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Show [ 174 ] 236 Febn.wry 21.-W c now consic~ercd ourscl ves victorious over the moun. t a1· n ., lu•t vitwt- onlv~ the descent bef. ore us, and the.1 valley u13n der1 o · ur eyes, we f lt slronO' hope that we should Ioree our w;1y uown. ut t 11s wa:s a case .e which ~he descent was not facile. Still deL'P fields of now lay between, m 0 there was a larcre intervening space of rough-looking mountains, tbrourr~ awnh ich w~) had yeto to wt. nd our way. (.'~ ~lrson rou.se d me t 111 · s mornt·n g wl·tn an eady fire, and we were all up !on~ before day:, m order t.o pass tl.te snow fields before the sun should render the crust soft. We enJ~ycd thts mor~. ing a scene, at sunrise, which even here Wtl~ unusually glonous and ~eautt. ful. Immediately above the eal'tern mount~ms was repeated a cloud-lonned mass of purple ranges, bordered with bright yell_ow gold_; the P.eaks s~ot up into a narrow line of crimson cloud, abo~c wl11ch the ntr ~va. hllcd wtth .. rr1·eenish or"ln"e · and over all was the sm0rrular beauty of the blue ky. nb L b' ~ . • . Passing along a ridge which commanded the lake on our l'l';ht, ol whtch we bcn·an to discover an outlet throuc;h a chasm on the we, t, we passed over alternating open ground and han~-crust.ed sn?w fields ~~1icl.1 support· ed the animals and encamped on the ndp.;c after a JOUrney ot 6 mtlcs. The grass was bettdr than we had yet seen, an_cl we \~ere _cncamp~d in a clump of trees twenty or thirty feet high, resc·rnblrng whtte ptne. W tth the cxcep· tion of these small clumps, the ridges were bare; and, where tbe snow found the support of the trees, the wind had blown it up into b:~nk" ten or fifteen feet high. It required much care to hunt out a practtcable way, as the most open places frequently led to impassable banks. \Ve had hard and doubtful labor yet before u , as the snow nppeared to be heavier where the timber began further clown, with few open spots. Ascending a height, we traced out the best line we could discover fort~e next day's march, and had at least the consolation to sec that t~lC m~untatn descended rapidly. The day had been one of April ; gusty, w1th a lew oc· casional flakes of snow; which, in the afternoon, enveloped the upper mountain in clouds. We watched them anxiously, as now we dreade~a snow storm. Shortly afterwards we heard the roll of thunder, and, lookmg towards the valley, found it all envelopeu in a thunder storm. For us,as connected with the idea of summer, it had a singular charm; and we watc~· edits progress with excited feelillgs until nearly sunset, when t.hr skycleal· ed ofl' brightly, and we saw a shinint~ line of water directing tts course to· wards another, a broader and larger sheet. We knew that these c~uld be no other tha.n th.e Sacramento an(_l the bay of San Francisco; but, alter ~ul~ long wandenng tn rugged mouutaws, where so frequently we had met"tt disappointments, and where the crossi n rr of c very ridge displayed some un· known lake or river, we were yet almo~t af1 aid to believe that we were at last to escape into the genial country of which we had heard ~o many glowing descriptions, and dreaucd :1gain to find some vast intenor lake, whose bitter waters would bring us disa1)pointment. On the southern shore of what appeared to be the ba..y. could be traced the gleaming 1·m e ~v here e~tereu another large stream ; and again the Buena ventura rose up 10 our mmds. C arson had entered the valley nlono- the southern side of the ba y, an d~ mem l) er· c d per f ectly to have crossedt.-, the mouth of a very 1a t· g c stre.a m, 1 . which they had been obliged to raft · but the country then was so enttrc Y covered .w ith w.a ter from snow and r:ain ' that he had been able to form no correct un pressiOn of watercourses. vVe had the satisfaction to know that at least there were people below. 237 [ 174 ] F1'1. 8 were lit up in the ·valley just at night, appearing to be in answer to .e. and these signs of life renewed, in some measure, the gayety of the ouJs' 1'hey apJJeared so ncar, that we .iudged them to be among the tim-bcaemropf. some of the ne!ghuon. ng 'd b h • h l . . n. gcs; ut, avrng t em constant .Y 1n vtev.· da after day, and mght after mg~t, we afterwards found them .to be fires thit had been kindled by the Jndtans among the tulares, on the shore of the bay, SO miles distant. Amon()' the very few plants that appeared here, was the common blue flax. T~-nit!:ht, a mu]e was killed for food. Febntary 2~.-0ur breakfast was over _long before day. We took ~dvantage of the coolness of the early mornmg to ~et over the snow, whJCh to-day occurred in very deep banks among the tun be~·; hut_ we se.arched out tiw coldest pl<tces, and the animals passed ~ucces_sfnlly w1th theJr .load.., the hard crust. Now and then, the delay of mal{ln~ a road occaswned much labor and loss of time. In the after part of the day, we saw before us a handsome grassy rid ere point; and, making a desperate push over a snow ficlcl 10 to 15 feet d~cp, we happily succeeded in getting the camp across; and encamped on the riogc, after a march of t~ree mile_s. We had 1 again the prospect of a thunder storm below.; and to-mght we lolled anothe1 mule-now our only resource from starvation. We satisfied ourselves durincr the d<l)' that the lake had an outlet between two ranges on the right 7 and with this, the creek on which 1 had encamped probably effected a junction below. Between the 'C~ we were descending. We continued to enjoy the same deli~htful weather; the sky of the same beautiful blue and such a sunset and sunrise as on our Atlantic coast we could scarccl/imagine. And here among the moun~ains, 9,~00 feet above the sea, we have the deep-blue sky and sunny clunatc ot Smy_rna snd Palermo , which a little map before me shows arc in the same .l ;..tttude. The elevation above the sea, by the boiling point, is 8,565 leet. . February 23.-This was our most diificult day: we were forced ofi the ridges by the quantity of snow amon~ the timber, and obliged to take to the mountain sides, where, occa~ionally, 1 orks and a southern expos~u·e affo~ ded us a chance to scramble along. But these ~ere steep, a_nd_shppery Wtth snow and ice· and the tQugh everrrreens of the mountcun Impeded our way, tore our sicins and exhausted o~r patience. Some of us had th misfortune to wear moc~asins with parj!Cche soles, so s1ippery that we could not keep our feet, and generally crawled across the snow beds. Axe c~nd mauls w.e1 e necessary to -day, to make a road tbrough . the snow. Gomg a~cad Wtth Carson to reconnoitre the road, we reachod m the afternoon the ll\'er which made the outlet of the lake. Carson sprang over, clear across a place where the stream was compressed among rock~, ?nt thr p~rjleche s~leof my moccasin glanced from thP icy rock, and prectpttatcd. ~ne mto the rtvcr. lt was some few seconds before 1 could recover myself 1n the current, and Carson thinking me hurt jumped in after me, and we both had ~n icy bath. \V ~ tried to sea reb a ~~hile for my gun, which had been lost 10 the fall, but the cold drove us out ; and making a large fire on the bank, aftel' we had partially drierl oursehrcs we went hack to mccl ~he can_1p. ~Vc ?flerwards found that the e;un had been slung uudcr the 1cc wl11ch tnccJ.thc banks of tbe rrec l.. 1 Usmgour old plan of br0ak in o· the road with alternate hon:JC~: we reached t \e creek in the evening~ and c~camped on a dry open place in the ravine. |
