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Show [ 174 J 228 tions. I told them that we had come from a very f~r cou~try, having been travelling now nearly a year, and thflt we were _destrou. .s s1mply to go across the mountain into the country of the other white ~ . 1 here were two who appeared pnt·ticularly intelligent-one, :1 somc\\-·hat old man. lie told me that before the snows fell, it was six sleeps to the place where the whites lived, but that now it was. impossible to cross the mountain on_ account of the deep snow; and showmg us, as. the others had done, th.at 1t wa~ over our he;H]s he uro-ed us strongly to follow the course of the nver, wl11ch he said l\f.<mld conduct us to a lake in which there were many lal'ge fish. There he aid were many people ; there was no snow on the !!:round; and w~ might 1'emain there until the• pring. }i rom their description , we wet e enabled to judge that we had cn<;amped on the upper water _of ~he Salmon Trout river. It is hardly necessary to s:1y that our commumcahon was only br sicrns as we understood nothing of their language ; but they spoke, not,~·ith~tat;ding, I?pidl}_' and veheme!1tly, explaining what they considered the folly of our mtenttOn ... , and urg1ng us to ~o down to the lake. Tah-ve, a "ord. f'lignifyino- snow, '' c very soon learned .to know, from its frequent repetition. I told him that the men and the horses were .slrong, and that \re \rould break a road t hroup;h the snow ; and spreadwg be· fore him our bales of scarlet cloth, and trinkets, showed him what. we would give for a guide. II was nccc .. sary to ohtain one, if ~ossib!c; _for I had determined here to attempt the pas ~ age of the mountam. .£ ullwg a bunch of grass from the ground, after a . hort cl iscus. ion among tbcmsclvcs, the old man made us comprehen<1, that if we could break through the . now, at the end of three day~ we \\ ould eo me down upon grass, which he showed us would be about six inches IJigh, and \vherc the ground was en· tirely free. So far, be said, he had bcc11 in hunting for elk ; but beyond t!Jat, (and he closed his eyes) he had seen nothing ; but there was onr. among them who had uecn to the whites, and, goin<r out of the lodge, h_e retur~)ed with a young man of vet)' intelli~cnt appearance. llcre, satd be, IS a young man who has seen the white<:~ with hi own eyes; and hr wo~·e, 1irst by the sky, and then by the ground, that what he said was true. Wtth a large present of goods, we preYailed upon this young_ m~t~ .to h~ our guide, and he acquired among us the name M(·lo-a word S'lgntfytng fn~nd~ which they used very frequently. IT e was thinly clad, and nearly bllrelaot' his moccasins being about worn out. \t\1 c gave him skins to make_ a new pair, and to enable him to perform his undertaking to us. The Indtansre· mained in the camp during the ni~ht, and " 'e kept the guide and two oth~rs to sleep in the lodge with us-Carson lying across the door, and. havtn~ made them comprehend the usc of our fire arms. The snow, whtch ha intermitted in the evening, commenced falling again in the cour~e of t~e night, and it snowed steadily all day. In the morning I acqua!nted t e men with my decision, and explained to them that necessity req_Uired us to make a great effort to clear the mountains. I reminded them of the bc~utiful valley of the Sacramento with which they were familiar from the e· scn·p h·o ns of Carson who had ' been there some fifteen years ago, an d whoJ in our hte privation~ had delighted us in speaking of its rich pastur?s an abounding game, and' drew a vivid contrast between its summer cluna~c, less than a hundred miles distant, and the falling snow around.us. I~~~ lormed them (and long experience had given them eonlidence 111 my t serva~ions .and good instruments) that almost directly west, an_d 0~11Y n~~~a 0 mtles dtstant, was the great fanning establishment of Captalll :-,uttc 229 [ 174 ] gentleman who had formerly lived in lV~iss?uri_, and, emigrating to thL country, bad become the posse ~nr of a prtnctpaltty. [ assured them that, from the heio-hts of the mountatu before u , we should doubtless sec the vall<'Y or th~ Sacramento river, and with one efl'ort place Ollr 'e lves again in the midst of plenty. The people rcceivctl this deci'3ion with the cheer· ful ohcd ie11ce which hacl always C'haractcrizcd them; and the day was immediately devoted to the p_reparatior_ls ncces~ary to ena~)l us to carry it into cil'cd. Lcp;gings, moccu~w s, clothtng-all were pu.,t mto t_he b~st stat~ to resifit the cold. Our gutde was not neglected. E.xtrerntty ot suffenng mio-ht make him desert; we therefore did the best we could for him. Leg· gi1~rs moccasins some articles oC elotbing, and a lar~e green blanket, in addt'ilt i'o n to the b'l ue and scarlet cloth, were lavt. s Il Ctl upon l H. m, anu'1 to h.1 s great and evident contentment. llc arrayed himself_in all h_is colors; a~d, clad in green, blue, and scarle t, he r~ade a gay-lookmg lndtan; and, w1th his various presents, was probably r 1ehcr and better elothcd than any of his tritJc had ever been before. I have already said that our p1 <.'visions were very low~ we had neither tallow nor grease of any kind remaining, anti t.he want ot salt. bc can~e one of our greatest privations. The poor dog whtch had been lound 1~ the Bear river valley, and \vhich had been a compagnon de no.')agc ever stn~e, had now become fat, and the m s. to which it belonged requested permission to kill it. Leave "as granted. Sprea(~ out on tl_1e snow, the meat looked very good; and it made a ·trengthentng meal ~or the _greater part of tho camp. Indians brought in two or three rabbtts dunng the day, which were purchased from them. . The river was 40 to 70 feet \vide, nnd now enttrcly frozen over. lt was wooded with large cotton wood, willow, and grain de bwttf. l3 y observa-tion, the latitude of this encampment was 38° 37' l "· . . Pebruary 2.-It had ceased ~mowing, and this .mormng the Lower auwas <·lear and frostv · and six or seven thousand feet above, the peaks of the Sierra now and. ti1en appeared amon~ the rollin~. clouds, which ~ere rapidly dispersing before the sun. Our Indian shook Ius head_ as he pom~ed to the icy pinnacles, shooting hi~h up into the sk)> and secmtnp; ai~H~st Immediately above us. Cr{Jssin~ the river on the tc_e, and leavtng tt tmiD:ediatcly, we commenced the ascent of the rnountam alon~ the valley of a tributary stream. The people were tttHt ually silent; fo.r every man knew that our enterprise was ha7.ardou ·, and the issuo doubtful. The snow deepened rapidly, and it soou he came nece sary to break a road. For this service, a party of tC'n wa~ formed, mount~d on the strongest horses; each man in succe sion open in~ the road on loot, or on h?rseback, until himself and his horse became fatigued, w_hen h_c st_cppcd aside; and, !he remaining number passing :lhead, he took hts statton tn the rear. I_ .... eavIng this stream, and pursuing a very direct course, we passed over an Intervening ridge to the river we had left. On the way we. passed two low huts entirely covered with sno'tv, which might very easily ~1ave cs~aped ob~ervation. A family was living; in each; and ~he only tratl J sa~ rn the ne1ghborhood was from the door hole to a nut-pane tree ncar, whtch supplied them with food and fuel. vV e fouJH.l two similar huts on the creek where we next arrived; and, tra\·e lling a little higher up, encamped on ~ts b_anks in about four feet depth of suow. Carson found near, ~m open h1ll stdc, where the wind and the sun had melted the snow, leavmg exposed sutlicicnt bunch grass for the animals to-night. |