346 



FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. 



half, and encamped at the foot of a long hill on this 

 side of the open bottom. 



Bernier and Godey, who yesterday morning had 

 been sent to ascend a higher peak, got in, hungry and 

 fatigued. They confirmed what we had already seen. 

 Two other sleighs arrived in the afternoon ; and the 

 men being fatigued, I gave them all tea and sugar. 

 Snow clouds began to rise in the south-southwest; 

 and, apprehensive of a storm, which would destroy 

 our road, I sent the people back to Mr. Fitzpatrick, 

 with directions to send for the animals in the morning. 

 With me remained Mr. Preuss, Mr. Talbot, and Car- 

 son, with Jacob. Elevation of the camp, by the boil- 

 ing point, is 7,920 feet. 



9th. During the night the weather changed, the 

 wind rising to a gale, and commencing to snow before 

 daylight ; before morning the trail was covered. We 

 remained quiet in camp all day, in the course of 

 which the weather improved. Four sleighs arrived 

 toward evening, with the bedding of the men. We 

 suifer much from the want of salt ; and all the men 

 are becomming weak from insufficient food. 



10th. Taplin was sent back with a few men to as- 

 sist Mr. Fitzpatrick ; and, continuing on with three 

 sleighs carrying a part of the baggage, we had the 

 satisfaction to encamp within two arid a half miles of 

 the head of the hollow, and at the foot of the last 

 mountain ridge. Here two large trees had been set 

 on fire, and in the holes, where the snow had been 

 melted away, we found a comfortable camp. 



The wina kept the air filled with snow during the 

 day ; the sky was very dark in the southwest, though 

 elsewhere very clear. The forest here has a noble 

 appearance, and tall cedar is abundant, its greatest 

 height being 130 feet, and circumference 20, 3 or 

 4 feet above the ground ; and here I see for the 

 first time 'the white pine, of which there are some 

 magnificent trees. Hemlock spruce is among the 

 timber, occasionally as large as 8 feet in diameter 4 

 feet above the ground ; but, in ascending, it tapers 

 rapidly to less than 1 foot at the height of 80 feet. I 

 have not seen any higher than 130 feet, and the 

 slight upper part is frequently broken off by the 

 wind. The white spruce is frequent ; and the red 

 pine ( Pinijts Colorado of the Mexicans) which consti- 

 tutes the beautiful forest along the flanks of the Sierra 

 Nevada to the northward, is here the principal tree, 

 not attaining a greater height than 140 feet, though 

 with sometimes a diameter of 10. 



The elevation of our camp by the boiling point is 

 8,050 feet. We are now 1,000 'feet above the level of 

 the South Pass in the Eocky mountains ; and still we 

 are not done ascending. The top of a flat ridge near 

 was bare of snow, and very well sprinkled with bunch 

 grass, sufficient to pasture the animals two or three 

 days ; and this was to be their main point of support. 

 This ridge is composed of a compact trap, or basalt of 

 a columnar structure ; over the surface are scattered 

 large bowlders of porous trap. The hills are in many 

 places entirely covered with" small fragments of vol- 

 canic rock. 



Putting on our snow-shoes, we spent the afternoon 

 in exploring a road ahead. The glare of the snow, 

 combined with great fatigue, had rendered many of 

 the people nearly blind; but we were fortunate in 

 having some black silk handkerchiefs, which, worn as 

 veils, very much relieved the eye. 



llth. -High wind continued, and our trail this 

 morning was nearly invisible here and there indi- 

 cated by a little ridge of snow, hi the evening I re- 

 ceived a message from Mr. Fitzpatrick, acquainting 

 me with the utter failure of his attempt to get our 

 mules and horses over the snow the half-hidden 

 trail had proved entirely too slight to support them, 

 and they had broken through, and were plunging 

 about or lying half buried in snow. He was occu- 

 pied in endeavoring to get them back to his camp ; 

 and in the mean time sent to me for further instruc- 

 tions. I wrote to him to send the animals immedi- 

 ately back to their old pastures ; and, after having 

 made mauls and shovels, turn in all the strength of 



his party to open and beat a road through the snow, 

 strengthening it with branches and boughs of the 

 pines. 



,12th. We made mauls and worked hard at our 

 end of the road all day. The wind was high, but the 

 sun bright, and the snow thawins. We worked 

 down the face of the hill to meet the people at the 

 other end. Toward sundown it began to grow cold 

 and we shouldered our mauls and trudged back to 

 camp. 



13th. We continued to labor on the road ; and in 

 the course of the day had the satisfaction to see the 

 people working down the face of the opposite hill, 

 about three miles distant. During the morning we 

 had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. Fitzpatrick, with 

 the information that all was going on well. A party 

 of Indians had passed on snow-shoes, who said they 

 were going to the western side of the mountain after 

 fish. This was an indication that the salmon were 

 coming up the streams, and we could hardly restrain 

 our impatience as we thought of them, and worked 

 with increased vigor. 



The meat train did not arrive this evening, and I 

 gave Godey leave to kill our little dog (Tlamath), 

 which he prepared in Indian fashion, scorching off 

 the hair, and washing the skin with soap and snow, 

 and then cutting it up into pieces, which were laid on 

 the snow. Shortly afterward the sleigh arrived with 

 a supply of horse meat ; and we had to-night an ex- 

 traordinary dinner pea soup, mule, and dog. 



14th. The dividing ridge of the Sierra is in sight 

 from this encampment. Accompanied by Mr. Preuss, 

 I ascended to-day the highest peak to the right, from 

 which we had a beautiful view of a mountain lake at 

 our feet, about fifteen miles in length, and so entirely 

 surrounded by mountains that we could not discover 

 an outlet. We had taken with us a glass ; but though 

 we enjoyed an extended view, the valley was half 

 hidden in mist, as when we had seen it before. Snow 

 could be distinguished on the higher parts of the 

 coast mountains ; eastward, as far as the eye could 

 extend, it ranged over a terrio*le mass of broken snowy 

 mountains, fading off blue in the distance. The rock 

 composing the summit consists of a very coarse, dark, 

 volcanic conglomerate; the lower parts appeared to 

 be of a slaty structure. The highest trees were a few 

 scattering cedars and aspens. "From the immediate 

 foot of the peak, we were two hours reaching the 

 summit, and one hour and a quarter in descending. 

 The day had been very bright, still, and clear, and 

 spring seems to be advancing rapidly. I obtained to- 

 night some observations ; and the result from these, 

 and others made during our stay, gives for the lati- 

 tude 38 41' 57"; longitude, 120 25 7 57*. 



16th. We had succeeded in getting our animals 

 safely to the first grassy hill, and this morning I 

 started with Jacob on a reconnoitring expedition be- 

 yond the mountain. We traveled along the crests of 

 narrow ridges, extending down from the mountain in 

 the direction of the valley, from which the snow was 

 fast melting away. On the open spots was tolerably 

 good grass ; and I iudged we should succeed in get- 

 ting the camp down by way of these. Toward sun- 

 down we discovered some icy spots in a deep hollow; 

 and, descending the mountain, we encamped on the 

 he/id-water of a little creek, where at last the water 

 found its way to the Pacific. The night was clear 

 and very long. We heard the cries of some wild ani- 

 mals, which had been attracted by our fire, and a 

 flock of geese passed over during the night. Even 

 these strange sounds had something pleasant to our 

 senses in this region of silence and desolation. 



We started again early in the morning. The creek 

 acquired a regular breadth of about 20 feet, and we 

 soon began to hear the rushing of the water below the 

 icy surface, over which we traveled to avoid the 

 snow ; a few miles below we broke through where 

 the water was several feet deep, and halted to make a 

 fire and dry our clothes. We continued a few miles 

 farther, walking being very laborious without snow- 

 shoes. 



