_, 9 [ 174] 
ing ; and, leaving ont late inv the day, we deséended the river, 
whieh nsaicdherely: hice out into a broad eons furnishing good travel- 
ling ground. In/a short distance we passed th village, a collection of 
straw huts; anda few miles below, the guide pointed out the place ba 
the whites had been encamped before they entered the mountain. 
our late start we made but. ten miles, and encamped 6n the low rch ae 
tom, where there was no snow, but a great deal of ice ; and we cut piles of 
long grass to lay under our blankets, and fires were made of farge dry wil- 
lows, groves of which wooded the stream. The river took here a north- 
easterly direction, and through a spur from the mountains on the left was 
the gap where we were to pass the next day. ‘ 
January 31.—We took our way over a gently rising ground, the dividing 
ridge being tolerably low; and travelling easily along a broad trail, in 
twelve or fourteen miles reached the upper part of the pass, when it began 
to snow thickly, with very cold weather. The Indians had only the 
usual seanty covering, and appeared to suffer greatly from the cold. All 
left us, exceptourguide. Half hidden by-the storm, the mountains looked 
dreary ; and as night began to approach, the guide showed great reluctance 
to go forward. I placed him between two-rifles, for the way began tobe 
difficult. Travelling a little farther, we struck a ravine, which the Indian 
said would conduct us to the river; and as the poor fellow suffered greatly, 
shivering in the snow which fell upon his naked skin, | would not detain 
» him any longer ; and he ran off to the mountain, wheree Said there was 
a hut near by. He had kept the blue and scartet cloth I had given him 
tighly rolled up, preferring rather to endure the cold than to get ‘them wet. 
In the course of the afternoon, one of the meén had his foot frost bitten ; 
and about dark we had the satisfaction to reach the bottoms of a stream 
timbered with large trees, among which we found a sheltered camp, with an 
abundance of such grass as thie season afforded for the animals. _ We saw 
before us, in descending from the pass 
stretched the valley of the river ; the iower parts steep, and dark yh pines, 
while above it was hidden in clouds of s snow. a oT owe 
and. 
We had match lighted o our = frei when the deity was ef owded 
’ nearly naked Indians; some of them were furnished with long nets in ad- 
dition to bows, and appeared to have been out on the sage hills to hunt 
rabbits. These nets were perhaps 30 to 40 feet logy kept 9 gi in the 
ground by slight sticks at intervals, and were wild 
hemp, much resembling in manufacture those common among the 
—e the Sacramento valley. They came among us without any 
— themselves about ~ er nae ngs in grat 
wivggere ol together few of the inbat aiellagent ol of the ndians dia ae DA 
an interesting council. I explained to them my in 
