encamped amo 
211 [ 174 ] 
them each a little brandy, (which was carefully guarded, as one of the most 
useful articles a traveller can carry,) with some coffee and sugar, which 
here, where every eatable was a luxury, was sufficient to make them a feast. 
The day was sunny and warm; and, resuming our journey, we crossed - 
some slight dividing grounds into a similar basin, walled in on the right by 
a lofty mountain ridge. The plainly beaten trail still continued, and occa- 
sionally we passed camping grounds of the Indians, which indieated to me 
that we were on one of the great thoroughfares of the country. In the 
afternoon I attempted to travel in a more eastern direction ; but, after a few 
laborious miles, was beaten back into the basin by an impassable country. 
There were fresh Indian tracks about the valley, and last night a horse was 
stolen. We encamped on the valley bottom, where there was some cream- 
like water in ponds, colored by a clay soil and frozen over. Chenopodiaceous 
shrubs constituted the growth, and made again our fire wood. The animals 
were driven to the hill, where there was tolerably good grass. 
December 26.—Our general course was again south. The country con- 
sists of larger or smaller basins, into which the mountain waters’ run down, 
forming small lakes; they present a perfect level, from which the moun- 
tains rise immediately and abruptly. Between the successive basins, the 
dividing grounds are usually very slight ; and it is probable that, in the sea- 
sons of high water, many of these basins are ia communication. At such 
times there is evidently an abundance of water, though now we find searee- 
ly more than the dry beds. On either side, the mountains, though not very 
high, appear to be rocky and sterile. The basin in which we were travel- 
ling declined towards the southwest corner, where the mountains indicated 
a narrow outlet; and, turning round a rocky point or cape, we continued 
up a lateral branch valley, in which we encamped at night on a rapid, pretty 
little stream of fresh water, which we found unexpectedly among the sage 
near the ridge, on the right side of the valley. It was bordered with grassy 
bottoms and clumps of willows, the water partially frozen. This stream 
belongs to the basin we had left. By a partial observation eh ce our 
rse- 
_ camp was found to be directly on the 42d parallel. To night a horse be 
longing to Carson, one of the best we had in the camp, was stolen by the 
ians. 
December 27.—We continued up the valley of the stream, the principal 
branch of ‘which here issues from a bed of high mountains. We turned . 
up a branch to the left, and fell into an Indian trail, which conducted us by 
a good road over open bottoms along the creek, where the snow was five or 
six inches deep. Gradually ascending, the trail led through a good broad 
pass in the mountain, where we found the snow about one foot deep. There 
were some remarkably large cedars in the pass, which were covered with an 
unusual quantity of frost, which we supposed might possibly indicate the 
neig| ood of water; and as, in the arbitrary position of Mary’s lake, 
we were already beginning to look for it, this circumstance contributed to 
our hope of finding it near. Descending from the mountain, we reached 
another basin, on the flat lake bed of which we found no water, and 
the sage on the bordering plain, where the snow was 
deep. Among this the grass was remarkably green, and 
‘to-night the animals fared tolerably well. oe 
_ December 28.—The ‘snow being deep, I had determined, if any more 
horses were stolen, to follow the tracks of the Indians into the mountains, 
