They were going, they said, towards the mountains and there the
Frenchmen could look out on the great sea. So the story goes on.
The brothers advanced ever westward and the land became more
rugged, for they were now climbing upward from the prairie
country. At last, on January 1, 1743, they saw what both cheered
and discouraged them. In the distance were mountains. About them
was the prairie, with game in abundance. It was a great host with
which the brothers traveled for there were two thousand warriors
with their families who made night vocal with songs and yells. On
the 12th of January, nearly two weeks later, with an advance
party of warriors, the La Verendryes reached the foot of the
mountains, "well wooded with timber of every kind and very high."
Was it the Rocky Mountains which they saw? Had they reached that
last mighty barrier of snow-capped peaks, rugged valleys, and
torrential streams, beyond which lay the sea? That they had done
so was long assumed and many conjectures have been offered as to
the point in the Rockies near which they made their last camp.
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