Before the Commissioners left the camp, they urged General Johnston not to delay the advance of the army one moment beyond the time when he should be ready and desire to march.  On the 8th of June, Captain Marcy arrived at the Fort with a herd of nearly fifteen hundred mules and horses, and an escort of five companies of infantry and mounted riflemen.  He left the village of Rayado, on the Canadian River, in New Mexico, on the 17th of March, and, instead of retracing the route pursued on his winter journey, which had led him near the sources of Grand River, one of the great forks of the Colorado, he returned along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountain range past Long’s and Pike’s Peaks.  When he had reached Fontaine-qui-bouille Creek, an express overtook him from General Garland, who commanded the Department of New Mexico, enjoining him to halt and await reinforcements.  There he camped more than three weeks.  Renewing his progress, he was overtaken, on the 29th of April, by the same snowstorm which was so disastrous to Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffmann on La Bonte.  It was accompanied by a furious wind, the force of which there was nothing to break.  Snow fell to the depth of three feet, and, at the very height of the storm, a part of the mule herd stampeded and ran fifty miles before the wind, for shelter.  When the march was resumed, after an interval of several days, hundreds of antelopes were found frozen and buried in the drifts,—­a circumstance almost unparalleled among the mountains.  With this exception, nothing occurred to obstruct the march.  Captain Marcy brought with him specimens of sand from many of the tributaries of the South Platte, which were found, on analysis, to contain particles of gold; and within two months after he gathered them, the same discovery, confirmed by others, originated the emigration to that region, the progress of which now promises the speedy birth of another Free State in the very heart of the continent.  On the 9th and 10th, Colonel Hoffmann reached the camp with all his supply-trains; and on the following day, General Johnston issued the welcome order to prepare for the march to Salt Lake City.  A strong detachment of infantry and artillery was detailed to garrison Fort Bridger.

On the 13th of June, the long camp was broken up, and the army moved forward in three columns on the route through the canons.  Although the season was so far advanced, snow had fallen at the Fort only three days before.  The streams were swollen and turbulent with spring floods, and difficulty was anticipated in crossing the Bear and Weber Rivers.  Material for bridging had, therefore, been prepared, and accompanied the first column.  Southwest of the Fort, at the distance of four or five miles, a singular butte, the top of which is as level as the floor of a ball-room, rises to the height of eight hundred feet above the valley of Black’s Fork, and commands a view of the entire broad plateau between the Wind River