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Show [ 174 J 226 wou ld o-·t vc p1.e sct1ts of sc'a rlet cloth, anti othyoe r a.r11 ide.• , \\- h1-ich w1e re· ts ho\\n h 0 They looked at the reward we oi1ercu, anu eon crrec wttn each toht en~. l : ted to the c.;now on the mountain, and drew their hand .et cr, t)lu . ~o~ncl<~ and rais~d them above th e ir heads to show the depth; across 1en th. "> ~ ' . • 1 h , 'l a' n d st·r rnJ·•rJ. e(1 tl1at 1't was im}JOSstble ior us to ge t tI nong., . l I 1ey made · tt'll· t c 111 ust o-o to the southw~nd, over a pass t 1roug 'a ower range, stt"Yh·n sh tJha '"' >o o • 1 1 1· .r ' l 1 • w tc ey l 111· ed out·' there ' thcvJ sa1J, • at t 1e en< o one ua•. Y s travo, 1w e would find people who lived near a pa.ss 111 tl!e gre at ll10llnt 1 aw ; 1 anti to l1al pot· nt tl 1e v cno-·wcd to furni"h us a o-Ulde. fhey <tpprare< to lave a con· o' b ~ 0 . , t 1 · l 1· 1 fused ide~, from report, of whiles who ltveo on tne ot l''l' t<H (' . o tlc moun-tain . and once, they told us, abc~ut t.wo years a~o, a par1y ol twelve men like 'ourselves bad ascended theu· 1 rver, and ern"S<'o to the other w~tter~. ~rhey pointed out to us whet~e they had ~rosscd.; but theu,. they satd, .•~ was summ ,. time; but now tt would .he tm pos~ t b l t" . 1 bc· 1 lt evc 1 tkhat tlu~ was a part) led by .l\lr. Chil~ ~ , 01:e c1 the ?nl): t" o 11 c1.1 w, ~?n~ ·now to ha\ c passed through the Caldornw moun taw. f rot II the t n tcr 101 of. the Ba· ..in-Walker being the other; and botl1 were <_' ng(tged ~pw~rd s ol twenty ..:~,vs in the bummer time in o-ettinrr over. Chtle · ' ::; dc~tlllallon \Vas the bny ~J<· J ' • ' t) 0 of San Francisco to whiCh he de:::;cc rHlc•d by the S· LHH·~ l au::; n. ver ; <mt1 W a I I\·' cr subsequently i:1formed me that, like my · ·If, d csee r.Hiin~ tu the southward on a more eastern line, day after d-.1y he wa:) ·earcllln~ tor the ~3u~narcntura, thinkin;r that he had found it '" it1l ev<'ry ne'' stream, unttl , lllw. me, he abandoned all idea of its exi~tenec, and, turnino· abruptly to the nght, crossed tl1c great ehain . These we re both wc ...: tcn~ men, an.imated with the spirit of exploratory enterprise which eharade n zes that people ... The l11uians brou£"ht in durin<r the eve ning au ah t11Hbnt supply of pme nuts , "hich we traded from th~n. \Vlten roasted, th ir pleasant .f l.a vor made them an ~greeable addition to our now ·sca nt.r store of pro.vistons, which were reduced to a very low ebb. Our principal stock \\as 111 peas, which it is not necessary to '3ay contain scarcely any nutriment. . We l13d still a litll flour left, some coffee, and a qu:\ntity of sugar, wluch l re· scn•ed as a defence :1gainst starvation. . . The lndianb informed us that at certain sc<lson5 they have fish HI thetr waters which we su pposed to be salmon trout · for the rema inder of the ' , I . year they live upon the pine nut , which form their great \vinter suJSISt· ence-a portion being always at hand, shut up in the natural storehouse of the cones. At present, they were presented to us as a whole people Jiving upon this simple vegetable. The other division of the party did not come in to- night, but encamped in the upper n1eadow, and arrived the next morning. They h~d not su~· ceeded in f!;eUing the howitzer beyond the place mentioned,, and ~?er~ ~ had been left by Mr. Preuss in obedience to my orders; and, •.n an~tclpatw _ {)f the snow banks and snow ftelds still ahead, foreseeing the wev1table d~ tention to whic~ it would subject us,. I re~uctantly determined to leav\~ there for the ttme. It was of the ktnd mvented by the French for l. mountain part of thei1· war ii1 Algiers · and the distance it had come wtt 1~ us p~oved how well it was adapted to 'its purpose. We left it, to the gr~a sor~ow of the whole party, who were grieved to part with a companJ~~ wh1ch had made the whole distanre from St. Loui ·, and commanded 1~ Bpect for us on some critical occasions, aud which might be needed fort e !lame purpose again. January 30.-0ur guide, who was a young man, joined us this morn· 227 [ 174 J ing; and, lcavin~our encampme.nt.latc in the day, we descended the river~ which immediately opened out mto a hrnnd valfcy, furnishincr good tra\'elling n·round. In a short di:.;tance \Ve passed the \'illa~e, ; ~-oll(:ction of ~ ., straw hut ; and a few m ilcs be low, the guide pointed out the place where the whites h<1J been encamped br l'or they entered the mountain. With our late start we made but ten mile~, and eneampcd on the low river bottorn, where there w a~ no snow, l)llt a g rea t deal of icc ; and we cut piles of long grass to lay under our bl ankets, and tire. were made or large dry willows, groves o{ which \Vood ed the stream. The river took hrre a northeasterly direction, ancl through a :-;pur from the mountains on the left wa ~ the gap where we were to p,tss the 1 c·xt day. Jmltwry :31.--\,Y e took our way over :1 !Sent ly risi n (r ground, the dividing ridge being tolerably low ; and trav e lling easily along a broad trail il'l twelve or fourteen miles reached the upper part of the pa s, when it began to snow thickly, with very cold \\'Cathe r. The Indians had only tile usual scan ty coveri11g, and appcarC'd to ·tl!I'er greatly from the cold. All left .tis, f. Xt.:epl our gn ide. I 1 ul f h idde11 by the storm, the mountains looked dreary; and, as night bcg·an to u pproach, the guide showed great reluctance to go forward. J placed him lwtW('Cn two rilles, for the way began to be difficult. Travelling a little farther, we struck a ravine, which the Indian said wonld c·orH.luct us to the river; and a, the poor fellow suffered greatly,. shiverin~r in the snow whieh fell upon his naked skin, I would not detain him a11y lon'rc r ; and he ran oil' to the mountain, where he said rhere was a hut ncar by. Tie had kept tbc blue and scarlet cloth I had given him tighly rolled t1p, pre l'errinM rather to endure the cold than to get them wet. In the course of the ai'ternoon, one of the men had his foot frost bitten ; and about dark we had the :;,atisfilction to reach the bottoms of a strean1 timbered with large trees, among which we found a sheltered camp, with an abundance of such grass as the season afforded for the animals. We saw before us, i tl d cscending from the pas::s, a great continuous range, along wbicf1 stretcl1ed the valley of the river· the lower parts steell and dark with pines h'l I ) ) J ~· 1 e at>ove it was hidden in clouds of snow. This we felt inst.antly satis- JICd Wil$ the central ridcre of the Sierra Nevada the rrreat California moun-t . 1' 0 ' b am, w nch only now intervened between us nnd the waters of the bay. We had made a forced march of 26 miles, and three mules had ~iven out on: the road. Up to this point, with the exception of two stolen by lndian9~ ':·chad lost none of the horses which had been brought from the Columbia. nver, and a number of these were still strong and in tolerably good order .. We had now 67 animals in the band. We had scarcely lighted our Jires, when the camp was crowded with n?~rly naked Indians; some of them were furnished with long nets in arldtho~ to bows, and appeared to have been out on the sage hills to hunt rabbtts. These nets were perhaps 30 to 40 feet long, kept upright in the ground by slight sticks at intervals, and were made from a kind of wild ~en~p, verr much resembling in mannfacture those commc 1\ among the ndtans ot the Sacramento valley. They came among u~ without any ffa'.'' and sc.attered themselves about the fires, mainly occupied in ~ratifying t letr astontshment. I was struck by the singular appear:uh~(· of a row of about a dozen, who were sittin~ on th eir haunches perched on a log near on~of ;he fires, with th eir q 11ick. sharp eyes. follo."ving e~rry uwl ~tln. h l<.I e t?athered together a few of the most Intelligent ol tllC indwns, and e thts evening an interesting council. I explained to them my inten- |
