Unconscious, therefore, of his wife’s action,—­which might easily have ruined his career—­Fremont pushed on.  The howitzer accompanied him into Oregon, back through into Nevada, and is clearly seen in the picture of Pyramid Lake drawn by Mr. Preuss (which appears in the original report), showing it after it had traveled in the neighborhood of four thousand miles.

The last time it was fired as far as the Fremont Expedition is concerned was on Christmas Eve, in 1843.  The party was camped on Christmas Lake, now known as Warner Lake, Oregon, and the following morning the gun crew wakened Fremont with a salute, fired in honor of the day.  A month later, two hundred and fifty miles south, it was to be abandoned in the mountains near West Walker River, on account of the deep snow which made it impossible for the weary horses to drag it further.

On the 28th of January Fremont thus writes: 

    To-night we did not succeed in getting the howitzer into camp. 
    This was the most laborious day we had yet passed through, the
    steep ascents and deep snows exhausting both men and animals.

Possibly now the thought began to take possession of him that the weapon must be left behind.  For long weary days it had been a constant companion.  It had been dragged over the plains, mountains and canyons.  It was made to ford rivers, plunge through quicksands and wallow through bog, mire, mud, marsh and snow.  Again and again it delayed them when coming over sandy roads, but tenaciously Fremont held on to it.  Now deep snow forbade its being dragged further.  Haste over the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada was imperative, for such peaks and passes are no lady’s playground when the forces of winter begin to linger there, yet one can well imagine the regret and distress felt by the Pathfinder at being compelled to abandon this cannon, to which he had so desperately clung on all the wearisome miles his company had hitherto marched.

On the 29th he writes: 

The principal stream still running through an impracticable canyon, we ascended a very steep hill, which proved afterwards the last and fatal obstacle to our little howitzer, which was finally abandoned at this place. [This place appears to be about eight or ten miles up the river from Coleville, and on the right or east side of the river.] We passed through a small meadow a few miles below, crossing the river, which depth, swift current, and rock, made it difficult to ford [this brings him to the west bank for the first time, but the cannon did not get this far, and therefore was left on the east side of the river.  This is to be noted on account of the fact that it was found on the other side of the river in another canyon], and after a few more miles of very difficult trail, issued into a larger prairie bottom, at the farther end of which we camped, in a position rendered strong by rocks and trees.

The reader must not forget that the notes in brackets [ ] are interjections in Fremont’s narrative by Mr. Smith, (see the chapter on Fremont’s discovery of Lake Tahoe).