480 EXPLOEATIONS ACEOSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



about camp ; no fuel but grease wood. Continuing our route over low, heavy sand-hills, 

 we rejoined Captain Fremont at ourplace of rendezvous, Walker's Lake. He had reached 

 that point four days ahead of us, having traveled over a mountainous country, finding 

 in his route plenty of grass, water, game, and Indians; the latter very shy, not being 

 accustomed to the sight of white men in their desolate country. The river of Walker's 

 Lake is a fine, bold stream, 30 to 40 feet wide, with considerable current, timbered 

 with fine large cottonwoods, its bottoms covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, wild 

 peas, and rushes. We had anticipated a glorious feast of fish on our arrival at this 

 point, from the glowing descriptions Walker had given us of great quantities of fine 

 salmon-trout which frequent the river and lake. In this, however, we were doomed to 

 disappointment. The fishing season being over, "Cairo hoggi" was the only reply 

 we could obtain to our many signs and inquiries after the finny tribe from the few In- 

 dians that still lingered about the lake. 



To-morrow (November 29) Captain Fremont leaves us again, this time to take his 

 old trail of 1843, while the main body of camp will continue down the eastern slope of 

 the Sierra Nevada, which Walker had discovered when exploring this section of the 

 country some 10 years ago. We will remain here 9 or 10 days to recruit our animals, 

 as many of them are exhausted. 



December 8. — Once more took up our line of march. During our stay at our camp 

 on Walker's River the weather has been clear and cold. Thermometer at sunset 23° 

 above zero, and at sunrise 4°. The river frozen hard; it has been a strange mixture of 

 winter and summer. The Indians are of a much lower grade than any I have yet 

 seen. They are, however, very friendly. I visited some of their huts near the mouth 

 of the river. They had some very pretty decoy-ducks, made from the skin of those 

 birds, neatly stretched over a bulrush float. There were four or five old women hov- 

 ering over a fire of a few willow twigs of six or eight inches in length. I thought if 

 the personification of witches ever existed, these were of them. Their withered bodies, 

 almost entirely naked and emaciated, their faces smeared with dirt and tar, the dull! 

 idiotic stare of their eyes, trembling from cold and dread of our intentions toward 

 them, rendered them to me the most pitiable objects I had ever seen. A couple of 

 children, nestling close to the fire, showed more the signs of wonder in their counte- 

 nances than fear. Some of these children, notwithstanding the hardships of their lives, 

 only dependent on grass-seeds and the few fish they can catch, any large game 

 being unknown hereabouts, have really lively and interesting countenances ; but the 

 expression leaves them with youth; their future, being one of continued privation, 

 soon dulls the light of the eye, and the face becomes heavy and stolid in expression 

 It was at this camp we have made our first essay on horse-meat. Throwing aside all 

 antipathies I, with the others, enjoyed our meal. On this river, with but a couple of 

 exceptions, is the only large timber we have met since leaving the Timpanogos. Trav- 

 eling three miles on the river and about twelve on the shores of the lake, we made 

 our camp among some low sand-hills. A range of burnt rock hills extends a few 

 miles further back, while on the opposite side of the lake the dark mountains come 

 bluff to the water's edge. No fuel but greasewood and grass. We longed heartily for 

 the fires of our last ten-days' camp, the weather being excessively cold. 



