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320 up the Sacramento on the East side forty miles, and then traveled up Bear Creek—our course being about East. Crossing the East side of the Sacramento Valley a distance of about twenty miles, we came to the spurs of the California Mountains. We continued to travel up through these hills, following the general course of the stream, until we came to its source, which is in a large marsh greatly elevated above the Sacramento Valley. At this marsh we remained one day in order to find a place where we could cross Juba River, which was a mile and a half distant, a stream of considerable size, very rapid, full of falls and canions, and was at this time quite high from the melting of snow on the mountains. It was only in a few places where the hills were sufficiently gradual to allow us to descend to the water, and these places were frequently between perpendicular falls, which were so near, and the velocity of the water so great, as to render the crossing very dangerous, if not absolutely impossible. This was the character of the first place where we struck the River, which was on the trail of a small emigrating company that came into California the previous summer. We had been told by a gentleman whom we had met a few days before, returning from the mountains where he had gone to get some wagons and other property which he had been compelled to leave in the Fall on account of the lateness of the season and the fear of being blocked up by the coming snows, that it would be impossible for us to cross the stream, and that it would be best for us to return. We, however, discovered a place where we ascended the mountain immediately above us, and having with much difficulty, on account of the steepness of the ascent, gained the summit; we followed the ridge—our progress being somewhat impeded by the snow—for about eight miles, and descended into a small bottom of the River. Traveling up the bottom about two miles, we