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Show CAPT. GUNNISON CUTS CEOS6ES ON TEEES. 81 shooting for the last time at this camp. Game of all kinds which had hitherto been plentiful, disappeared almost'entirely after we left it. We travelled up the San Louis Valley, crossing the Rio Grande del Norte, and entered the Sarawatch Valley through a perfectly level pass. Our journey continued along the valley until we came to the Cocho-tope, .where we camped. That night it snowed on us for the first time. The snow obliterated the wagon tracks of Capt. Gunnison's expedition, but Col. Fremont's unerring judgment conducted us in the precise direction by a general ascent through trackless, though sparsely timbered forests, until we approached the summit, on which grew an immense numbers of trees, still in leaf, with only about four inches of snow on the ground. As we approached this dense forest, we soon perceived that the axe of the white man had forced a passage through for a wagon-road. Many of the larger trees on both sides of the track were deeply cut with a cross, as an emblem of civilization, which satisfied us that Capt. Gunnison and Lieut. Beale had penetrated through to the other side. In this forest, we were surrounded by immense granite mountains, whose summits were covered probably with everlasting snow. The streams from them which had previously been running towards us, now took the opposite direction, supplying us with the gratifying proof that we had completed our travel to the summit, and were now descending the mountains towards the Pacific. After issuing from these woods we camped on the edge of a rivulet. At this camp Col. Fremont exhibited such unmistakable marks of consideration for me, that it induced 4* |