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not survive. He requested
that two volunteers stay with
Glass until he expired. As
compensation for the dan-
ger involved and their sub-
sequent service as a burial
detail, Henry offered an
"extravagant reward."
Sources generally con-
cur that John Fitzgerald
volunteered for this task.
Circumstantial evidence
suggests that his part-
ner was Jim Bridger, but
supporting documenta-
tion is paper-thin. Yount
and Cooke characterize
this person simply as a
youngster of seventeen.
In commentary pertain-
ing to this point, Myers
Myers notes that Bridg-
er was apparently the
"only member of either
of Ashley's first two expe-
ditions who wasn't at least
twenty-one." Flagg iden-
tified this shadowy figure
as "Bridges." Hiram Martin
Chittenden, the pioneer-
ing fur trade historian, later
concluded that the trapper in
question was, indeed, Bridg-
er, based primarily on data
from Joseph La Barge, a former
steamboat captain. However,
J. Cecil Alter, author of James
HIS INCREASED
BLOOD VOLUME
AND IMPROVED CIRCULATION ACCELERATED
THE HEALING PROCESS, BUT HUGH'S BACK
WOUND, WHICH HE COULD NOT REACH,
BECAME INFESTED WITH MAGGOTS.
