material into small cakes which were dried in the sun.  The dried cakes were as black as coal and intended for winter use.  These roots before roasting were unfit for food, as they contained a sort of acrid juice that would make the tongue smart and very sore but there was a very good rich taste when cooked.  The woman pointed to our horses and said “Walker”, so we knew they were aware that we got them of him, and might have taken us for horse thieves for aught I know.  As it was not yet night when we came to the camp, we passed on and camped on a clear mountain brook where grew some pine trees.  After a little some of the Indians belonging to the camp we had passed came in, bringing some venison, for which we traded by giving them some needles and a few other trinkets.  I beat these fellows shooting at a mark, and then they wanted to trade guns, which I declined.  This piece of meat helped us along considerably with our provisions, for game was very scarce and only some sage hens had come across our trail.  One day I scared a hawk off the ground, and we took the sage hen he had caught and was eating, and made some soup of it.

After being on this trail six or seven days we began to think of killing one of our colts for food, for we had put ourselves on two meals a day and the work was very hard; so that hunger was all the time increasing.  We thought this was a pretty long road for Walker to ride over in three sleeps as he said he could, and we began also to think there might be some mistake somewhere, although it had otherwise turned out just as he said.  On the eighth day our horse-tracks came out into a large trail which was on a down grade leading in a northward direction.  On the ninth day we came into a large valley, and near night came in sight of a few covered wagons, a part of a train that intended going on a little later over the southern route to Los Angeles but were waiting for the weather to get a little cooler, for a large part of the route was over almost barren deserts.  We were very glad to find these wagons, for they seemed to have plenty of food and the bountiful supper they treated us to was the very thing we needed.  We camped here and told them of the hardships we had passed through.  They had hired a guide, each wagon paying him ten dollars for his service.  Our little party talked over the situation among ourselves, and concluded that as we were good walkers we must allow ourselves to be used in any way so that we had grub and concluded as many of us as possible would try to get some service to do for our board and walk along with the party.  John Rogers had a dollar and a half and I had thirty dollars, which was all the money we had in our camp.  We found out we were about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City.  Some of the boys next day arranged to work for their board, and the others would be taken along if they would furnish themselves with flour and bacon.  This part of the proposition fell to me and two others, and so Hazelrig and I took the two