The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1857-09-17
sad liut True.
frsm n California Paper.

From CALIFORNIA PSrer
The following picture is as true AS it is
sad. Oar memory beats painful testimony
10 its literal correctness The full record OF
those terrible scenes will never be made on
earth. Although years have passed away,
We shujdcr when we remember what we
were forced 10 look upon:
The Coiaroos Chron,cie says that a few
days since two wagons arrived from Carson
Valley, loaded with wagon tires they hal
picked mp on the humboldt desert. The
most OF the iron was probably left there in
l~5o, during the months of July. August
aud september, Of which year no less than
five thousand head OF stock persisted on that
waste and at the sink Of the Humboldt,
and full two tiionsand wagons were s,rewn
along the road. 1t was estimated by some
that the number Of animals that persisted on
the desert alone. which is about seventy
miles wide, il placed in continuous line,
would have reached from Humboldt TO Car
son river
Although this assertion was probably
wildly made. il nevertheless CONVEYS to the
iinaginai on oi the reader some idea of the
suilcriugs of immigrants alone from the
sickeninc and pestiientiaI stencil which I'll
cd the heated and motionloss air from one
extent to the other Of that scene Of desola.
tion and death. And death ,raS there, not
alone TO the patient brute, but TO the mmi-
grant for cholera had followed in his track
from the Missouri river. and at last oycrta-
ken and laid i's relentless hand upon him
amidst the burning sands and poisonous at
rnosphcrc Of desert, without a drop Of
water to cool his lips, and where to remain
was death TO all.
Pen cannot dcscribe-and few, indeed
have cssaycd the task--thc scene Of josoIa-
,ion aud misery there witnessed during the
month Of August Of that memorable year
The whole line Of the road presented the ap-
pcarance Of vast battlefield, where thou
sands had met thousands in cnsanguirc
strife, and all bad persisted beside their
SLAM htcrcd horses and dism0unted cannon
Everything was there but food aud water
and money would buy neither, Wagons
and carriages, complete and brhken, water
kegs guns, stoves beds, axes, picks shovcls
cooking utensils, mechanical tools Of every
description anu lH' mat THIS tVf Dfit tl
two printing Offices, bes'rewed the road
while the cattle aud horses that had con
vcycd them hi'hcr were lying ro'ting he
side them. Amidst this ruin were men, wo-
m,n and chiidryn dying of disease cshaus-
ton, starvation and thirst, while over all
con,en,cdly scared the vulturc. as If cxultine
a, the death and ruin greeting him on every
side
Much of the iron lel, on the desert was
picked up and taken 10 salt Lake by "a con.
pany Of spccnlating Mormon.. in lsjI-'52
and few 'on. If VIZ mistake not, were
brought 10 rlaccryiIle in 1853. A number
or wagons some Of the heat mauufacture---
were also brought 10 this State IN 1852,
hlt b. that time most Of them had ben de-
.troycl by the immigrants for frewood.-
The iron, however, il still there, or a, least
a portion Of i. and We Doubt not many tons
viii find their way into California, now that
The roads over the mountains have been ~
much improved