Los Angeles herald., 1890-03-31
THE PLAINS ACROSS.
The Diary that J. M. Hixson
Kept in 1849.
He Gets Through the Slough of
DespOnd
In the Terrible Sinks of the Hum
b0ldt.
He Survives Where Hundreds Perish from
Their Inability to Obtain
Water.

crossing the plains in 1S49, which the
HERALD has been publishing, the follow
ing chapter brings the narration to the
sinks of the Humboldt
The first twelve miles of our road this
morning was good. Here we reached
Salt creek-or rather a slough from the
pools-into the waters of which all the
substances, such as alkali, borax, salt,
ETC., had been thrown together. For
some distance the surrounding flats were
almost impossible, not swampy as one
would understand by the word, but rot
ten With great difficulty we passed
over this place, wagons sinking to the
bed, mules miring, etc. After crossing
this slough we had good road for eight
miles, when we came to point of sand
of less than a mile, but it gave us fore
cast of what we afterwards found for
miles. As soon as the wagons got into
the sand the mules stopped as though
the wheels of the wagons were locked.
The sand was as heavy as iron dust.
The sand would lift up on the rims of
the wheels and spokes and form almost
solid wheel. We had never encoun-
tered anything like it, and no pen pic
ture can give one any idea of it. 1t can
only be understood by seeing and expert
encing the effect on animals as we did,
with our starving and leg-weary ami
mails. After a tedious time of at least
one hour we crossed this point and came
to solid road OF a chalky formation for
two miles, when we reached another
stretch of sand. BY this time the sun
was sinking below the horizon of the
great sand domes before us. We unhar-
messed our animals to give them a
chance to roll and enjoy little rest III
the soft smooth road which they were so
soon to leave. | would say Just here
that some mules would starve with food
before them II they are not embarrassed,
and perish for water before drinking out
of bucket.
After preparing some coffee and par
taking of some crackers and cup of
what we called coffee made of the stuff
we had brought from the pools, and Civ
ing the mules the flags we had brought
in the wagons and giving those that
would drink out of the buckets some
water we had brought in the kegs, we
were on the road again after two hours
rest. 1t was now quite dark, and one of
the peculiaritres of this part of the con-
tinent is the blackness of night. The
stars may glimmer, but the darkness
near the earth is impenetrable.
The first sand we encountered was not
over half a mile in width, then we had
several miles of the same character of
chalky formation with more or less loose
stone. In places the road was as smooth
as glass, having the appearance of hav-
ing been lake of chalk or some similar
substance, and the water evaporating
left the bottom perfectly smooth.
After crossing this we came to a
stretch of about four miles of sand
of about the character we had encoun-
tered at other places on the road. Very
tiresome on the animals, but such as
they could get through by giving them
time, and resting frequently. Coming
out of that for few hundred yards, we
came to the great sand desert" of ten
miles between the sinks of the Hum
boldt and the Carson river, of which
the emigrants to California from lS42
to 1S49 had known-but few had expert
enced-as the road mostly travelled had
been further north, coming to the
Truckee in place of the Carson. Those
who had gone this way had usually had
pack animals.
We soon found that it would be use
less to undertake to make the trip with
our animals in their present condition
without tightening our wagons all that
was possible. We had two wagons
to which were attached ten
mules-six to one and four to the other
leaving nine extras. We packed every.
thing that we could put in condition tc
pack on the extras, leaving only our ba-
con and few things in the wagons
For while that appeared to help very
much. Those of us who had been privi
legged to ride our animals and 90 as we
pleased, found in walking and leading
the packed mules we had hard road tc
travel. had two, and it was
with great difficulty | could prevent
their tearing the fringes from nv new
suit of handsome bucksl<in clothing
They were constantly nipping the fringe
on my handsome mountain sheepskin
coat which ran across the shoulders and
on the sleeves, or on my buckskin pants
We had one experience that was quite
exciting. Having packed the 50-lb. sack
OF flour we had bought from the Tennes-
OF our best mules (the one I>had used
for riding mule until bought fresh
horse at Fort HalD, long after midnight
when men and beasts were almost ex-
hausted, all of sudden something
rushed past having the appearance of a
flame Of fire. As it passed, the teams,
tired as the mules were, would have
stampeded. Running for several hun
dred yards on the road ahead, the ap-
partition continued quite distance, when
it turned and came toward the
teams, and it was with diff
Guilty the drivers could keep
them in the road, the leaders doubling
back. Like flash the streak of fire
passed back on the road, but it was not
long before it came up again. Twas a
perfectly exhausted mule
1t appeared she reached around and
bitt the flour sack and when the flour
commenced to sift out in the darkness it
looked like fre-and she had ierked
away from the party leading her, and
the more the -four flew the more it
looked like a stream of fire, and it
created too much commotion to admit
of explanation until it was all over.
Where the lash rope had passed over
one end there was about enough -four
for one mess of biscuits-an So break