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April-June 1850 tams yet comparatively little falls in the valley, the storm spending its fury in the mountains. The temperature has become much cooler & having sent part of our bedding to the City we do not sleep so comfortably as hitherto. I occupied myself in drawing, keeping in the tent all day.85 Friday May 24. Supposing that a long walk would remove indi- cations of approaching sickness, I started with Cherry upon a reconnaisance, we anticipated being able to reach a small rocky Island about 7 miles distance. It was pleasantly cool with a breeze from N W. We found it contrary to our anticipation surrounded by water carried in by the breeze & after wading about an hour we returned without having discovered a spot to which we could move camp to a better position with certainty.86 This is our 14th encampment. Saty. May 25. One of Mr C. men being unwell I accompanied him to assist on the line. We had a distance of about 6 miles to travel to the picket at which he left off. We found the ground which yesterday was covered with water was now dry leaving a saline deposit sometimes 1/2 inch in thickness covering the ground in prettily shaped crystals. In the afternoon we had a few heavy 85 While Hudson tended camp, Carrington and his men chained "6 miles & 666 ft.," covering seventeen miles in the process. He complained that "it is the excessive unhandiness to the work, from scarcity of water, that makes it so slow and tedious" and continued that he could accomplish two or three times as much under more favorable circumstances-" Ibid., 23 May, p. 19. 86 Carrington, in an unaccustomed three pages of diary entry, explained at length that because of the unceasing shortage of water and the murky atmosphere, "I hardly know what is the best course." He doubted that the survey to delineate the water line could be very accurate because by the time of completion of the triangulation "in these places it varies more with the winds & seasons that in any other, shifting even now, by the force of wind alone, in some spots more than 2 miles within the small time of 12 hours.-" Hoping that he might learn something by a view from nearby Dolphin Island, he "detached Mr. Hudson & 1 hand [J. Cherry], with spy glass & instructions to reconnoiter & make sketch of the isle," while he waited with the purpose of climbing a nearby peak if the atmosphere cleared. Then, he recorded, "Mr. Hudson returned about 2 p.m. having been too unwell with the bowel complaint to go to the isle-Cherry returned about 4 p.m. reporting that he waded in line of isle till the water was knee. deep, then backed out." Carrington was upset that the two men had not reached Dolphin Island and said of Cherry "not being energetic enough . . . he returned as wise as he went." Ibid., 24 May, pp. 19- 21. 163 |
