REPORT AND JOURNAL. 1 1 9 



After returning to camp, I called Stevenson again, and had anothertajk with him 

 and Mr. Reese about the prospect ahead. He (Stevenson) is not so decided about the 

 new pass in the We-a-bah Mountains being so impracticable as he this morning ^pre- 

 sented it. I have, therefore, some little hope that we may yet, by a more thorough 

 examination, get through the mountains ahead of us, without being forced to take our 

 old road through Cho-kup s Pass. 1 have accordingly ordered Mr. Reese. Stevenson, 

 Lambert, and Private Collamer, with two pack-animals and 111 days' provisions, to go 

 again forward and make a more thorough and conclusive examination of the passes. It 

 a practicable pass is found Collamer is immediately to return and report the fact. 

 Rain to-day again around us, and a few drops upon us. 



July 11, Camp No. 15, Clay Creek— Remained stationary to-day, waiting report 

 from guide's party. The first clear day we have had in S days. Took advantage of 

 it to keep up our accustomed astronomical observations. ( )l»erved east and west stars 

 for time, Polaris for latitude, and took a doable set of lunars. using stars on each side 

 of the moon for the purpose of eliminating errors. 



July 12, Clay Cree k— Private Collamer came in just after 18 o'clock, (midnight,) 

 and reported, to our joy, a practicable pass in the range ahead of us, on the proposed 

 course of our new return-route. The pass had been found by I te Pete, who, though he 

 had been four days and three nights without food, except roots, yet had been the instru- 

 ment of finding us a pass, and thus enabling us to keep on our course. It appears that on 

 his arrival at the mail-station, in Butte Valley, he found it abandoned on account of the 

 spring failing at that point, and the consequence was that he not only tailed in seeing 

 the Indian he was in search of, but was disappointed in getting anything to eat. 



All hands up at daybreak, but in consequence of the mules having been herded 

 at a considerable distance, we did not get off till 25 minutes of 6. Thermometer, at 

 4.15 a. m., 42i°. Retrace our steps to Lee's Springs, 5.2 miles, and turning to the 

 right around the point of some low rolling hills, and threading a narrow valley thickly 

 clothed with different kinds of grass of luxuriant growth, in 2.5 miles get into a plain 

 canon or pass of Colonel Cooper's range, which, in 1.5 miles, leads us into Pah-hun- 

 nu-pe Valley. The rocks of this canon are quite fine, on account of their abrupt height 

 and well-defined stratification and dip, the latter being about 40° to the northeast. In 

 consequence of the number of swallows which build their nests in its walls, I call it 

 Swallow Canon. Cedars crown its heights. Leaving this canon we cross Pah-hun- 

 nu-pe Valley, (elevation above the sea, 5,820 feet,) the cross range of mountains closing 

 it at the south being about 5 miles distant, and the passes through it appearing practi- 

 cable. To the southwest the ravines in this range are clothed with grass and water 

 appears to be coursing down them. Six miles from mouth of Swallow Cafion bring* 

 us to the sink of a fine creek, which comes from the pass tlirough the TV e-a-bah Moun- 

 tains to which we are tending, which creek I call after Mr. Charles S McCarthy, the 

 indefatigable taxidermist of the party. We turn southwestwardly up along this creek, 

 and in 2 1 miles at 1.15, reach a locality where, amid excellent and superabund- 

 ant hill and bottom grass and good wood fuel, we encamp. The stream at tins point 

 is 3 feet wide and 1 deep, and flows with a rapid current ma tolerable deep bed. 



Road, to-day, excellent; journey, 17.3 miles; soil, for first 3 miles m Kobah \ al- 



15 B U 



