case he should need sick diet. By boiling the
eggs and milk and arrowroot together in six
gallons of water, there was produced an
incomparable blancmange. Great was the
delight of the company when, after a rich
dinner of horse and candle, all palates were
soothed with a blancmange of sugar, arrowroot,
and egg, thickening six gallons of water
and a pint of milk.

The period of real suffering and privation
was begun with the new year. A few days
after the descent of the Cochotope Pass, a
high and steep mountain had to be scaled.
When half way up, one of the foremost
baggage mules lost his balance from the
sinking of his hind feet in the snow, and
tumbling back heels over head, knocked
down nearly all the animals below him, so
that there rolled an avalanche of fifty mules
and horses down over the snow to the bottom
of the mountain. One mule and a horse were
killed. On the day following, during the
descent on the other side of the same
mountain, all the poles of the large lodge or
tent were broken by contact with the
trees; the lodge then became useless, and
the men thenceforward had to sleep in
their blankets and buffalo-robes upon the
open snow.

After having crossed another snow
mountain, a Delaware brought in a fat young
horse that he had killed, and that proved
much more palatable than their own starved
and weary animals, upon which the explorers
had been feeding. There were found also
recent tracks of Utah Indians. Again the
utmost vigilance was needed in the camp;
all were warned to look to their arms, and it
occurred then to our painter that as he had
used his rifle for a walking-stick while
traversing deep snow, it might not be in good
condition. He therefore retired into a corner,
and attempted to discharge it; both caps
exploded, but the gun would not go off, the
barrel, in fact, being full of ice. At the same
moment, the face of the sharp-eared and
sharp-sighted colonel was upon the culprit,
and it was the painter's turn to receive
solemn warning on the danger of neglects
that might seem trivial, but were indeed
most serious, among men travelling with
their lives in daily peril. There were visits
to the camp from two sets of Indians, each
claiming, and the first getting compensation
for the fat horse, then only half eaten. The
first party was lachrymose, the second
bellicose. The threats of the Utah warriors
alarmed the painter, but the colonel quietly
remarked that he was quite sure there was
not powder enough to load a rifle in the
whole tribe of the Utahs; for he knew those
Indians, and if they had any ammunition
they would have surrounded us, he said, and
massacred us, and stolen what they now
demand and are parleying for. Thereat the
painter regained courage, and obeying the
word of his chief, went forth and demonstrated
to the Indians, by causing bullet after
bullet to be fired at a mark from a navy
revolver (secretly substituting another when
the six barrels were all discharged), that it
was of no use to contend with travellers
whose guns never required loading. After
this display, the savages, who had but
muskets, and with them no powder, became
very pacific in their dispositions.

The Grand River (eastern fork of the
Colorado) had to be crossed by swimming the
cold flood and by scrambling and leaping
over blocks of ice. In spite of every such
incident, of beds on the snow under the open
heaven, and exposure to extreme severity
of frost, snow-storms, and once a deluge
of rain all night long, throughout this
journey, says Mr. Carvalho, "I never took
the slightest cold, either in my head or
chest; I do not recollect ever sneezing.
While at home. I ever was most susceptible
to cold."

The country between the Grand River and
the Green River is very sterile; there was no
water at all between these rivers when the
expedition crossed. When the Green River
was reached, Indians were seen on the high
sand-bluffs on the other side; these led them
to a fertile spot on which their village was
erected, and gave them grass-seed which they
collected in the autumn, and upon which they
lived all the year through. Their women
parch and grind it. It is nourishing and
easy of digestion. The resources of the
expedition were so far reduced, that our
painter gladly gave for a quart of this dried
seed, everything that he could spare out of
his daguerreotype box and several articles of
necessary clothing. Colonel Fremont bought
a lame horse which was in very good condition,
and he and his men, who had not tasted
food for the last two days, supped upon it
joyfully. The painter satisfied himself so
well, that when next day an exceedingly fat
porcupine was killed, his stomach returned
to its daintiness, and he sat hungry, while
his companions were enjoying the white
meat, which looked very much like fat
pork.

The artist, the topographical engineer, and
the assistant engineer—because they had to
make halts to perform their several duties—
usually marched far in the rear of the whole
band of explorers. They came up with all
the strayed and stubborn mules and to their
lot it fell to drive them on. Many of the
party, whose horses had given out and been
slaughtered for food, were on foot, and that
was the case with the three men in the rear,
who like the rest had worn out their mocassins
and were marching nearly barefoot among
flinty mountains. One day the assistant
engineer, Mr. Fuller, who had never uttered
a word of complaint while there remained in
him any power at all, surprised his
companions by telling them that he had given
out. "Nonsense, man! rest, and try again."