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Show 149 Johnson. Here they found good grass and water and cedar for fuel. During the night, the rain turned to snow, and water froze in t i n cups. The morning brought an even heavier snowfall, as camp got underway at 9 o'clock. The snow continued throughout the day making i t cold and dreary for the men. It was somewhere in t h i s canyon that the explorers picked up two "tame" Indians who agreed to go along as guides. These Indians, unlike their Nevada cousins, were familiar with the white man and were unafraid. As the company pressed further up the canyon, they found themselves in a country thick with cedar and pinon pine^ Martineau noted that i t was "here the Indians gather pine nuts."3b The t r a i l of the Forty-niners was found again among the cedars. Here and there the trees had been cut away t o make a passage for the 37 wagons.-" In the afternoon, the explorers reached the summit of the divide which they called the "rim of the basin. "3" They now began their descent in a southwest direction near the present Utah-Nevada border. With an eye out for anything that might be of use to the people of Utah, Martineau carefully noted that strong indications of lead were visible in several red buttes they passed. It was in this area that Bennett proved his worth as a guide by steering the company to the north of Beaver Dam Wash which had proved to be such a formidable barrier to the Death Valley company. Asahel Bennett loved to tell of his experiences as a member of the ill-fated Death Valley company. Martineau wrote: Mr. Bennett gave us the story around our evening camp fires, and as we followed the trail of the lost company for more than a hundred miles, and found pieces of wagons, rusted tools, wagon-tires, and bits of rotton [sic] clothing, it gave his story interest to our minds, that time can never efface, and keeps it still fresh in the memory, as when told to us thirty- |