Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/299

 THE BARLOW ROAD 291 After several days travel on foot in the heart of the range Barlow and Palmer found a passable route for wagons to the western descent. But their own journey was fraught with so much hardship and suffering on account of the snow that they were forced to conclude that the season was too late and the journey too long to risk being snowed in among the moun- tains. 18 It had previously been determined that, should the pass- age prove impossible, the wagons and impedimenta should be cached and the company should proceed with the stock over the mountains. Therefore, on the return of the leaders a rude house was construed about five miles east of the summit. In this were placed the perishables of the company. Three young men, William Barlow, John Bown, and William Berry volunteered to remain and guard the deposit, but it was found that scarcely any provisions could be left and Berry was left in solitude to keep a long winter's vigil amid the mountain storms. 1 ** Packing a few necessary articles upon the horses and oxen, only the weakest having saddle horses, the remainder of the company pushed on toward the outpost of the scattered Oregon settlements. 20 Even greater hardships were experienced on the western slope of the Cascades. On the very summit they encountered treacherous swamps ; there was no grass for the stock and they broused the poison laurel bushes ; provisions gave out entirely and the woods became so dense and the canyons so deep and precipitous that some despaired of ever reaching civilization. William Barlow relates how his sister, Mrs. Gaines tried to cheer her disheartened companions, saying, "Why we are in the midst of plenty plenty of snow, plenty of wood to melt it, plenty of horse meat, plenty of dog meat if the worst comes." 21 A packtrain with flour and other provisions from Oregon City came to their relief and all passed safely through to the Willamette, 1 8 Palmer'* Journal, p. 140; Brans. 19 Brans. ao Palmer'a Journal, p. 141. ai Quarterly Orcg. Hist. Soc., Vol. Ill, 76.