“138 CAPT. FREMONT’S NARRATIVE. (1844. 
low ebb. Our principal stock was in peas,| when it began to snow thickly, with very 
which it is not necessary to say contain|cold weather. The Indians had only the 
‘scarcely any nutriment. We had still a| usual seanty covering, and appeared to suf- 
a flour left, some coffee, and a quantity | fer greatly from the cold. All left us, ex- 
of sugar, whic “h I reserved as a defence | cept our guide. Half biti by the storm, 
against starvation. the mountains ect eary ; and, as night 
The etd informed us that at certain | began to approac thé guide sho Md great 
seasons they have fish in their waters.| reluctance to go  torieod I placed him 
wa gan to be 
i er| struck a rav 
subsistence—a portion being always at| would nist us to the river; and as th 
hand, shut up in the natural storehouse of| poor fellow suffered greatly, shivering in 
thecones. At present, they were ies the snow which fell upon his naked skin, I 
to us as a whole people living ‘upon t his | would not detain him any longer; and he 
ble 
simple vegetable ran off to the m nr where he said 
other division LF the ge did not| there was a hut near by. He had kept the 
tome in to-night, but encamped in the up-| blue and scarlet cloth I had given him 
per Fagonia and arri ived the ei morning. | tightly rolled up, preferring rather to endure 
hey had not succeeded in getting the|the cold than to g wet. int 
ne Ae sevbind the place mentioned, and Tse 0 fternoon, one of the men had 
where it had been left = his foot frost-bitten ; and about dark we h 
obedience to my orders ; and, in anticipa- | the satisfaction to reach the bottoms of @ 
tion of the snow banks and snow "fields still| stream timbered with large trees, among 
ahead, foreseeing the otny le detention | which we found a sheltered camp, wi -e 
to which i es er subject us, I reluctantly | abundance of such grass as the season af-j 
fitorinined to leave it there for the time. forded for the npg a tein epi oy 
giers; and the distance it had come with | of the rete raed lower parts steep, and dark 
us proved how well it was adapted to its| with pines, while above it was hidden in 
purpose. ia i it the great sorrow oe uds ofsn ow. This we felt Lage # ae 
of the holes par 0 were grieved to ay 
part with a Bahk which had made the great California “mountain, sh ian 
the whole distance from St. Louis, and {now intervened re een us and the waters 
commanded respect for us on some critical| of the bay. W. made a forced march 
occasions, and which mi hight be needed for | of 26 miles and fies mules had given out 
~ the same purpose again. on the road. Up to this A se with the ex- 
Jan 30.—Our guide, who was a|ce fod of two stolen by Indians, we had 
ig man, joined us this morning ; and,| lost none of the horses which had been 
| our encampment late in the day, ught ‘frost the Columbia river, and a 
we descended the river, which immediately | number of these were still strong and in tol- 
pened out into a broad valley, furnishing | erably good order. We had now 67 ani- 
good travelling ground. - Ina short distance | mals in the ban 
we passed the village, a collection of straw} We had scarcely lighted our fires, when 
“huts; and a few miles below, the guide| the camp was crowded with nearly naked 
— out the place where the whites had | Indians; some of them were furnished with 
t encamped before they entered the | long nets in addition to bows, and appeared 
n ith our late ™: ave been out on the sage hills to hunt 
but ten miles, and viwerne on the te rabbits nets w 
, Tiver bottom, where there was no snow, but | feet lon Mek Hae eee 
‘& great deal of ice ; and we cut piles of Fea at Wee 
Pt eigen slight sticks at intervals, and were made 
‘Tong grass to la: wade our blankets, and} from a kind of wild hemp, + 
fires were ‘ide “ot large dry wil 
|Tiver took here a ot ompentegtt diredtion ley. ame ¢. 
and through a spur from the mountains on and Pa ines themse 
he “nay was the gap where we ron to pass | mainly occupied in rently lip thet astonish- 
aa next ‘ment. See oes ee 
a /31.—We took our our way over a| pearance of a row of about a dozen, W 
iow: bret traveling ea be- | were sitting on their cnen wi perched on 
and were eR lal their quict 
her few of the oe 
