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Show INDIAN DEPBEDATIONS 61 land glisten in the sunlight, and under the transform-ations wrought by the western mirage are often mis-taken for bodies of water. " At the time of the massacre the present lake was marshy ground covered with flags, rushes and a rank growth of grass which extended well out to-wards the higher ground, thus forming an inviting, but dangerous nook. At the present time nothing re-mains of the willows on the east and west sides of the dead swamps. In other respects the place and its surroundings have nearly the same appearance as on that fateful afternoon when Captain Gunnison went into camp for the last time. " The scene of the tragedy has been thus min-ately described to enable the reader to more clearly understand why the Captain whose reputation for courage has never been questioned and his little band of brave companions failed to make even a sem-blance of resistance, and because no description of the place has heretofore appeared in print. Cap-tain Gunnison ' s brother, when the locality was de-scribed to him several years ago in Salt Lake City, said he had always imagined the place to be in, or near, the mouth of the canyon from which the river debouched upon the plain. " In the year of the massacre, 1853, Fillmore, was the capital of Utah, and the nearest settlement to the scene of the tragedy, being distant thirty- fivo miles southeasterly. A few of the old settlers yet re-main who remember the occurrence. Among the old-timers is Byron Warner, now residing at Oasis, and who is not only familiar with the incidents of the |
