Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/155

 ing a few rods the water was pure sweet water no grass of any amount this has been a hard drive for our mules 36 miles on poor feed

Monday 27 Today we have made a short drive passed down the valley over some few hills passing several of the finest springs we have seen this is called the Thousand Spring Valley we came to a creek after traveling 1 5 miles with pools of water occasionally we followed it five miles and camped poor grass and few willows to cook with distance traveled to- day 20 miles

Tuesday Aug 28th '49 This morning we found that the grass our animals have had for a few days was not sufficient to sustain them on such long drives several of our horses laging yesterday we packed up deter- mined to stop the first grass after driving three miles we came to a bottom of blue grass quite green we halted four hours to give our mules time to fill up. after dinner we moved down the valley twelve miles to the mouth of Kenyon one of our horses gave out and we left him My horse we could not get into camp without great urging the conclusion is the grass they have eaten has hurt them and have had but little of that, here there was no grass and we were compeled to drive our mules a mile up a ravine near by. For several nights back it has been verry cold on the 25th water froze near our camp fire an inch thick and this morning was equally cold, distance 12 miles

Wednesday Aug^ 25)' 4^ This morning our road lay over quite a ridge and passing down a valley several miles we saw a spring on the right up on a side hill and halted for noon after an hours halt we moved on Some eight miles into a fine valley good grass and a fine spring here we camped for the night. the country over which we have passed for some days back has presented some high Mts on the right and left peaks covered with snow which makes our nights cold The greatest inconvenience we suffer in traveling here is the dust is of a powdery character and traveling along will rise in clouds that will almost suffocate us roads besides are generally good for waggons. We find that packing saves much hard work climbing up hills and locking down distance today 25 miles

Thursday Aug 50 ^4^ Today we have had a verry level road after two hours travel we struck a fine creek which soon lost itself e in the valley at noon we came to a fine creek suposed to be the headquarters of the Hujn- bolt river here we made our noon halt This forenoon we left two of our horses they haveing given out after noon we made our drive down the river some 15 miles towards evening we lost our frying pans this seemed our all as we gave up our dictch ovens at the city we camped near the river after dark. We saw three Indians appreared friendly here we

I herd of several head of cattle being stolen and several wounded with ar- rows here we found good grass distance 25 miles Friday Aug 31st/ 4^ This morning four of us went back to look for our