“I have been,” said he, “boy and man, forty years in this region, and there is no part of it that I have not often visited. You will find my advice correct.” Russell placed great confidence in what Le Clair said. Hastening on, he overtook his companions, and they proceeded to Snake River near Fort Hall, an old post of the Northwestern Fur Company. Here they fell in with McLean’s train, which, as we have seen, left Denver a few days before they did, and travelled by another route. One of this latter company, Columbus Post, was drowned while attempting to cross the river in a poorly constructed boat, made out of a wagon-box. Russell found an old ferry-boat near the fort, which the men repaired to answer the purpose of crossing their trains, and they proceeded on through the dreary desert of mountains and rock in the direction of the Salmon River. Superadded to the difficulties of travelling over a rough volcanic region, they were now, for successive days, until they left the valley of the Snake, attacked by the Bannack Indians, and their horses were nightly exposed to capture by them. After many days of adventurous travel, the whole party, with a great number of pilgrims, arrived in safety at Fort Lemhi. Here they found themselves hemmed in by the Salmon River range, a lofty escarpment of ridges and rocks presenting an insurmountable barrier to further progress with wagons. They had yet to go several hundred miles before reaching the gold regions. A large number, more than a thousand in all, were now congregated in this desolate basin. They at once set to work to manufacture pack-saddles and other gear necessary to the completion of their journey. As time wore on, the prospect of being able to do so before cold weather set in became daily more discouraging. At length a meeting was called to consider the situation of affairs, and if possible, to devise and adopt measures of relief. Russell repeated to the assemblage the information he had received from Le Clair, expressing his belief that it was true, and recommended as a choice of evils that they should turn aside, and go to Deer Lodge and Beaverhead, rather than attempt a journey down the Salmon to the Florence mines, through a country of which their best information was disheartening in the extreme. Several members of the Colorado companies spoke of having seen letters from James and Granville Stuart in which the discovery of promising gold placers in Deer Lodge was mentioned; but the pilgrims thought the information too indefinite, and concluded to risk the journey down the river. The Colorado men, most of whom were experienced miners, determined at once to retrace their way to Deer Lodge and Beaverhead, and risk the chance of making new discoveries, if the information given by the Stuarts and Le Clair should not prove true. At the crossing of the Beaverhead, Russell found five cents in gold to the pan, and picked up pieces of quartz containing free gold.