The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-12-09
EBENSBURG, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1852.

had been SO great that Capt. Stansbury descr
: bed the road as being as broad and well beate
o as any turnpike road in the country but th
: dangers and difficulties which the emigrant
: have to encounter from the want of bridges @
t ferries,-and more especially from the terribl
scarcity of water, which causes hundreds G
, cattle to die on the road, thus forcing the emf
) grants to abandon nearly all that they possess
glad to escalse sith their own lives,-are numer
Gus and terrible in the extreme.
The evidences Of these suferings meet the
travellers eye all along the route,-but espe
clally as he approaches the district of the Great
Salt Lake. The road is strewed with the car
cases of horses and cattle which have fallen ex-
hausted from fatigue and thirst or poisoned BY
saline springs,-dOzens of wagons lie OF the
road in heaps, burnt, disabled, or abandoned, -
hundreds of pounds of bacon and other provi-
sions, thrown away from the failure of the
means of transport, and With these lie in con-
fused abandonment almost every article of house
hold furniture and every sort of cooking uensil
I that can be imagi ned For hundreds of miles
! the prairie is covered with excellent clothing,
harness, ploughs, miners, blacksmiths' and car
penters' tools of every possible variety,-to-
! gether with bar iron, steel, and other materials
of industry, excellent scientific instruments and
books of every description, collected doubtless
with much labor and great sacrifice and carried
with infinite trouble and anxiety distance of
perhaps 1000 miles, TO be at last left to rot on
! the road through this terrible and extraordinary
country. No wonder, then, that vast number
Of those WHO set out full of health and vigor
dreary solitudes, retrace their steps with sad
hearts and shattered frames
Capt. Stansbury's party frequently passed
from four to six graves of emigrants in day.
many of them recently made,-nameless but
sad m ementoes OF disappointed hopes and san
guine enterprise. Scarcely a day passed in
which they did not meet some party of emf
grants returning in wretched plight-aIl that
they possessed sold, given away, GA abandoned.
Some of the men attached to this Expedition
disgraced themselves by abandoning it for the
land of promised gold. One party of these, as
the Captain afterwards heard, were stripped by
the Indians of every article they possessed, and
were left to ini their way to California in the
most miserable plight
An amusing instance is here recorded of the
way in which an ingenious emigrant met diff
fculty. Having a number of kegs of brandy,
which he was compelled to leave in the prairie,
he buried his cherished cordial in the earth,
covered it like grave, and placed at the head
full and particular if not trHe, acco unit OF the
deceased,-his name, age, where he was s'rais-
ed," and when he fell, being set forth in remark
ably distinct characters. Further on, he sold
the brandy to some traders, who easily found
the affecting memorial, and drew the spirit from
its rebose
We have often hear curious anecdotes of the
prairie dog but none more strange than those
related by Capt. Stansbury, which from the evil
IDENTIFY cautious character of the narrator de
mand attention. He says that the holes in the
ground in which these little creatures live are
shared by the rattesnake-seyeral instances of
which came under the observation of the party
But what is still more extraordinary, we are
told, that little, white burrowing owl (Stryr- !
is also frequently found taking up
its abode in the same domiciie and this strange
association of reptile, bird ard beast seem to live
together in perfect harmony and peace. The
Captain does not give this latter faot on his per-
sonal voucher but says that he has been as
sured of it from so many, so various and such
credible sources, that he could not doubt it.
On its way home the Expedition succeeded in
striking out shorter route through the chain
of the Rocky Mountains making saving of
81 miles in the road from the Great Salt Lake
to Fort Bridger, on the Green Rivera distance
of about 400 miles The newly discovered road
has also the great advantage of being very
nearly in perfectly straight line.