256 JOHN C. FREMONT. 



was not disappointed in my expectation. The first 

 range we attempted to cross carried us to an eleva- 

 tion of eight thousand or nine thousand feet and 

 into impassable snow, which was further increased 

 on the 16th by a considerable fall. 



"There was no object in forcing a passage ; and 

 I accordingly turned at once some sixty or eighty 

 miles to the southward, making a wide sweep to 

 strike the point of the California Mountain where 

 the Sierra Nevada suddenly breaks off and declines 

 into a lower country. Information obtained years 

 before from the Indians led me to believe that the 

 low mountains were broken into many passes ; and, 

 at all events, I had the certainty of an easy passage 

 through either of "Walker's passes. 



"When the Point was reached I found the Indian 

 information fully verified : the mountain suddenly 

 terminated and broke down into lower grounds 

 barely above the level of the country, and making 

 numerous openings into the Valley of the San Joa- 

 quin. I entered into the first which offered, (taking 

 no time to search, as we were entirely out of pro- 

 visions and living upon horses,) which led us, by an 

 open and almost level hollow thirteen miles long, to 

 an upland not steep enough to be called a hill, over 

 into the valley of a small affluent to Kern River, 

 the hollow and the valley making together a way 



