Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1846-02-18


and to Oregon and North California IN
the years ls43 and 1914, by Brvt-Captain
J. c. Fremont, Of the Corps OF Topogra-
phical Engineers. Washington; Print
ed by order Of the Senate Of the United
States. 1916.
Extracts from the Journal of the Second Elk.
pedtion.)
1.-THE second expedition started from
Kansas, on the Missouri river, the last Of
May, l843 The party was composed of
80 men, armed mostly with carbnes, which
with l2-b. howi,zer, were furnished from
the U. S. arsenal at St. Louis. The route
was up the kansas to the head waters OF
the Arkansas-thence to the South pass
thence TO Bear river, continent of the
Great Salt Lake. Visiting and partially
exploring this unknown sea, the party re-
turned by the valley of Bear river, and ia
king the emigrant road to Oregon, arrived
at the Dalles of the Columbia early in No
vember. Capt. F. with one or two men,
visited Fort Vancouver to obtain necessa-
ry supplies, the party meantime recruiting.
From thence, the route was through a re-
gion hitherto unknown. Following SOU
theinly direction, Capt. F., after encoun-
terng obstacles which nothing but the
most determined energy and perseverance
could overcome, passed in dead of winter
over the great Sierra Nevada or Snowy
mountain range OF California, at an eleVa-
ton of 1888 feet above the sea, and enter
ed the valley of the Sacramento Recruit
ing at the rancho of Capt. Suffer, an Anne
rican settler in California, he continued
south as far as Walkers pass, in lat. "a
from thence his route was mainly along
the base of the Wahsatch mountains back
to the southern extremity OF the Great Sail
Lake-then by "the Parks" of the Rocky
mountains to St. Vrains fort, on the head
waters of South fork OF Platte, and by the
valley of that river to the Missouri frontier
The expedition was absent ID months
having travelled between six and seven
thousand miles.
We propose extracting from the lengthy
narrative, only the descriptions OF the re-
matkable natural objects met with, and the
account of the pass through the mountains
1 The unprecedented hardships 10 which the
Voysgeurs were subjected, and the impor.
tant geographical and scientific results o
the expedition, can only be understood by
reading the narrative in detail Ed'r.]
August 2l.- An hours travel this NOR
ming brought us into the fertile valley o
Bear river, the principal tributary TO the
n Great Salt Lake. The stream here il
200 feet wide, fringed with willows ant
\ occasional groups of hawthorns. We wer,
now entering region which for US pos
sessed a strange and extraordinary int
Test. We we're upon the waters OF tn,
famous lake which forms salient poin
among the geographical fea,ures Of tn,
country, and around which the vague AM
superstilious accounts of the trappers hat
thrown delightful obscurity, which We
anticipated pleasure in dispelling, bn
which, in the meantime, lett crowdet
held for the exercise of our imagination.
Ia our occasional conversations will
The few old hunters who had visited tn,
region, it had been subject of frequen
speculation; and the wonders which The,
related were not the less agreeable be
cause highly exaggerated and impossible
III Hitherto this lake had been seen only b,
lfappers who were wandering through tn
country in search of new beas er streams
caring very little for geography; its isl
ands had never been visited; and non
we're to be found who had entirely mad
Ihe circuit of its shores; and no instru
mental observations or geographical SUI
'ey,ol any description, had ever bee
made any where in the neighboring re
). gon II was generally supposed thai
MAO no visible outlet; but among the traE
Pefs, including those in my own camp
g were many who believed that somewher
~ 90 lls surface, was terrible whirlpool
Ny through which its waters found their wa
ID !" me ocean by some subterranean con
a. @Onlcatlon' All these things had made
nsluent subject Of discussion in our de-
~ Mlory conversations around the fires {
n'' Ign'; and my own mind had become t
! NAOly well filed with their indefinite pie
u'es, and insensisy colored with their r.
n aan'lc descriptions, which, in the pleasur
. excitement, was well disposed 10 b
sti Tere, and half expected 70 realize.
10 where we descended into this beautill
CS ueN u is three to four miles in lengt
lSb peuecily level, aud bounded by mounta
lscal rus ridges, one above another, rising SUI
airs 0a,y from the plain.
NsS vr0sslng, in the afternoon, the point