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April-June 1850 MoncIay May 27 As I was suffering from sore feet I resolved to accompany the skiff. We anticipated finding a channel amid numerous sand banks between the main shore & Dolphin Island,89 & by this reach a point S. to which C. expected to run his chain line. To our annoyance after several hours toil in dragging the skiff in water but a few inches deep, we concluded to return to our old encampment. We ran aground for the last time this trip when the sun was about an hour high, & stepping into the briny water which aggravates our sores most annoyingly we commenced packing such articles as were necessary to shore, the salt lay thickly on the ground in sharp clearly defined crystals, through ._ this encrustation, we slid into the slimy mud & we found it no easy task with a heavy load, to extricate our feet from these pit falls. We all felt pretty much used up, by the time the fire was lighted. We were soon after joined by Mr C. & his party & we detailed to his sceptical ear the reasons that compelled us like "The King of France with his ten thousand men Marched up a hill, then marched down again"9o to return to the old encampment. east by way of what came to be called the Hastings Cutoff and then turned back to Fort Bridger where he convinced some emigrants to let him guide them to California by way of his "new" route. It took this group seventeen hours to traverse the approximately seventy- five miles of salt desert to the springs of water at the base of Pilot Peak. Captain Stansbury had become acquainted with the route after his reconnaissance of it in late 1849 and knew whereof he spoke when he placed on his map of Great Salt Lake the "Pilot Peak Road to California" with the following explanation: "This desert consists of clay and sand impregnated with salt. When wet, it was the consistence of mortar. Lightly loaded wagons can pass between Spring Valley and Pilot Peak in the driest part of the season. Forage and water must be carried for cattle, and the journey begun through the night. Distance between springs 70 ms." Tuilla (Tooele) Valley lies just south and a little east of Stansbury Island at the south end of Great Salt Lake. Ibid., 26 May, pp. 22-23; Morgan, Great Salt Lake, pp. 154-73; Stewart, California Trail, pp. 104-55,165-68. 89 Dolphin Island is eleven miles northwest of Gunnison Island, three miles from shore, and directly east of the highest point in the Terrace Mountains. The island is about three-quarters of a mile long, one-third of a mile wide, and rises thirty-five feet above lake level. There are small cliffs on the north end and two necks of sand extending in a v-shape at the south end. The rock formation is chiefly "calconeous tufa-cemented conglomerate." Gwynn, Great Salt Lake, p. 62. 90 Like most of us, John Hudson had only a very general conception of the Rhymes of Mother Goose: "The King of France went up the hill With forty thousand men; The King of France came down the hill And ne'er went up again." |
