MILES CANNON
10
Perces country, also in designating Reed, who accompanied McKenzie, as the one to retrace his steps to Caldron Linn for the goods which were cached there. The place where Mc-
Kenzie established his post was on a line of great travel, and ran in several directions from here; it was within a mile or so from the works where Lewis and Clark made their canoes on their outward journey, near where the Lolo trail descended from the Weippe camas fields and a general winter rendezvous for the Indians. It is quite probable, too, that trails
John Reed possessed a satisfactory knowledge of the trails when he consented to return to Caldron Linn and that he traveled the same route that landed them on the Clearwater the winter before. Another evidence which may have a bearing on the question is the fact that there was no other way to get through the mountains and precede the main party by a month. Returning now to the fate of our three Kentucky hunters Stuart left at Caldron Linn, Miller having made good
whom
to quit the country, it seems that they were unable to escape the pursuit of an evil spirit. After being outfitted by Stuart they trapped with varying success higher up the river awaiting the arrival of John Reed from the post at his intention
Nez Perces
in order to complete their
equipment for a two-
years' hunt. Having thus completed their arrangements they set out into the wilderness in quest of the beaver, while Reed,
head of his party, returned to the Clearwater. The following year, 1813, Reed was again detached and sent to the Snake country to trap beaver and search for the three hunters, whom he located late in September of that year. With his party of six voyagers and hunters, besides the squaw and at the
two children of Pierre Dorion, now augmented by the discovery of the three Kentucky woodsmen, Reed located his headquar-
mouth of the Boise. Having lost three of his men during the fall, he, early in the winter, dispatched Rizner at the head of a little party consisting of Leclerc, Dorion and family, to the South Fork of the Boise, a distance of about 100 miles from the Reed house. Between January 1st and
ters at the
