OCR Text |
Show 197 the way. Now i n Garden Valley, Dame continued his implacable march toward the Grant Range. Dame called the v a l l e y Wibe Valley on account of the abundance of wibe grass they found in the southwestern p a r t , "which grows high and has seeds about half as l a r g e as a grain of wheat." Reaching the slopes of the Grant Range, which Dame now c a l l s Gray Head Mountain, tbe party camped for the night. Here they found plenty of grass and firewood but, disappointingly, no water. They had t r a v e l e d , according t o Martineau's estimates, twenty-two miles from t h e i r base camp a t the Desert Swamp.and t h i r t y - t h r e e miles since breaking camp t h a t morning a t Desert Spring Wells. In the morning the p a r t y again rose e a r l y and began searching south along the base of the mountain for a pass t o the western slope of Gray Head Mountain, hopefully a b e t t e r prospect than they bad yet found. For nine miles they picked their way among the f o o t h i l l s through dense pinon and cedar, f i n a l l y entering the mouth of a canyon for t h e i r ascent. This was, in a l l p r o b a b i l i t y , Rimrock Canyon, just below Troy Peak; but the explorers denominated i t Onion Canyon because of the abundance of wild onions they discovered growing around a nearby spring they had located a mile from i t s mouth. Martineau noted t h a t the canyon 12 "is full of the very b e s t of bunch grass and would s u s t a i n a great many animals."" The spring, Onion Spring, was a l s o capable of watering several thousand head of stock by making r e s e r v o i r s. After reaching the head of the canyon, the company r e s t e d while the u n t i r i ng Colonel Dame and a few others ascended another summit higher up in the range yet. But i t was Dame's i n t e n t i o n t o reach the very top of t h i s 11,000 foot mountain to make observations of a l l the surrounding country. Now only Dame, Martineau, and Johnson continued the a s s a u l t on t h e summit, leaving the others behind who declined t o go on. Leaving t h e i r animals behind, the t r i o struggled and clawed their way t o the p i n n a c l e . In p l a c e s , snow d r i f t s six feet deep and f u l l y ex- |