CHAPTER XXXVI.
Mr.Hunt Overtakes the Advance Party .-- Pierre Dorion, and His Skeleton Horse .-- A Shoshonie Camp .-- A Justifiable Outrage .-- Feasting on Horse Flesh .-- Mr.Crooks Brought to the Camp .-- Undertakes to Relieve His Men .-- The Skin Ferry- Boat .-- Frenzy of Prevost .-- His Melancholy Fate.-Enfeebled State of John Day.-Mr.Crooks Again Left Behind.-The Party Emerge From Among the Mountains .-- Interview With Shoshonies .-- A Guide Procured to Conduct the Party Across a Mountain .-- Ferriage Across Snake River .-- Reunion With Mr Crook's Men .-- Final Departure From the River.
ALL that day, Mr.Hunt and his three comrades travelled without eating.
At night they made a tantalizing supper on their beaver skin, and were nearly exhausted by hunger and cold.

The next day, December 10th, they overtook the advance party, who were all as much famished as themselves, some of them not having eaten since the morning of the seventh.

Mr.Hunt now proposed the sacrifice of Pierre Dorion's skeleton horse.

Here he again met with positive and vehement opposition from the half-breed, who was too sullen and vindictive a fellow to be easily dealt with.

What was singular, the men, though suffering such pinching hunger, interfered in favor of the horse.
They represented that it was better to keep on as long as pos-sible without resorting to this last resource.