Show 63 men wandered far southward to avoid hostile Indians and eventually trapped on a stream that they said discharged its waters into the Pacific at a point far south of the Columbia Says Irving:11 After leaving Mr Hunt's party they had made their way about two hundred miles to the southward where they to their trapped beaver on a river which according account discharged itself into the ocean to the south of the Columbia but which we apprehended to be Bear River a stream emptying itself into Lake Bonneville an immense body of salt water west of the Rocky Mountains If these men really struck and trapped the Bear river it is highly probable that they followed to its mouth found the water to be salty and concluded that they had reached the sea Since they did not realize that they had discovered a n ew lake no importance was attached to their discovery Since this "discovery" like it sufficient evidence many others is not supported by too must be calssified as merely a Hoback Miller that belief Chittenden expresses possibility Robinson and Rezner visited the Great Salt Lake12 During the summer of 1824 Ashley's Rocky Mountain trappers were divided into two groups and dispatched beyond the mountains to operate on streams flowing westward supposed ly toward the Pacific Jedediah Smith headed one group which turned to the north into the Snake river country The other Irving Astoria 11 Washington 375 Fur Trade IP Chittenden American mmhhbmmimotmw 9 I 207 |