OCR Text |
Show 88 TRAVELS AND ADVENTUEES IN THE FAE WEST. mountain, gaining fresh impetus as they descended, unable to stop themselves. The bales of buffalo robes, half buried in the snow, lodged against an old pine tree, the blankets scattered everywhere; my boxes of daguerreotype materials uninjured, although buried in the snow. Considerable time was occupied in searching after them. I found myself standing up to my eyes in snow, high up the mountain, witnessing this curiously interesting, although disastrous accident; for, when we collected ourselves and animals together, we found that one mule and one horse were killed. This scene made a deep impression upon me. Night came upon us before we were ready to leave the spot. We camped on the same place of the night before. A snow storm commenced raging, which detained us in this situation for another day; when, determined to cross the' mountain, we all recommenced the ascent, and successfully arrived, though much exhausted, without further accident, at the top, and encamped on its summit in snow four feet deep. That night the thermometer sank very low, and the men stood to their waists in snow, guarding the animals to prevent their running away in search of grass, or something to eat. We descended the mountain the next day. Our tent poles, belonging to the large lodge, were broken by their contact with the trees in the winding path. The lodge, afterwards, became useless, and the men, myself among them, had to sleep out upon the open snow, with no covering but our blankets, etc. |