CHAPTER XXIX.
Mountain Glens .-- Wandering Band of Savages--Anecdotes of Shoshonies and Flatheads .-- Root Diggers--Their Solitary Lurking Habits .-- Gnomes of the Mountains .-- Wind River .-- Scarcity of Food .-- Alteration of Route .-- The Pilot Knobs or Tetons .-- Branch of the Colorado .-- Hunting Camp.
RESUMING their course on the following morning, Mr.Hunt and his companions continued on westward through a rugged region of hills and rocks, but diversified in many places by grassy little glens, with springs of water, bright sparkling brooks, clumps of pine trees, and a profusion of flowering plants, which were in bloom, although the weather was frosty.

These beautiful and verdant recesses, running through and softening the rugged mountains, were cheering and refreshing to the wayworn travellers.
In the course of the morning, as they were entangled in a defile, they beheld a small band of savages, as wild-looking as the surrounding scenery, who reconnoitred them warily from the rocks before they ventured to advance.

Some of them were mounted on horses rudely caparisoned with bridles or halters of buffalo hide, one end trailing after them on the ground.

They proved to be a mixed party of Flatheads and Shoshonies, or Snakes; and as these tribes will be frequently mentioned in the course of this work, we shall give a few introductory particulars concerning them.
The Flatheads in question are not to be confounded with those of the name who dwell about the lower waters of the Columbia; neither do they flatten their heads, as the others do.

They inhabit the banks of a river on the west side of the mountains, and are described as simple, honest, and hospitable.