112 EI.DORADO 



that point, while I had kept to the right. None of us 

 had observed the point of separation. Dust and other 

 cause often prevented our taking" close observation of 

 surrounding objects. 



The result was, we were traveling two or three miles 

 apart on opposite sides of the river. Upon arriving 

 at the Sink we were separated by the shallow lake filled 

 with willows and rushes. I never saw nor heard of 

 either of my partners until I returned to the States in 

 1852. I crossed the Sierra Nevada from Carson valley 

 by the Hangtown trail, not knowing of any other, while 

 they, leaving the valley farther to the north, crossed to 

 Georgetown, in the northern mines. 



Upon my arrival where the waters of the ITir.nlioldt 

 river disappear bv evaporation and sinking in the 

 ground, I was facing a 45-mile desert, the most difficult 

 and disastrous to cross of anv other 45 miles between 

 the Missouri river and the Sierra Nevada, excepting 

 possibly, the Great Desert west of Salt Lake. From 

 this noted locality two routes led over the mountains 

 into California. One to the south, across the desert 

 I have mentioned, to Carson river and vallev : the other 

 going west via Truckce river, entering the mountains 

 near the present town of Reno. Whichever route was 

 selected by the "pilgrims," they invariably wished they 

 had taken the other. The one bv way of Carson was 

 the most difficult, so far as the desert was concerned. 

 On the Truckee route the greatest obstacle was encoun- 

 tered in crossing the Sierras. The latter was taken by 

 Captain Donner and his party in 1846. Their terrible 

 suffering and niisfortunes constitute one of the saddest 

 experiences of all the overland emigration to Califor- 

 nia. I will mention a few incidents to show the hard- 



