and guide it across the dreary waste.  Before the party had accomplished more than half the distance to Kit Carson’s advance, night set in, forcing the whole band to encamp without water, grass, or fuel.  The camp became more necessary because the darkness was so great that they could not follow the trail in a night march.  Early the following day the march was resumed, and a few hours served once more to reunite the command.  They had the misfortune, however, to lose a few of their animals.  The place which Kit Carson had selected for the camp was, to the weary travelers, in every respect equal to an oasis on the Great Sahara.  There is no one thing which a traveler on the plains dreads more than being forced to camp without water and grass.

At this resting-place Colonel Fremont, in order to accomplish as much as possible, divided his forces into two commands.  One of them he gave into the charge of Mr. Talbot, his assistant, and appointed for his guide a mountaineer named Walker.  To this party Colonel Fremont gave instructions to shape their course for Mary’s River; on striking which, they were to follow down the stream to where it is lost in the Great Basin.  Colonel Fremont retained with him fifteen men besides his guide.  The route which he pursued lay in the country south of Mary’s River forming a large tract of land, which it was very desirable that he should explore.  After finishing this, he was to join Talbot on the lake which is formed by the widening of the Carson River.  The country through which Colonel Fremont traveled, he found to be well furnished with grass, water and wood.  It is highly picturesque; but, as its characteristics are so vividly painted in his reports, it is superfluous to add our attempt to the same task.  Having arrived at the lake already mentioned, he there awaited the arrival of Talbot.  It was three days before the command was again united.  They, however, remained together only one night.  Early the following morning they separated once more.  This time, Talbot’s instructions were, to find a certain pass which would bring him out in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which he was to cross, and then keep on his course for the waters of the San Joaquin.  Fremont, with his division, journeyed up the Carson River, and after traversing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, he arrived safe at Sutter’s Fort, without meeting with any incidents that were not to be expected on such a trip.  Captain Sutter, with his usual urbanity of manner, kindly received them, and supplied their wants.  Of him, Fremont purchased forty head of cattle and a few horses, with which he set out to look for Mr. Talbot.  In doing so, he traveled up the valley of the San Joaquin, and forded that river at about where it is ushered forth from the mountains.  Mr. Talbot was not to be found in this direction, so the party went to Kings River, and journeyed up it to its head waters.  It now happened that the cattle belonging to the party began to grow foot-sore