TRAVELS IN OREGON, NO. 2. 
therefore, conclude with a summary account of the ex¬ 
pedition of one who is entitled, perhaps, to outrank 
even the great McKensie in the list of accomplished and 
fearless travellers, Colonel John C. Fremont. No jour¬ 
nal of a traveller has yet been produced abounding more 
in the most interesting and valuable information relative 
to the climate, soil, geology, and natural history gener¬ 
ally of the countries traversed, than the well-written, 
practical journals of Captain Fremont. 
His party consisted of himself, Mr. Prenss, a German, 
as assistant surveyor, a hunter named Maxwell, the fam¬ 
ous trapper Kit Carson, two youths as adventurers, and 
some twenty men, chiefly Canadian voyagers and half- 
breeds brought up in the service of the fur companies, and 
habituated to life in the wilderness. After a journey of 
extraordinary fatigue, Captain Fremont arrived at the 
ascent of the southern pass of the Rocky Mountains. 
The perils encountered on the rivers, the hostility of the 
Indians, and the disturbed state of the north-west terri¬ 
tory, the hunting of buffaloes, the various phases of trap¬ 
per life, and the sufferings of emigrants on their way to 
Oregon, the descriptions of the trading posts, the manner 
of getting fresh horses in the place of those worn out by 
the sufferings of the journey, are all described with an 
eloquence and fidelity which must be read to be appre¬ 
ciated. 
The party reached Fort Laramie on the 15th of July, 
1842, a post belonging to the American Fur Company, 
built of clay after the fashion of the Mexicans. Captain 
Fremont endeavored to bring up the map of the country 
as fast as he passed over it, by means of astronomical ob¬ 
servations, but he was sadly interrupted. A succession of 
visiters generally occupied his tent. The war spirit was 
abroad, and various tribes were warring with each other, 
without any objection to turn their knives against the 
white travellers, if a keg of rum or a couple of horses 
