[110] Andrew Henry was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, between 1773 and 1778, and died in Washington County, Missouri, in 1832. He was one of the original incorporators of the Missouri Fur Company in 1809 and the next year built the first post established by an American trader beyond the crest of the Rockies; this was Fort Henry, on Snake River, probably near the present village of Egin, Fremont County, Idaho. It was abandoned the succeeding spring, but furnished shelter for a few days to the party under Hunt, bound overland to Astoria. (See Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 2). Little is known of Henry from 1811 to 1822; at the latter date he entered into partnership with General W. H. Ashley (congressman from Missouri, 1831-37), and for a time prospered in the fur-trade, but lost his fortune by becoming a surety for others. Lewis River was the name given by Lewis and Clark to Salmon and Snake rivers. Fort Henry was not far from the headwaters of the former.—ED. All the mountains which we ascended were more or less strewed with the dung of these animals about the lower parts; a conclusive evidence that this portion of the range had been traversed by the bisons. The cows remain fat from July to the latter part of December. The rutting season occurs towards the latter part of July, and continues until the beginning of September, after which month the cows separate from the bulls, in distinct herds, and bring forth their calves in April. The calves seldom separate themselves from the mother under the age of one year; and cows are often seen accompanied by the calves of three seasons. The meat of the bison has often been compared with that of the domestic ox, and the preference yielded to the latter, as an article of food. This decision, however, we cannot, from our experience confirm; it appeared to us that although of a somewhat coarser fibre, yet, after making due allowance for the situation in which we were placed, our appetites often increased by hunger and privation, that the flesh of the bison is in no degree inferior in delicacy and sweetness to that of the common ox. But that the flesh of those which we were accustomed to eat was more agreeably sapid than that which formed a subject of comparison to the authors alluded to, is altogether possible, as the grass upon which they usually fed was short, firm, and nutritious, considerably differing in its nature from the luxuriant and less solid grass nourished by a fertile soil. It was {160} preferred by the party to the flesh of the elk or deer, which was thrown away when it could be substituted by the bison meat. To the fat of the bison we conceded a decided superiority over that of the common ox, as being richer and sweeter to the taste.