SEARCH FOR FRESH WATER. 185 



tance, after a hard day's work, was not to be thought of; so we 

 supped on some hard bread and a small piece of dried beef, which 

 fortunately remained, and laid our blankets down on the sand. 



The night was fine, notwithstanding a heavy gust in the after- 

 noon from the south-west, accompanied by rain, the principal part 

 of which fell in copious showers upon the mountains around us. 

 The shore party did not arrive until near ten o'clock, being guided 

 to our bivouac by the light of a lantern elevated upon a spade- 

 handle stuck in the sand. They were not a little disappointed at 

 getting no supper, as they were wet, hungry, and tired. 



Saturday^ May 18. — As it was manifestly impossible for us to re- 

 main here any longer without the means of cooking, I determined 

 to move, although the survey was considerably in the rear. The 

 eyes of my assistant, Mr. Carrington, from exposure to the intense 

 glare of the sunlight from the white sands, had become much in- 

 flamed, and I was fearful, at one time, that he would be unable to 

 continue the performance of his duties. He was much better to- 

 day, however, and returned to the line of the survey. 



The skiff was despatched along the shore to the northward to 

 search for some indication of the large stream of which mention 

 has been made, and which we hoped might, perhaps, approach near 

 enough to the shore to be made available for the purpose of wa- 

 tering. It should be borne in mind that the line of survey, as 

 has been remarked, followed the storm-line of the lake, which 

 (since leaving Turret Rock,) was many miles west of the lake 

 shore. 



After getting the camp on board, I determined to go myself in 

 the yawl, and, if water could be found, to fill up every vessel we 

 could spare, as I was entirely ignorant when we could again pro- 

 cure this indispensable article without crossing the lake to the In- 

 dian Springs. A scaffold or platform was made of spare oars and 

 tent-poles, elevated upon camp-stools, placed near the boat in a 

 few inches of water, and all the baggage piled upon it, to lighten 

 the boat. We started after the skiff, passed it, and advanced 

 farther to the north, toward a point on the shore where the ap- 

 pearance of some reeds seemed to indicate the presence of water. 



Anchoring our boat to keep her from drifting off, we waded 

 some half-mile to the shore, and proceeded nearly three miles in- 

 land on our bare feet, over a sandy flat, and plunged through thick, 

 oozy mud nearly knee-deep until we reached the growth of reeds 

 we had seen from the boat. We here found where one of the 



