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April-June 1850 [ Messrs] Gunnison Carrington & myself slept. 23 & after drinking about half pint coffee each, there being no water upon this Island to make more, we crept off early, the tent was situated within a few feet of the lake & the roar of the waves as they dashed upon the rock bound coast, was very oceanic & to the lullaby of this wild music we sank to rest. Thursday April 18. At dawn the camp was stirring, & having has been before stated no water, we left without breakfast & steered for the S. E end of Promontory Range at which place Capt Stansbury designed to encamp. 24 By the time a meal could be prepared I was hungry to cannibal- ism, & wreaked a very devastating vengeance upon the meats spread at the Capts ample table. The remaining part of the day I spent in finishing some sketches. Mrss. [Messrs] Gunnison & Car- rington rejoined us at dusk after a long scientific ramble, they brought peices of alum &c also some botanical specimens which I duly placed in the herbarium2' Farmington, Utah, were using the island as a sheep range. A more important monument left by the Fremont party was a cross carved by Kit Carson into a rocky face of the summit. The cross can still be seen but was not mentioned by Fremont in his journal. Captain Stansbury recognized his military colleague by naming the island after Fremont as the "adventurous explorer . . . who first set foot upon the shores." Gwynn, Great Salt Lake, pp. 61-62; John Charles Fremont, The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, eds., Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), pp, 508-10; Morgan, Great Salt Luke, pp. 142-43; Kate Y. Noble, "A Great Adventure on Great Salt Lake," ed., David E. Miller, Utah Historical Quarterly 33 (1965):220; Stans- bury, Report, pp. 159-60. 23 At the camp on Fremont Island, Stansbury recorded "only one tent was pitched for Mr. G. who had had enough of sleeping out the night previous. The rest of us made a large & airy bedroom of the open canopy." The fact that Hudson was invited with Carrington to share the sleeping quarters was another indication that he was considered an equal in cultural and educational attainments to the two army officers and to Carrington who was awarded an "Esq." after his name by the captain. Stansbury, Journal, vol. 4, 17 April; Stansbury, Report, p. 480. 24 This was Camp No. 4 located on the shore of Alum Bay at the southern tip of Promontory Peninsula. The only water available at the camp was from a spring about two miles distant. Carrington, Journal, 18 April, p. 4; Stansbury, Journal, vol. 4, 18 April. 25 Hudson, in addition to his duties as "draughtsman" of the expedition was also the caretaker of the botanical, zoological, and geological specimens gathered. He evidently replaced Dr. James Blake who, as already indicated, had left the expedition earlier. See pt. 3, fn. 21. 135 |
