FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. 



343 



and trust to the skill of the boatman. The dangerous 

 places in this canon were where huge rocks had' fallen 

 from above, and hemmed in the already narrow pass 

 of the river to an open space of three or four feet. 

 These obstructions raised the water considerably above 

 which was sometimes precipitated over in a fall; 

 and at other places, where this dam was too high, 

 rushed through the contracted opening with tremen- 

 dous violence. Had our boat been made of wood, in 

 passing the narrows she would have been staved; 

 but her elasticity preserved her unhurt from every 

 shock, and she seemed fairly to leap over the falls. 



In this way we passed three cataracts in succession, 

 where perhaps 100 feet of smooth water intervened ; 

 and, finally, with a shout of pleasure at our success, 

 issued from our tunnel into the open day beyond. 

 We were so delighted with the performance of our 

 boat, and so confident in her powers, that we would 

 not have hesitated to leap a fall of ten feet with her. 

 We put to shore for breakfast at some willows on the 

 right bankj immediately below the mouth of the 

 canon ; for it was now eight o'clock, and we had been 

 working since daylight, and were all wet, fatigued, 

 and hungry. While the men were preparing break- 

 fast, I went out to reconnoitre. The view was very 

 limited. The course of the river was smooth, so far 

 as I could see ; on both sides were broken hills, and 

 but a mile or two below was another high ridge. The 

 rock at the mouth of the canon was still the decompos- 

 ing granite, with great quantities of mica, which made 

 a very glittering sand. 



We re-embarked at nine o'clock, and in about 

 twenty minutes reached the next cafion. Landing on 

 a rocky shore at its commencement, we ascended the 

 ridge to reconnoitre. Portage was out oi the question. 

 So far as we could see, the jagged rocks pointed out 

 the course of the canon on a winding line of seven or 

 eight miles. It was simply a narrow, dark chasm in 

 the rock ; and here the perpendicular faces were 

 much higher than in the previous pass, being at this 

 end 200 to 300, and further down, as we afterward 

 ascertained, 500 feet in vertical height. Our pre- 

 vious success had made us bold, and we determined 

 again to run the canon. Everything was secured 

 as firmly as possible ; and, having divested our- 

 selves of the greater part of our clothing, we pushed 

 into the stream. To save our chronometer from acci- 

 dent, Mr. Preuss took it, and attempted to proceed 

 along the shore on the masses of rock, which in places 

 were piled up on either side ; but, after he had walked 

 about five minutes, everything like shore disappeared, 

 and the vertical wall came squarely down into the 

 water. He therefore waited until we came up. An 

 ugly pass lay before us. We had made fast to the 

 stern of the boat a strong rope about 50 feet long ; 

 and three of the men clambered along among the rocks, 

 and with this rope let her slowly through the pass. 

 In several places high rocks lay scattered about in the 

 channel ; and in the narrows it required all our 

 strength and skill to avoid staving the boat on the 

 sharp points. In one of these the boat proved a little 

 too broad and stuck fast for an instant, while the water 

 flew over us ; fortunately, it was but for an instant, 

 as our united strength forced her immediately through . 

 The water swept overboard only a sextant and a pair 

 of saddle bags. I caught the sextant as it passed by me; 

 but the saddle bags became the prey of the whirlpools. 

 We reached the place where Mr. Preuss was standing, 

 took him on board, and, with the aid of the boat, put 

 the men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. 

 We found this passage much worse than the previous 

 one, and our position was rather a bad one. To go 

 back was impossible ; before us the cataract was a 

 sheet of foam ; and shut up in the chasm by the 

 rocks, which, in some places, seemed almost to meet 

 overhead, the roar of the water was deafening. We 

 pushed off again ; but, after making a little distance, 

 the force of the current became too great for the men 

 on shore, and two of them let go the rope. Lajeu- 

 nesse, the third man, hung on, and was jerked head- 

 foremost into the river from a rock about 12 feet 



high; and down the boat shot like an arrow, Basil 

 following us in the rapid current, and exerting all his 

 strength to keep in mid-channel his head only seen 

 occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. How 

 far we went I do not exactly know, but we succeeded 

 in turning the boat into an eddy below. u ' Ore J)ieu," 

 said Basil Lajeunesse, as he arrived immediately after 

 us, " Je crois bien que fai nage un demi mile" He 

 had owed his life to his skill as a swimmer, and I de- 

 termined to take him, and the two others on board, 

 and trust to skill and fortune to reach the other end 

 in safety. We placed ourselves on our knees with 

 the short paddles in our hand, the most skillful boat- 

 man being at the bow ; and again we commenced our 

 rapid descent. W e cleared rock after rock, and shot 

 past fall after fall, our little boat seeming to play with 

 the cataract. We became flushed with success, and 

 familiar with the danger ; and, yielding to the excite- 

 ment of the occasion, broke forth into a Canadian boat 

 song. Singing^ or rather shouting, we dashed along, 

 and were, I believe, in the midst "of the chorus when 

 the boat struck a concealed rock immediately at the 

 foot of a fall, which whirled her over in an instant. 

 Three of my men could not swim, and my first feel- 

 ing was to assist them and save some of our effects ; 

 but a sharp concussion or two convinced me that I had 

 not yet saved myself. A few strokes brought me into 

 an eddy, and I landed on a pile of rocks on the left 

 side. Looking around, I saw that Mr. Preuss had 

 gained the shore on the same side, about 20 yards 

 below, and a little climbing and swimming soon 

 brought him to my side. On the opposite side, against 

 the wall, lay the boat bottom up ; and Lambert was. 

 in the act of saving Descoteaux, whom he had grasped 

 by the hair, and who could not swim ; " Lache pas," 

 said he, as I afterward learned, " Lache pas, oner 

 frere.^ " Grains pas," ^ was the reply ; ''je m'en vais 

 mourir avant que aete lacker." Such was the reply of 

 courage and generosity in this danger. For a hun- 

 dred yards below the current was covered with float- 

 ing books and boxes, bales and blankets, and scattered 

 articles of clothing ; and so strong and boiling was 

 the stream that even our heavy instruments, which 

 were all in cases, kept on the surface, and the sextant, 

 circle, and the long black box of the telescope were 

 in view at once. For a moment I felt somewhat dis- 

 heartened. All our books almost every record of the 

 journey our journals and registers of astrononical 

 and barometrical observations had been lost in a 

 moment. But it was no time to indulge in regrets ; 

 and I immediately set about endeavoring to save some- 

 thing from the wreck. Making ourselves understood 

 as well as possible by signs (for nothing could be 

 heard in the roar of the waters), we commenced pur 

 operations. Of everything on board, the only article 

 that had been saved was my double-barreled gun, 

 which Descoteaux had caught and clung to with drown- 

 ing tenacity. The men continued down tha river on 

 the left bank ; Mr. Preuss and myself descended on 

 the side we were on ; and Lajeunesse, with a paddle 

 in his hand, jumped on the boat alone, and continued 

 down the canon. She was now light, and cleared 

 every bad place with much less difficulty. In a short 

 time he was joined by Lambert, and the search was 

 continued for about a mile and and a half, which was 

 as far as the boat could proceed in the pass. 



This journey occupied four months, and the 

 winter of 1842-'43 was spent in preparing the re- 

 port of it. When that work was finished, Fre- 

 mont determined to explore the unknown coun- 

 try that lay between the Rocky mountains and 

 the Pacific Ocean, and for this purpose he set 

 out with 39 men. On Sept. 6, having trav- 

 eled more than 1,700 miles, he came in sight 

 of the Salt lake. It was his description of 

 the valley of Salt lake that caused the Mor- 

 mons to settle there, supposing that they were 

 going out of the United States into Mexican 

 jurisdiction. As will be seen, their unceasing 



