became separated, and with the riding animals of a portion of the party were confronted with a prostrate trunk of a huge tree, about four feet in diameter, around which it was impossible to pass because of the obstructions of fallen timber.  Yet pass it we must; and the animals, one after another, were brought up to the log, their breasts touching it, when Williamson and I, the two strongest men of the party, on either side of an animal, stooped down, and, placing each a shoulder back of a fore leg of a horse, rose to an erect position, while others of the party placed his fore feet over the log, which he was thus enabled to scale.  In this way we lifted fifteen or twenty of our animals over the log.

Soon after leaving our camp this morning our “Little Invulnerable,” while climbing a steep rocky ascent, missed his footing and turned three back summersaults down into the bottom of the ravine.  We assisted him to his feet without removing his pack, and he seemed none the worse for his adventure, and quickly regained the ridge from which he had fallen and joined the rest of the herd.

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon we halted for the day, having traveled about six miles, but our camp to-night is not more than three miles from our morning camp.

Mr. Hedges’ pack horse, “Little Invulnerable,” was missing when we camped; and, as I was one of the four men detailed for the day to take charge of the pack train, I returned two miles on our trail with the two packers, Reynolds and Bean, in search of him.  We found him wedged between two trees, evidently enjoying a rest, which he sorely needed after his remarkable acrobatic feat of the morning.  We are camped in a basin not far from the lake, which surrounds us on three sides—­east, north and west.  Mr. Everts has not yet come into camp, and we fear that he is lost.

About noon we crossed a small stream that flows towards the southwest arm of the lake, but which, I think, is one of the headwater streams of Snake river.  I think that we have crossed the main divide of the Rocky Mountains twice to-day.  We have certainly crossed it once, and if we have not crossed it twice we are now camped on the western slope of the main divide.  If the creek we crossed about noon to-day continues to flow in the direction it was running at the point where we crossed it, it must discharge into the southwest arm of the lake, and it seems probable that Mr. Everts has followed down this stream.

I have just had a little talk with Lieutenant Doane.  He thinks that our camp to-night is on the Snake river side of the main divide, and there are many things that incline me to believe that he is correct in his opinion.[R]