112 



STOLEN MULE — HASTINGS S CUT-OFF. 



left had been destroyed by insects. While at this camp, one of 

 our best mules, was stolen. A couple of men, whom I had sent 

 back across the plain to search for a revolver that had been lost 

 in our last night march, reported, on their return to the camp, that 

 they had discovered the tracks of two Indians on our trail, and 

 had seen their fires in the mountains. These stealthy depredators 

 must have followed us at a distance and watched their opportunity 

 to plunder. The only wonder is that they did not steal more than 

 a single mule ; for the country was so utterly desolate, that we 

 never once thought that any human being would ever be found 

 where we had passed, except from absolute necessity, and conse- 

 quently the vigilance of our night-guard was relaxed. Snow fell 

 the night before we left this camp, and covered the ridge about 

 halfway down from its summit. 



Friday^ Kovemher 2. — Ther. at sunrise, 19°. As we were aware 

 that immediately before us lay another desert plain, without wood, 

 water, or grass, for seventy miles, some little preparation was ne- 

 cessary before undertaking to cross it. This consisted simply in 

 baking bread and cooking meat enough to last us through, and in 

 packing upon our mules as much grass as they could carry, which 

 we had cut, a handful at a time, with our hunting-knives. We had 

 only vessels sufficient to carry twenty gallons of water — a small 

 supply for so many men and animals. The mules, however, were 

 now much recruited by their rest, and we started in good spirits. 

 Following the western edge of the mud-plain at the foot of the 

 range for three miles, we came to the southern point of the moun- 

 tain, where there had been an encampment of emigrants, who had 

 taken this route from Salt Lake City in 1848. There were here 

 several large springs of excellent water, and the encampment had 

 apparently been quite a large one. The usual destruction of pro- 

 perty had taken place. Clothes, books, cases of medicine, wagon- 

 wheels, tools, &c., lay strewn about, abandoned by their owners, 

 who had laboriously brought them two thousand miles only to 

 throw them away. 



The route from the Salt Lake to this point was first taken by 

 Colonel Fremont, in 1845. A year afterward, it was followed by 

 a party of emigrants under a Mr. Hastings, whence its present 

 name of "Hastings's Cut-off." A portion of his company, which 

 had followed at some distance behind him, becoming belated in 

 crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a number of them pe- 

 rished, and the remainder were reduced to the revolting necessity 



