JOHN C. FREMONT. 179 



Latitude (by observation) 41 11' 26", and lon- 

 gitude 112 11' 30". 



" September 9. The day was clear and calm; the 

 thermometer at sunrise at 49. As usual with the 

 trappers on the eve of any enterprise, our people 

 had made dreams, and theirs happened to be a bad 

 one, one which always preceded evil, and conse- 

 quently they looked very gloomy this morning ; but 

 we hurried through our breakfast in order to make 

 an early start and have all the day before us for 

 our adventure. The channel in a short distance 

 became so shallow that our navigation was at an 

 end, being merely a sheet of soft mud, with a few 

 inches of water, and sometimes none at all, forming 

 the low-water shore of the lake. All this place was 

 absolutely covered with flocks of screaming plover. 

 "We took off our clothes, and, getting overboard, 

 commenced dragging the boat, making, by this 

 operation, a very curious trail, and a very disagree- 

 able smell in stirring up the mud, as we sank above 

 the knee at every step. The water here was still 

 fresh, with only an insipid and disagreeable taste, 

 probably derived from the bed of fetid mud. After 

 proceeding in this way about a mile, we came to a 

 small black ridge on the bottom, beyond which the 

 water became suddenly salt, beginning gradually 

 to deepen, and the bottom was sandy and firm. Ik 



