Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/115



they went  along,  Glover  and  his  party  reached  Moun- tain camp on  the  evening  of  February  19th. On every side  the  snow  presented  an  apparently  unbroken level, and  the  stillness  of  death  was  there. They shouted, and  the  moaning  wind  answered  like  voices from another  world. Other and. louder shouts  were raised. Presently, like  vermin  from  their  holes,  crept forth from  the  cabin  under  the  snow  human  forms, skeletons slowly  moved  by  a  cold  and  aching  anima- tion. A dull  delirium  of  joy  broke  forth  in  low  laughs and sobs  and  tears. " Have  you  brought  anything for  me  ? "  one  after  another  asked,  the  narrator  goes on to  say  :  "Many  of  them  had  a  peculiarly  wild  ex- pression of  the  eye ;  all  looked  haggard,  ghastly,  and horrible.  The  flesh  was  wasted  from  their  bodies,  and the  skin  seemed  to  have  dried  upon  their  bones.  Their voices  were  weak  and  sepulchral ;  and  the  whole  scene conveyed  to  the  mind  the  idea  of  that  shout  having reached  another  world,  awakening  the  dead  from  un- der the  snows.  Fourteen  of  their  number,  principally men,  had  already  died  from  starvation,  and  many more  were  so  reduced  that  it  was  almost  certain  they would  never  rise  from  the  miserable  beds  upon  which they  had  lain  down." The unhappy  survivors  were,  in short,  in  a  condition  the  most  deplorable,  and  bej^ond the power  of  language  to  describe,  or  of  the  imagination to conceive. The annals  of  human  suffering  nowhere present a  more  appalling  spectacle  than  that  which blasted the  eyes  and  sickened  the  hearts  of  those  brave men whose  indomitable  courage  and  perseverance  in the  face  of  so  many  dangers,  hardships,  and  privations, snatchfcd some  of  these  miserable  survivors  from  the jaws of  death,  and  who,  for  having  done  so  much, merit the  lasting  gratitude  and  respect  of  every  man who has  a  heart  to  feel  for  human  woe,  or  a  hand  to afford  relief

" Many  of  the  sufferers  had  been  living  for  weeks upon  bullock  hides ;  and  even  this  sort  of  food  was  so nearly  exhausted  with  some,  that  they  were  about  to