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Show 120 SALT LAKE CITY- INDIAN TRADING PARTT. CHAPTER VH. TERMINATION OP THE FIELD- WORK OP 1849- A WINTER AMONG THE MORMONS. UPON my arrival at Salt Lake City, I found that the canip, under Lieutenant Gunnison, was then about sixty miles to the southward, upon Utah Lake. I accordingly joined him as soon as possible. The work, during my absence, had been carried forward by that officer with energy, industry, and judgment. I had hoped, from the representations which had been made to me of the mildness of the two previews winters, that we should be able to keep the field the greater part, if not the whole of the season; but, in the latter part of November, the winter set in with great and unusual severity, accompanied by deep snows, which rendered any farther prosecution of the work impracticable. I was therefore compelled to break up my camp, and to seek for winter quarters in the city. These were not obtained without some difficulty, as the tide of emigration had been so great that houses were very scarce, and not a small portion of the inhabitants, among whom was the president himself, were forced to lodge portions of their families in wagons. Upon terminating the field- work for the season, I despatched three men, one of whom was my guide and interpreter, with a small invoice of goods, to trade for horses among the Uintah Utahs, with directions to await my orders at Fort Bridger. Reports afterward reached us that a bloody fight had taken place between the Sioux and the Yampah Utahs, which latter tribe reside in the vicinity of the Uintahs, and great fears were entertained that the little party had been cut off" by one or the other of the contending tribes. Such a calamity, aside from the loss of life, would have been of serious consequence to the expedition, as the horses I expected to obtain were almost indispensable to the return of the party to the States, the number of our animals having been much diminished by death and robbery. It may as well be mentioned here, that the party thus despatched subsequently joined me in the spring, as soon as the melting of the snows rendered communication with Fort Bridger prac- |