An incident is related by Colonel Fremont, in which Kit Carson enjoyed a cold-bath, which occurred during this terrible march. “February Twenty-third.—­This was our most difficult day; we were forced off the ridges by the quantity of snow among the timber, and obliged to take to the mountain-sides, where, occasionally, rocks and a southern exposure afforded us a chance to scramble along.  But these were steep and slippery with snow and ice; and the tough evergreens of the mountain impeded our way, tore our skins, and exhausted our patience.  Some of us had the misfortune to wear moccasins with parfleche soles, so slippery that we could not keep our feet, and generally crawled across the snow beds.  Axes and mauls were necessary to-day, to make a road through the snow.  Going ahead with Carson to reconnoitre the road, we reached in the afternoon the river which made the outlet of the lake.  Carson sprang over, clear across a place where the stream was compressed among the rocks, but the parfleche sole of my moccasin glanced from the icy rock, and precipitated me into the river.  It was some few seconds before I could recover myself in the current, and Carson thinking me hurt jumped in after me, and we both had an icy bath.  We tried to search awhile for my gun, which had been lost in the fall, but the cold drove us out; and, making a large fire on the bank, after we had partially dried ourselves, we went back to meet the camp.  We afterwards found that the gun had been slung under the ice which lined the banks of the creek.”

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It was while undergoing such experience as we have endeavored to narrate that the characters of men show forth in their true light and can be fully analyzed.  John C. Fremont never was found wanting in times such as tried men’s hearts.  He was worthy of the trust reposed in him.  His was no ordinary command.  The men he had to deal with, in their line, had no superiors on the American Continent; yet, he proved a match for any one of them and gained from them the name of being a good mountaineer, an encomium they are not prone to bestow lightly.

The party now commenced descending the mountains.  On reaching the valley beneath, Fremont, taking Kit Carson and six of the men, pushed on in advance, in order to reach Sutter’s Fort, where he would be able to purchase provisions.  Fitzpatrick was left in charge of the main party, with orders to make easy marches.  The second day after this division was made, Mr. Preuss, Fremont’s assistant, accidentally got lost.  His friends began making search for him.  This failing, they traveled on slowly, fired guns and used every means in their power to let their whereabouts be known to him.  After wandering about for four days, to the surprise and joy of his companions, he came into camp.  During his absence he had subsisted on acorns and roots, and, as a matter of course, was nearly exhausted both in body and mind.  Three days after Mr. Preuss was restored to them, Fremont, with the advance party, reached Sutter’s Fort.  He and his party were very hospitably received.  They were entertained with the best the post could furnish, by its kind-hearted proprietor.  Never did men more deserve such treatment.  The condition of all was about as miserable as it could well be imagined, for men who retained their hold on life.