114 ELDORADO 



sufficient to appall the stoutest heart. The party had 

 broken up into small squads and death seemed inevi- 

 table. They followed up the Truckee, struggling 

 against the most adverse conditions, impeded by the 

 deep snow, cold and hunger, until November, utterly 

 disheartened and all hope gone. They then began to 

 construct rude huts during a terrible snow storm, in 

 order to prolong life as long as possible. The women 

 bore the hardships with heroic fortitude. 



By the beginning of December the snow was eight 

 feet deep, and death from starvatfon began to reduce 

 their numbers. A few of the stronger ones, led by a 

 Mr. Eddy, determined to try to cross the mountains for 

 relief, leaving their agonized wives and children. On 

 the seventh day, after struggling through the deep 

 snows, Eddy, upon relieving his pack of all useless 

 articles, found about a pound of bear's meat (he had 

 killed a grizzly a few days before he left camp), and a 

 note in which his wife expressed the hope that it might, 

 if the worst came, as she feared it would, "be the means 

 of saving his precious life." The note was full of ten- 

 derness, beyond words to express, and more than ever 

 did the husband realize the value of the treasure of a 

 thoughtful, devoted wife in times of trial and deadly 

 peril, so many times exemplified on the plains when 

 the hearts and patience of men would fail. 



After the loss of one-half of the little relief party, 

 the others reached Sutter's fort in the Sacramento val- 

 ley, and with some provisions and assistance, they re- 

 turned to "Starved Camp," to find that 36 had died of 

 starvation, and 44 were still living, having prolonged 

 life by subsisting upon the bodies of those who had 

 died. No pen can describe the horror of the scene that 



