54 ELDORADO 



out by the government to explore the vast territory 

 purchased by President Jefferson from Napoleon in 

 1803 for $15,000,000, extending from the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico to the Pacific Ocean. These adventurous travelers 

 and explorers worked up the Missouri in small boats 

 for 2,600 miles ; then, on wild horses, which they had 

 caught, they crossed through the mountains to the 

 streams flowing into the Columbia, which they fol- 

 lowed to the sea. On the way they met many an In- 

 dian tribe that had never seen a white man. Two riv- 

 ers preserve upon our maps the names of these ex- 

 plorers, being two principal branches that form the 

 Columbia. 



From our camping grounds at Pacific Springs the 

 great elevation gave a magnificent view of the sur- 

 rounding country for a long distance. The mountain 

 range to the north, with Fremont's Peak rising over 

 6,000 feet above the summit of that pass, and the moun- 

 tains to the south covered with perpetual snow, the 

 Cascades to the northwest, through which "rolls the 

 Columbia to the Pacific," to the southwest the blue 

 summits of the Wasatch range bordering the valley of 

 the great Salt Lake, the broad expanse of plain and 

 river, made a picture that would satisfy the most ardent 

 lover of the grand and picturesque in nature. John C. 

 Calhoun crossed the Alleghanies on horseback, and up- 

 on arriving at the summit and viewing the magnificent 

 panorama spread out before him turned to his colored 

 servant and exclaimed: 'Tf any man ever tells you 

 there is no God, tell him he is a liar." But the Alle- 

 ghanies are mole-hills compared to those I have men- 

 tioned as seen from Pacific Springs. The view far sur- 

 passes anything seen east of the Mississippi river. 



