Overland route to California, description of the route, via Council Bluffs, Iowa: keeping the north side of the Platte River for the whole of the distance, lying near that stream, thence over the South Pass via the great Sublette and Bear River cut-offs, and the Truckee river road, over the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento Valley

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N EV.ADA CITY, uPPER CALIFORNI.t, JJece;nber lOth, 1850. DEAR BROTHER : . The following pnges, which I send you, I have copied with much care from a daily record kept of the road and trip, and its correctness I will vouch for. The absence of any reliable guide­book, was a source of much inconvet1ience to the emigration o'f last season. Had the emigration .known, at all times, the distance between graz­ing and watering places, and also the region where poisonous water abounds, their losses jn stock would have been comparntively slight. I here give the distances between those places, and advise where to cut grass, to assist upon the barren stretches, where none will be found.­Having travelled in the midst of an emigration, among whom, from different causes, mostly aria­ing from an improper outfit, there was much suf­fering, I believe I am able to give some useful ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS. I will premise with the hint that the trip across the plains and mountains, is one of toil and hard­Rhips, and, with the best outfit, it would be a dif­ficult matter indeed to metamorphose it into a