CHAPTER XI

A Race for Life—Colter Wins—The Missouri Fur Company—The American Fur Company—The Pacific Fur Company—A Great Project Foredoomed—Disaster at the Columbia Bar—The Destruction of the _Tonquin_—Hunt Starts for the Columbia Overland—The _Voyageurs_ Baulked—The Caldron Linn—Dog Steak at a Premium—Misery and Danger—Success at Last 193