back into the thicket and thus escaped.

They were compelled to remain some days at this camp, and as the
beaver-trap failed to supply them with food, it became absolutely
necessary to take the chances of discovery by the Indians, in order
to live, and Ben Jones was permitted to make a tour with his rifle
some distance from the camp, defying both bears and Blackfeet.
He had not been absent more than two hours when he came upon a herd
of elk and killed five of them. When he reported his good news,
the party immediately moved their camp to the carcasses, about
six miles distant.

After marching a few days more, hunger again returned, the keenest
of their sufferings. The small amount of bear and elk meat which
they had been able to carry in addition to their other equipage
lasted but a short time, and in their anxiety to get ahead they had
little time to hunt. As scarcely any game crossed their trail,
they lived for three days upon nothing but a small duck and a few
miserable fish. They saw numbers of antelope, but they were very
wild and they succeeded in killing only one. It was poor in flesh
and very small, but they lived on it for several days.

After a while they came across the trail of the obstinate M'Lellan,
who was still ahead of them, and had encamped the night before on
the very stream where they now were. They saw the embers of the fire
by which he had slept, and remains of a wolf of which he had eaten.
He had evidently fared better than themselves at this encampment,
for they had not a mouthful to eat. The next day, about noon,
they arrived at the prairies where the headwaters of the stream
appeared to form, and where they expected to find buffalo in abundance.