useless to attempt to bluff the man and
boy, and they rode away without offering them the least harm. Carson and
his young companion instantly resumed their journey, still watchful
and alert; but they reached Bent's Fort without molestation, and the
dangerous venture was over.

CHAPTER XXII.

Kit Carson Hears Surprising News--He Visits Fremont--Is Re-engaged as
Guide--Fremont's Account of his Visit to Salt Lake.

Kit Carson was astonished on reaching Bent's Fort to learn that
Lieutenant Fremont had gone by on his second exploring expedition but a
few days before. Carson felt a strong attachment for his old leader
and galloped nearly a hundred miles to overtake him. Fremont gave
the mountaineer most cordial greeting and insisted so strongly on his
accompanying him that Carson could not refuse.

The object of Fremont's second exploration was to connect the survey of
the previous year with those of Commander Wilkes on the Pacific coast.
The first objective point was the Great Salt Lake of Utah, of which very
little was known at that time.

Carson was sent back to the fort to procure a number of mules. He did as
directed and rejoined Fremont at St. Vrain's Fort. The region traversed
by these explorers is so well known today that it is hard to realize
what a terra incognita it was but a short time since. Perhaps it will
be most instructive at this point to quote the words of the great
Pathfinder himself. The party arrived on the 21st of August on the
Bear River, one of the principal tributaries of Great Salt Lake. The
narrative of Fremont proceeds:

"We were now entering a region, which for us possessed a strange and
extraordinary interest. We were upon the waters of the famous lake which
forms a salient point among the remarkable geographical features of the
country, and around which the vague and superstitious accounts of
the trappers had thrown a delightful obscurity, which we anticipated
pleasure in dispelling, but which, in the meantime, left a crowded field
for the exercise of our imagination.

"In our occasional conversations with the few old hunters who had
visited the region, it had been a subject of frequent speculation; and
the wonders which they related were not the less agreeable because they
were highly exaggerated and impossible.

"Hitherto this lake had been seen only by trappers, who were wandering
through the country in search of new beaver streams, caring very little
for geography; its i