegetation was rank, and the dogtooth violet, honeysuckle, blue-bell, and columbine were in blossom.  The pale blue flowers of the quamash gave to the level country the appearance of a blue lake.  Striking Hungry Creek, which Captain Clark had very appropriately named when he passed that way, the previous September, they followed it up to a mountain for about three miles, when they found themselves enveloped in snow; their limbs were benumbed, and the snow, from twelve to fifteen feet deep, so paralyzed their feet that further progress was impossible.  Here the journal should be quoted:—­

“We halted at the sight of this new difficulty.  We already knew that to wait till the snows of the mountains had dissolved, so as to enable us to distinguish the road, would defeat our design of returning to the United States this season.  We now found also that as the snow bore our horses very well, travelling was infinitely easier than it was last fall, when the rocks and fallen timber had so much obstructed our march.  But it would require five days to reach the fish-weirs at the mouth of Colt (-killed) Creek, even if we were able to follow the proper ridges of the mountains; and the danger of missing our direction is exceedingly great while every track is covered with snow.  During these five days, too, we have no chance of finding either grass or underwood for our horses, the snow being so deep.  To proceed, therefore, under such circumstances, would be to hazard our being bewildered in the mountains, and to insure the loss of our horses; even should we be so fortunate as to escape with our lives, we might be obliged to abandon all our papers and collections.  It was therefore decided not to venture any further; to deposit here all the baggage and provisions for which we had no immediate use; and, reserving only subsistence for a few days, to return while our horses were yet strong to some spot where we might live by hunting, till a guide could be procured to conduct us across the mountains.  Our baggage was placed on scaffolds and carefully covered, as were also the instruments and papers, which we thought it safer to leave than to risk over the roads and creeks by which we came.”