Quiet being restored to the forlorn encampment, each one sought repose.  Mr. Stuart, however, was so exhausted by the agitation of the past scene, acting upon his emaciated frame, that he could scarcely crawl to his miserable bed, where, notwithstanding his fatigues, he passed a sleepless night, reflecting upon their dreary situation and the desperate prospect before them.

At daylight the next morning they were up and on their way; they had nothing to detain them, no breakfast to prepare, and to linger was to perish.  They proceeded, however, but slowly, for all were faint and weak.  Here and there they passed the skulls and bones of buffaloes.  This showed that these animals must have been hunted there during the past season, and the sight of the bones served only to mock their misery.  After travelling about nine miles along the plain, they ascended a range of hills, and had scarcely gone two miles farther, when, to their great joy, they discovered a superannuated buffalo bull which had been driven from some herd and had been hunted and harassed through the mountains.  They all stretched themselves out to encompass and make sure of this solitary animal, for their lives depended on their success.  After considerable trouble and infinite anxiety, they at length succeeded in killing him.  He was instantly flayed and cut up, and so ravenous were they that they devoured some of the flesh raw.

When they had rested they proceeded, and after crossing a mountain ridge, and traversing a plain, they waded one of the branches of the Spanish River.  On ascending its bank, they met about a hundred and thirty Indians of the Snake tribe.  They were friendly in their demeanour, and conducted the starving trappers to their village, which was about three miles distant.  It consisted of about forty lodges, constructed principally of pine branches.  The Snakes, like most of their nation, were very poor.  The marauding Crows, in their late excursion through the country, had picked this unlucky band to the bone, carrying off their horses, several of their squaws, and most of their effects.  In spite of their poverty, they were hospitable in the extreme, and made the hungry strangers welcome to their cabins.  A few trinkets procured from them a supply of buffalo meat, together with leather for moccasins, of which the party were greatly in need.  The most valuable prize obtained from them, however, was a horse.  It was a sorry old animal in truth, and it was the only one which remained to the poor fellows, after the fell swoop of the Crows.  They were prevailed upon to part with it to their guests for a pistol, an axe, a knife, and a few other trifling articles.