| OCR Text |
Show [ 174 J ·240 depended on finding it to-.night. They were in just such a condition that (rrass and repose for the ntgbt enabled them to get on the next day. Every hour we had been expecting to sec open out before us the valle~, which, from the mountain above, seemed alm~st at our f~et. A new an~1 smgular shrub, which had made its appearance since crossmg the mountam, was very frequent to-day. It branched out near th~ ground, ~orming a clutllp eight to ten feet high: with pale-green leaves. of :.t~1 oval lorm , and the. bo~ly and branches had a naked appearance, as tf stnppcd of t.he bark, wluch ts very smooth and thin, of a chocolate color, contrasting well with the pale green of the leaves. The day was nearly gone ; we had made a hard day's march, and found no grass. 'f'owns became ligh~-headed, wandering oiT.into the woods without knowing where he was gotng, anll Jacob urou~ht lure back. Ncar night-fall we descended into ~he s tc ~p ravine of a handsome cre~k -thirty feet wide, and 1 was engaged m gettm& the horses up the oppostte hill when l heard a shout from Cal'son, who had gone ahead a few hundred yards-" Life yet," said be, as he came up," life yet; 1 have found a hill side spr in lded with grass enough for the mghL" W c drove along our horses and encamped at the place about dark, and there was just room enotwl'l to make a place for sbcltcr on the edge of the stream. Three horse~ were lost to-day-Provcau ; a fine young horse from the Columbia, belonging to Charl!'s Towns; and another Jndian horse which carrie.d.our cooking utensils; the two former gave out, and the latter stlaycd oll rnto the woods :-~s we reached the camp. Ftbruary 29.-\\r e lay shut up in the narrow ravine, and gave the a~i· mals a necessary day ; and n1en were sent back after the others. Dcrosrer volunteered to bring up Proveau, to whom he knew 1 was greatly atlach· ed, as he had been my favorite horse on both expeditions. Carson and I climbed one of the uearest mountains ; the forest land still extended ahead, and the valley appeared as far as ever. The pack horse was found near the camp, but Derosier did not get in. . March ].-Derosier did not get in during the night, and leaving hun to follow, as uo grass remained lrerc, we continued on over the uplands, cross· ing many small streams, and camped again on the river, having .ma~e 6 miles. Here we fon the hill side covered (although lightly) wtlh Jr~sh green grass ; and from this time forward we found it always improvwg and abundant. \\'c made a pleasant camp on the river hill, where were some b~auliful specimens of the chocolate-colored shrub, wl1ich were a foot in drarueter ncar the ground, and fifteen to twenty feet high. The oppositr rid~e r.uns continuously ~dong, unbroken by streams. We arc rapidly dcsrcndlllgrnt.o the spring~ and we are leaving our snowy region far beh incl ; every .t111ng rs getting green; butterfiies arc swarm illg; numerous bugs are crc'<!p~ng ?ut, wakened from their winter's sleep ; and the f01 est flo\v ers arc comrng wto bloom. Among those which .tppeared most numerously to-day wasdode· ca.theon denlatum. We began to be uneasy at Derosier's absence, fcari11g he might h:1."~ he en bewildered in th(' \\ oods. Child< s Towns who had uot yet reco''crc his 1~1 ind, went to swilll in tbe 1 iver, as if it wdre ,'tllnmer, and the strc~11 plac•Jd, when it was n eold lllOllt•taiu loncnt foamill~ amon:~ l(h:ks . . ~ ~ wero bappy to f.i<'e D 1 o~ier appear in the <JYCning. 11(· f'illll<: in, and~ 81111; 1 " down by the fir~, b<;g.ul lo tC'll u~ \dwre he had !Jc<:tl. Ile ima~In~;lc;~ had been gone ~{1\'CI al dayu, and thought we "'ere still ~~t the cawp w 1 241 [ 174 ] h had left us · and we were pained to see that his mind was deranp;rd. It e ared that lJe had been lost in the mountain, and hun•r('r and fJ.tigue, a· p·p e d to weakness of body, an< I f ear o f pcn.s n1 t• ng t• n t I1 e mouutat.n s, Iw .d JcOrtanz ce d him. The times wer c severe'"' I~ en stout men I ost t I ae .t r nu.n d s f rom extremity of suff('ring-whrn hor. cs dt.cd-and when mules and horses, ready to die o~ st.arvation, were lolle<.l for fooJ. Y ct there was no mur-muring or hcsttatwn. . . . A short distance below our encampment, the nvcr mountatns termtnatcd in precipices, and, after a f~ltiguing. march of only a few mii<'S, we encamped on a bench wltere tbere wet c spnng and an abundance of th~ freshest grass. In the mean tirne, l\1r. Pre uss co~1tinued on down the nv ~· r, ~nd, unaware that we had encamped so early tn the day, was lost. When r11ght arrived, and he did not come in, 'vc began to und cr~ tand what had happened lo him· but it was too L1te to make any search. IIIarch 3.-\ve follow ed .l\1 1. Preuss's trail for a considerab le distance along the ri ver, until we reached a place where he . had descended to. the stream below and enca m pcd. [I ere we sll outed and ltred guns, but 1 ccet ved no answer· and we concluded that he had pushed on down the ~trcam . I detenninc<i to keep out from the riV('r, along which it was nearly impracticable to travel with ::tnimals, until it should form a valley. At every tcp the country iu 1Jrovcu in bea11ty; the pines were rapid ly di appNl.ring,. ~~nd oaks bec:uuc the principal trees of the fore st. Among the. c, the prev·11ltng tree was the ever~reen oak, (which, by way of dLtinction, we shall !'all the live oalc ;) and with thcse,occurred frequently a new spee.i~·s of o ·1k hcari.ng a loner slender acorn from an inch to an inch and a half 111 length, wluch we n~w be~an to eo' formed the principal vegclahle food of the inh ab itants of this region. In a short distance we cro"c;cu a little rivulet, where were two old huts, and ncar by were heaps of acorn hulls. The ground round about was very rich, covered wilh an exuberant sward of hr ass; and we sat u own for a w h i I e i n t h c s h ad c of the oaks, to l e t the an i m. d ~ fc e d . \V c repeated our shouts for Mr. Preuss; nnd this time we were ~ratified with an answer. The voi 'e grew rapidly nearer, ascending from the river; hut when we expected to sec him cmer~e, it ceased entirely. \Ve had called up some straggling Indian-the first we had met, although for two days back we had seen tracks-who, mistaking us for his [(>How$, had been. only u~dcceived on getting close up. It would have bC'en ple:1sant to wttncss bts astonishment; he would not hare been more frigl tcned had some of the old mountain spirits they are so mneh afraid of suddenly appeared .i~l his path. Ignorant of the character of these people, we had now nn addthonal cause of uneasiness in rC'gard to 1\Ir. Preuss ; he had no arms 't~ith ~im, and We began to think his chance doubtful. We followed on a tratl, strll keeping out from the river, and descended to a very brge creek, dashin<r with g~cat velocity over a pre-eminently rocky bed and among lar~~ boulders. 1.hc bed bad uuden breaks, formed by deep holes :.llld ledges of rock runntngacross. Even hPre it deserves the name of Rock creek, which we gave to it. 'Nc suc<'ecded i~ fordin•r it and toiled about three thousand feet up th.c opposite hill. The mount~in~ now were grttin~ sensibly lower-; but ~till there is no valley on the 1 iver, which prest• ~t steep and rocky banks; tut he.rc, sevctal miles from the river, the CO'Jlltry is s.m. oth and grassy; he_foresthas no undergrowlh; and in the open valleys olnvulct5,or around ~Prtng heads, the low groves of live oak give tbe appcaratH'e of orchards ln an old cultivated country. Occasionally we met deer, but had not the 16 |
