S42 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



ft 



tie evening at "Turkey creek," here there is no wood to be found 

 and besides this, all the grass around us had been burnt up. 



February 20.— Last night we had an awful storm, it still contin- 

 ued. Several mules have been frozen to death. We have been 



"^l^g^"^.,^? lay abed an day, in order to keep warm. The snow is- 

 still drifting about furiously. • 



February 21.— This morning is the first time for thirty-six hours 

 that any one has ventured out of bed. My men had their pro- 

 visions ready cooked, and shared them with Mr. Brown's part/- of 

 all the tents that had been pitched Friday night, mine was the only 

 one which still remained. The snow had heaped up arounrf the 

 rest so that the inmates were obliged to desert them, and take re- 

 fuge m the wagons. About mine, the wind had swept in such a. 

 way as to keep open a path around it, although the snow was on 

 ^ a level with the ridge pole of the tent. We now broke up some 

 boards that were in the wagons, and kindled a little fire. Soon 

 the sun rosej but, instead of one sun, we had three; all seemed of 

 equal brilaancy, but, as they continued to rise, the middle one only 

 retained its circular form, while the others shot into huge columns 



? /l ^r Iv" ^l^"^le^ wit^ the air near their summits. The 

 breadth_ of the columns was that of the sun's apparent diameter, 

 and their height about twelve times thfe same diameter: they were 

 between twenty and thirty degrees distant from the sun Before 

 the sun had risen more than ten degrees, this phenomena entirely 

 disappeared. Some of the men called my attention to this strange 

 appearance, but so engrossed were they with their own calamities, 

 that they hardly seemed to be in the least astonished at what they 



saw. rrxi«L X1.X.J 



_ After some little while we missed Preston and the sick man- we 

 Tniltl ?h.v\° ?K "'r ^^I'^r}""^ "^"^^ '^«^- It was now'evi- 



dent that they had been buried beneath the snow drift, which, for 

 ^some distance around had filled up the nook in which 'we had en- 



HZ\ LVrl' '"^ °^ 'i ? r "^'^' '' '^' ''''' -- -f considerable 

 extent much time would be wasted in examining it, unless we 



one noo"r fTl ' r'^^ ^^^ ^'''^'^ '^^''^ ''^'- ^'^^^0 noticed 

 one poor fejlow digging away to find his boots; he showed im^ 



Tel to In. r ?r ^"'^ ^''"- • ^ ^^"^^ '^' ^^"' ^"d immediately 

 set to work The snow was six feet deep, and we had only a lit- 

 tle piece of board to dig with, and the cold was so great that no 

 one could work very long before his hands became peTfec ly rtid 

 After a good deal of hard digging, we found a pair of boots^ whkh 

 were recognized by the men as Preston's property. This u g^d u. 

 of hu7ff I'^^'^i^^"^^ f J^^"g^^ ^^ clearecl the snow from a p^ortion 

 low s lace; he cried out m a weak voice, beggino- us for C.nAU 



mTre of T' '""^ 'f ^"- '°T"'^ ^' ^"*=^ ^"^^^ ^^ ^^nU remove 

 more of be snow; having dug as far as his waist, five men caught 



been b.ote?. dow^' b, the ....J.'J't s'U'^^weVr.^t L^ 



4ft 



