The Long-Lost Carpenteria 



153 



of the Kern until relieved.* Fremont himself with a few men crossed 

 the Sierras at or near Donner Pass, obtained a supply of provisions 

 from Captain Sutter at New Helvetia (the later Sacramento), and 

 immediately proceeded southward to join the Walker party. After 

 passing the Auxumnee (Merced) River he entered the Sierra foot- 

 hills and ascended to perhaps 3000 feet, coming out again upon the 

 San Joaquin plain, which he reached on the seventh of January, 

 1846. He had been directed by Walker to ascend the Kern River, 

 but after passing the main San Joaquin he encountered the "Lake 

 Fork of the Tulare," which he mistook for the river mentioned by 

 Walker, and which we now call the Kings River. His map accom- 

 panying the Geographical Memoir of Upper California f shows that 

 he ascended the Middle Fork of Kings River and described a wide 

 circuit about its headwaters. 



This particular map is a famous document. Its title is "Map of 

 Oregon and Upper California from the surveys of John Charles 

 Fremont and other authorities. Drawn by Charles R. Preuss, Wash- 

 ington, 1848."! Since the Sierras at that time were all but utterly 

 unknown except for Fremont's expeditions, the number and course 

 of Sierran rivers are indicated with remarkable exactness. The South 

 Fork of the Kings River is well shown, while the North Fork of the 

 San Joaquin is shown to approximate the sources of the Merced. All 

 of which seems to me to indicate that Fremont actually ascended to 

 a certain degree the San Joaquin River and amongst other things 

 collected, in January, 1846, on that river, the remarkable shrub 

 Carpenteria, and that this station we know today is really the long- 

 lost station for Carpenteria, than which no other shrub in the world 

 perhaps is more localized. 



* Cf. Williamson, Pacific Railroad Report, vol. v, p. 17. 

 t Senate Document (30th Congress), Miscellaneous, No. 148. 



t This is the map which first bears the legend "Chrysopylea or Golden Gate," at the 

 entrance to San Francisco Bay, Preuss, the draughtsman, accompanied the expedition, 

 as did also Kern, the topographer, who wintered with Walker on the upper Kern, and for 

 whom Kern River was named. 



