“Another long progress to the south, skirting the western base of the Sierra Nevada, made him acquainted with the noble valley of the San Joaquin, counterpart to that of the Sacramento; when crossing through a gap, and turning to the left, he skirted the Great Basin; and by many deviations from the right line home, levied incessant contributions to science from expanded lands, not described before.  In this eventful exploration, all the great features of the western slope of our continent were brought to light—­the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Lake, the Little Salt Lake; at all which places, then deserts, the Mormons now are; the Sierra Nevada, then solitary in the snow, now crowded with Americans, digging gold from its flanks:  the beautiful valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, then alive with wild horses, elk, deer, and wild fowls, now smiling with American cultivation; the Great Basin itself and its contents; the Three Parks; the approximation of the great rivers which, rising together in the central region of the Rocky Mountains, go off east and west, towards the rising and the setting sun—­all these, and other strange features of a new region, more Asiatic than American, were brought to light and revealed to public view in the results of this exploration.

“Eleven months he was never out of sight of snow; and sometimes, freezing with cold, would look down upon a sunny valley, warm with genial heat;—­sometimes panting with the summer’s heat, would look up at the eternal snows which crowned the neighboring mountain.  But it was not then that California was secured to the Union—­to the greatest power of the New World—­to which it of right belonged; but it was the first step towards the acquisition, and the one that led to it.  The second expedition led to a third, just in time to snatch the golden California from the hands of the British, ready to clutch it.  But of this hereafter.  Fremont’s second expedition was now over.  He had left the United States a fugitive from his government, and returned with a name that went over Europe and America, and with discoveries bearing fruit which the civilized world is now enjoying.”

On their homeward-bound journey, the party followed up the valley of the San Joaquin crossing over the Sierra Nevada and coast range of mountains at a point where they join and form a beautiful low pass.  They continued on from here close under the coast range until they struck the Spanish Trail.  This they followed to the Mohave River.  That stream, it will be recollected, was an old friend of Kit Carson’s.  The reader will recall the many times he had caught beaver out of its waters.  They followed the trail up the course of the river to where it leaves it.  At this point an event occurred which somewhat retarded their progress, relieving the monotony of the route and somewhat changing their plans.