Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1846-07-28
Late from DRAGON.

A the emigration 10 oregon, last year,
between one thousand and twelve hun.
bred souls, accompanied by two hundred
and fourteen wagons, under the pilotage
Of one stephen Meek, an old mountaineer,
struck out in southwesterly direction
from Snake River, about twelve miles be.
low Fort Boise, to make "a cut off to the
Dalis, Meek telling them that he would
take them route one hundred and fifty
miles nearer, and a much preferable road
70 that by the way of the Grande Ronde.
Leaving Malheur river, which they tray-
eilednp about twenty miles, they crossed
oYerln southwesterly direction to the
blue ni0untains, over a country broken
up into deep and PERCEPTIONS ravines, often
barely admitting a single wagon to pass
between the lodges Of stone. After much
difficulty, and with TIE loss of many cat.
tie, they crossed the Blue Mountains
Here Meek got completely lost, and bore
away too far south, entirely heading John
Days River, which he was to have des.
cended to the Columbia. They travelled
IN southerly direction, until they came
TO the head waters of the Shutes river
Finding himselfhere in barren and ster.
he part ofthe country, which, in many
places, scarcely afforded grass and water
suii1clent to sustain the lives ofthe teams.
ne, after consulting privately with few
INDIVIDUALS, determined to abandon the
idea OF making the Dalls, and to at.
tempt to make the best of his way into
the Willamette Valley, across the Cas-.
cade Mountains. No sooner did he de-
termine this, than he boldly struck out
from the Shutes, trusting to blind fortune
orgood luck to lead him and the company
into the valley. He shaped his course
nearly south and travelled in this dircc.
ton for several days. The company under
him IN much distress, now began to sus.
Pect that all was not right-knowing the
course they were going to be nearly oppo.
site to that their destination. Yet Meek
insisted that in few days they would
Teacli the Dalls, and continued lead
ing them in the Same course, until
they came to Klamet Lake, between the
blue and Cascade Mountains, in which
the Klamet is said to have its source
This lake completely thwarted him in his
attempt to get into the valley, and now no
alternative was left but that Of retracing
steps. So the company were again COM
PEELED to take up their line of march for
the Dalls, whittier they supposed they had
been Journeying. They had now been
out from Boise over thirty days and many
were, by this time, nearly out of provis-
ions, for the company had only about one
months stores when they left that place.
Some of them, seeing their desperate sit.
uation, became much exasperated at Meek
tor his conduct, and would have made him
pay the penalty with his life, had not 9th .
ers, who were guided by the counsellings
OF cooler judgment, protected him from
the hand ofviolence. By the time they a.
gain reached Shutes river which they eros
sed some distance below their former
point, the most of the company were en-
tIrely out ofprovisions, and their only de-
pendence for sustenance was on their cat
tie, which were now very poor and unfit
for beef There were now over two hun
dred persons confined to their wagons,
with what they termed the scamp fever"
supposed to have been produced by the,
beef they hadto eat, together with their
sufferings for water.
They descended Shutes river TO within
sixty or seventy miles of its mouth; here
they crossed and despatched company
on horseback for the Dalls, who reached
the Mission, and returned in a few DAYS
with provisions and assistance to the com.
pany, which reached the Dalls in about ten
days afterwards. A company would have
been despatched sooner could they have
crossed the river, but there was no posi-.
bility of making an earlier crossing.
The company were frequently without
water forty -eight hours while descending
the river; for, although they were most
OF the time within mile or two of It's
brink, it was impossible to get water
whenever they would approach it, they
would see it vending its way at the bot
tom ola dark, frightful chasm, from ], 900
to l,5O0 feet deep walled up with basal
tic rock, and sometimes, for fifty or sixty
miles il was not possible for man to de-
scend to it. OF the number who were
sick, between sixty and seventy died.
long and painful will be the remembrance
of Meek's Inflated ''cut off"
The emigration to Oregon the current
year, / think, will number about twelve
hundred souls--being about one half as
large as it was last year; and that to Cali
fornia will, perhaps amount to four hun
dred and fifty or five hundred souls. This
years emigration will not bear very
favorable comparison with that to Cali.
fornia, as far as am able to Judge, in
point Of responsibility and talent.
FUNERAL CEREMoNIEs.--The Paris
correspondent ofthe Boston Atlas gives
the following curious particulars Of the
ceremonies observed on the PoDe, :
death: