22 



AUGUST 5, SUNDAY 



The day was spent in reading, writing-, sleeping, and eat- 

 ing in due proportions. We found our camp a delightful 

 spot, and looked forward with much enjoyment to the few 

 weeks we were to spend here. Just at evening, though, we 

 experienced some trouble from the mosquitoes. We thought 

 we were up too high for these pesky little fellows, but found 

 that they would crawl under the leaves when it was cold, 

 and thus save themselves for another time. We experienced 

 some difficulty in our first attempts at bread-making. We 

 also found that the ink we had with us was copying ink, and 

 very thick at that, so we could not persuade our letters to 

 dry at all. 



AUGUST 6, MONDAY. 



Joe and M. set out to climb Gilbert's Peak (we had been 

 told we could easily), as it only seemed about six miles ofL 

 They saw, when they reached the ridge bordering the East 

 Branch of Smith's Fork, that this valley alone was about a 

 thousand feet deep, eight miles wide, and full of little wood- 

 ed moraines ; they then concluded that the best thing would 

 be to move our camp nearer the mountains. So they looked 

 for another camping place. Going along the ridge they 

 came to the head-waters of the West Branch, and there found 

 a very nice place, where they made observations and re- 

 turned. L. made corresponding observations at the camp. 

 Joe captured the bread-making secret this evening, succeed- 

 ing finely. 



AUGUST 7, TUESDAY. 



We began to pack early this morning, and got off at eight 

 o'clock. We followed the ridge again, and reached the 

 chosen place at twelve. We spent the afternoon .getting 

 things to rights. We used the elk skin for a bed ; found 

 it very nice and soft, but it had the fault of letting us out 

 of the tent at [the bottom. For an hour or two the mos- 

 quitoes were fearfully thick. Our tent is made by supporting 

 a wagon-cover over a ridge-pole, which was driven into a 

 tree at one end and supported by a stake driven into the 

 ground at the other. A blanket is drawn across one end and 

 the other left open toward the camp-fire. Numerous pegs 

 made of hard wood were driven into the softer pine-trees and 



