io8 ELDORADO 



a man from northern Illinois, from whom I purchased 

 15 pounds of flour at $1 per pound, and I think he would 

 have asked more had he believed I would pay it. The 

 two purchases illustrated the difference in human na- 

 ture. I remained at that place until noon the following- 

 day, watching- and expecting my comrades to reach me 

 ■at any moment. I had left them only the previous 

 morning. They did not put in an appearance, however, 

 and I moved a few miles further on in order to obtain 

 feed for my pony. 



I posted notices by the roadside so that in the event 

 they should pass when my attention was directed else- 

 where they would not fail to know my whereabouts. 

 That night I turned my little wall-eyed Kittie upon an 

 island in the Humboldt river, separated from the main 

 land by a small rivulet. The island was not large, was 

 covered with willows and had but little grass. The un- 

 paralleled immigration of '49 and '50 made it difficult 

 to obtain sufficient food while traveling through that 

 alkali, sage brush region to keep the stock alive. So 

 reduced in flesh did the animals become that it required 

 two to make a shadow. In fact, many horses were left 

 to bleach by the wayside. 



Upon looking for my pony in the morning she was 

 nowhere to be found. I searched along the river and 

 among the foothills until 2 o'clock p. m. and gave her 

 up for lost. Alone — for there was no train or living- 

 object in sight — my chief dependence gone, it was not a 

 very pleasing prospect to contemplate ; nevertheless, I 

 tried to make the best of the situation, hoping and be- 

 lieving it would be all right "by and by." I sat down 

 beside my packs and saddle, and waited for something 

 to "turn up." My only course was to strike some emi- 



