Here and there is a thin and scanty herbage, insufficient for the pasturage of horse or buffalo.
Indeed, these treeless wastes between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific are even more desolate and barren than the naked, upper prairies on the Atlantic side; they present vast desert tracts that must ever defy cultivation, and interpose dreary and thirsty wilds between the habitations of man, in traversing which the wanderer will often be in danger of perishing.
Seeing the hopeless character of these wastes, Mr.Hunt and his companions determined to keep along the course of the river, where they would always have water at hand, and would be able occasionally to procure fish and beaver, and might perchance meet with Indians, from whom they could obtain provisions.
They now made their final preparations for the march.

All their remaining stock of provisions consisted of forty pounds of Indian corn, twenty pounds of grease, about five pounds of portable soup, and a sufficient quantity of dried meat to allow each man a pittance of five pounds and a quarter, to be reserved for emergencies.

This being properly distributed, they deposited all their goods and superfluous articles in the caches, taking nothing with them but what was indispensable to the journey.

With all their management, each man had to carry twenty pounds' weight besides his own articles and equipments.
That they might have the better chance of procuring subsistence in the scanty region they were to traverse, they divided their party into two bands.

Mr.Hunt, with eighteen men, besides Pierre Dorion and his family, was to proceed down the north side of the river, while Mr.
Crooks, with eighteen men, kept along the south side.
On the morning of the 9th of October, the two parties separated and set forth on their several courses.