98 ELDORADO 



called their first venturesome launch into the great 

 desert. Traveling thus for a few days they made a 

 brief halt and divided the party into two divisions. One 

 section was commanded by Walker (after whom Walk- 

 er's lake was named), a mountaineer of great skill and 

 knowing as much as any one of the route they were 

 now pursuing, while Fremont's branch, under the lead- 

 ership of the indomitable "Kit," started south to make 

 a bee line through the center of the desert, his section 

 including ten persons, Delaware Indians and whites. 



A curious trait of Indian disposition was afforded 

 Kit and his friends a few days thereafter. Walker's 

 lake, at which they arrived, was frequented at certain 

 seasons of the year bv the Indians for the purpose of 

 taking fish, with which the lake abounded. It hap- 

 pened that some dozen Indians suddenly appeared in 

 sight. They were progressing like a file of geese, one 

 almost stepping in the tracks of the preceding, their 

 heads bowed and their eyes cast down. The whites and 

 Indians passed close to each other without giving the 

 least sign that they had been observed. 



On one occasion Kit and his friends had need for all 

 their courage and experience in the ways of the thiev- 

 ing red men. On one of their hunting and trapping 

 expeditions in 1847, while camping on Humboldt 

 river, a company of emigrants had several horses run 

 oflf in the night by the prowling savages. Four of the 

 emigrants went in pursuit of the Indians to recover the 

 stolen stock. When word came to Carson's camp of 

 the loss of the animals, he, with Maxwell, Owen and 

 two Delaware Indians, took up the trail and dashed off 

 to the rescue. And well it was they had taken such a 

 hasty departure, for after a rapid ride of several miles 



