242 JOHN C. FREMONT, 



very abrupt and covered with snow. The highest 

 point which he reached was nine thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea. At length the expedi- 

 tion ended its arduous labors on the 1st of May, 

 1854, and, passing down from the mountainous and 

 snowy regions among which they had so long toiled, 

 they entered the welcome bosom of the Valley of 

 San Joaquin, which led them out into the open 

 inhabited country, through a long, smooth passage 

 along which a wagon might travel, without the least 

 impediment or danger, for forty consecutive miles. 

 They reached the termination of their toils just in 

 time to avoid starvation ; for they had subsisted for 

 weeks on horse-meat, and their last supply of this 

 delicate nutriment had been entirely exhausted two 

 days previous to their attaining the confines of civil- 

 ization. Fremont had completed his explorations 

 and scientific investigations, commencing at the very 

 spot from which his guide had gone astray on his 

 fourth expedition ; thus evincing the singular con- 

 stancy and perseverance with which this great hero 

 of exploring science executed the high and daring 

 purposes of usefulness which he had once conceived. 

 The following description of the results of this 

 expedition by Colonel Fremont himself affords some 

 conception of the value of the fruits which ensued 

 from his labors : 



