JOURNAL OF JOHN WORK 281
and for more than a month is upon the waters of the Humboldt flowing west and south and of the Bruneau and Owyhee flowing north, in northern Nevada. Late in June he turns north across Eastern Oregon by way of Malheur lake, Silvies river and the John Day river to his starting point at Fort Nez Perce at the mouth of the Walla Walla river. But little attempt will be made at long range to trace the itinerary closely. On this his first expedition into this region Mr. Work followed closely the track of his worthy predecessor, Peter Skene Ogden, in 1828-29, whose journals published in volumes X and XI of this Quarterly are now the more intelligible.
Thursday, April 21st, 1831.
Stormy, raw, cold weather.
Moved camp, and marched 10 miles S. E. up the river. 1 The river here is a narrow deep stream with steep clayey banks which have some willows growing upon them, and appear well adapted for beaver, a good many marks of which are to be seen. This little stream is not known ever to have been hunted by whites. Just above our last encampment it spreads into a kind of swamp which was probably taken by the hunters to be its source. The valley through which the river runs here is pretty wide, and seems to have been but a very short time free of snow, the mountains on each side of it have still a considerable depth upon them, and banks of it remain in sundry places along the shores of the river. The valley seems to produce little else but wormwood. There is a little coarse, dry grass in some points along the river. Owing to the unusual lateness of the spring the young grass is barely beginning to shoot up so that our horses, lean as they are, can gather very little to eat, which is much against them and also retards our progress as it is out of power to make such day's journeys as we would wish. Some of the people went in pursuit of buffalo but with little success. Nearly all the people set their traps, only two beaver were taken. Two of the men, A. Findlay and A. Hoole, who went after buffalo
i Bannock river.
