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Show 14 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. To quote from Irving: " On the 24th July, 1833, by his ( Captain Bonneville's) orders, a brigade of forty men set out from Green River Valley to explore the Great Salt Lake. They were to make the com-plete circuit of it, trapping on all the streams which should fall in their way, and to keep journals and make charts, calculated to impart a knowledge of the lake and the surrounding country. All the resources of Captain Bonneville had been tasked to fit out this favorite expedition. The country lying to the south-west of the mountains, and ranging down to Califor-nia, was as yet almost unknown ; being out of the buffalo range, it was untraversed by the trapper, who preferred those parts of the wilderness where the roaming herds of that species of animal gave him comparatively an abundant and luxurious life. Still it was said the deer, the elk, and the big- horn were to be found there; so that, with a little dili-gence and economy, there was no danger of lacking food. As a precaution, however, the party halted on Bear River and hunted for a few days, until they had laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison; they then passed by the head- waters of the Cassie River, and soon found themselves launched on an immense sandy desert. Southwardly, on their left, of exultation in being the first individual that had crossed, north of the settled provinces of Mexico, from the waters of the At-lantic to those of the Pacific, with wagons. Mr. William Su-blette, the enterprising leader of the Rocky Mountain Fur Com-pany, had two or three years previously reached the valley of the Wind River, which lies on the northeast of the mountains ; but had proceeded with them no further." ( Bonneville's Adven-tures, rev. ed., p. 61.) |