Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/272

 264 WILLIAM BARLOW ness of these openings made it hard to get some of our big cattle through. Some of the emigrants had a number of head killed or crippled in this way. But our little band got through without a scratch. The bulk of all the cattle and horses went over the Mt. Hood trail that fall and some families rode over on oxen's and cows' backs. Old Mother Hood rode all way from The Dalles to Oregon City on a cow's back. But most of the families went down the Columbia River on the Hudson's Bay bateaus. They left their wagons at The Dalles and often found them cut up by the Indians and the spokes of the wheels used for whip handles. Some few got their wagons down that fall on rafts to the Cascades and then hauled them from there down with teams, or got them taken down and up to Portland on bateaus. This cost them about all each wagon was worth. To return to the summit. The bulk of the men were at work building the mountain cache. I took three of the young men and started over Mt. Hood with all the stock except the horses, which were left to carry out the women and children. I had a horse to ride as I was to go back as soon as I got the stock over Mt. Hood. This took only two days. Then I started back to camp, being gone just three days. The house was pretty well along, considering the tools, and the men who had to do the work. Albert P. Gaines and Wil- liam Berry were the principal workmen. Both could handle tools well, but the others were mere supernumeraries. The old gent was now almost worn out. Bacon was a good hand with a needle and thread, and he was kept busy fixing up clothing for the men. We had eleven or twelve wagons, and it required a large house to hold all the plunder and the three men that were going to stay all winter. But one of the men backed out, so I agreed to go below and come back with pro- visions and stay at least six months. About the first of De- cember, everything was packed away nice and snug. House as tight as a jug, all the cracks chinked up with moss, a good store of food and mountains of good dry wood. We had a few books, which would serve to while away the time. In fact,