Year: 1860

you, to give you whatever there might be of
romance in our late trip. And believing that
. can 10 better accomplish this task than by
plain facts, and figures, shall strive more to
take the reader Gn Imagination only) over
the dreary waste trayersed by our little band
to enable him to appreciate the reality of our
path than by high sounding swells of rhetor-
ieal fiction or eaoorately rounded periods
of fancy to tickle the ear of the critic, or ex-
cite admiring wonder Of the lover of the
marvellous. If then my frieuds-your read
ers-complain that my style is monotonous,
hope their charity will ascribe it to the
scarceness of that interminable succession of
sandy desert waste that constituted the thea
tire Of our explorations.


Having said this much by way Of apology
in advance, l will add word of explanation
as an apology for what may seem to those
who may have taken the trouble TO peruse
these notes as strange breaking Of the con-
Meeting rods of my narrative.


/ wrote two or three articles descriptive of
scenes and incidents fresh in my minds eye
at the time of writing, and took such meas
ures as 1 supposed would insure their safe
arrival at your sanctum, but as they have
thus far failed to arrive must either pro.
cure their further Transmission and insertion,
or rewrite the lost articles or a substitute, as
our dear readers and posterity will lose the
literary treasures and flights of poetic beau
ties that near as can now remember are
made up of dry detail of incidents of camp
life, face of the country, Indians squaws and
general calamities.


From TIE ha-cha-py Valley, our route lay
along the Eastern base of the Sierras as far as
Rock Creek, some eighty miles over an un-
dulating country, having an abundance of the
essentials of camp life with sutiicency of
Injuries, such as deer, antelope and bear to
excite the energies and reward the toll of the
sportsman. To reach this point We had de-
waited far from our direct course, drifting
along the borders Of the immense desert that
stretches far eastward from the rugged base
of the Sicrras. But now the realities Of the
trip begin to look us grimly in the face, and
the notes of preparation are sounded for
long struggle with the heated sands and
thirsty rocks of the Great American Sahara


To describe all our various paraphernaa
were useless as well as impossible but there
is one essential though to many a novel article
of camp furniture, that must not pass over
in silence; and which | will introduce as it
was presented 10 us.


1 was seated upon the trunk of fallen cot
ton wood listening to the music of the 'bab
bling brook " and the signs of the zephyr
stirred leaves, busying myself in the manu-
faeture Of what l designed to call a gig
formed of one side Of a machere sewed togeth
er with a whang, when / Glanced to over
hear something like the following compli
mentary colloquy, between Yankee Sam and
Torpaun Jack:


s-"What the HIS the Capn dewen
on p


J-"Blamcd ef know, unless he's making
hams And shiver my timbers ef be amt
maxim first rate headway"


However morlirying this might be to my
artistic pride, candor compels me to admit
the justness of the criticism, for the thing
when completed did bear strnoger resem-
blance to one of Ames sugar coated hams
than anything had ever before seen, though
| afterwards met its counterpart in the pos
session of a Mexican on the desert only the
counterpart was jet black while the identical
was about the color Of Arkansas jeans. But
the elitter was an invaluable friend alforiing
US the liquid essential for a savory cup Of eof
see to cheer the tolls Of many desert march;
answering all the purposes of its erection till
it was finally appropriated 10y an unscrupu
less Indian.


We left Rock Greek at o'clock P. NJ, and
making two hours halt at midnight on the
desert reached the Mohave pronounced Mo
hah-ny) River at sunrise next morning,
distance of forty five miles


The Mohave here is beautiful, brssb run
ding stream flowing over a sand shaded with
rich green foliage Of the cotton wood and
bordered with rich carpet Of luxurient
grass But, as we descended the valley, the
waters were soon lost ia that tomb of sand
from which they never more emerged except
in here and there II streamless slough or aka.
line spring; the only assurance the traveller
has that he is descending river being an oc.
casonal patch Of cotton wood or the green
foliage of the Muskeet and Screw beans,
trees that flourish only where there is moist
ure in reach of their for searching roots


Sixty miles from where we first reached
the Mohave is Camp Cady temporary bou-
lac for party Of United States troops that
visited this region last spring. for the purpose
of chastising Indians for depredations on the
whites. The party was in command of Col
Carlton who built a neat and strong adobe
redoubt near the camp, designed as fortress
in cases of emergency. into which the passing
emigrant might gather his household treas
ures for protection from the murderous sava-
ges But in the absence Of troops to defend
it, cannot its shelter be as serviceable to the
red as to the white man?


The country bordering on the Mohave
Valley is made up of burnt mountain rocks
and hills of barren sand, destitute Of all veg
citation, suited to the subsistence of animal
life and destitute Of water, but abounding in
various mineral deposits


Having arrived at the threshold of a coun.
try differapf oil ;ts ob,rc.tar;stio foo+nras