.
Three horses were lost today--Proveau; a fine young horse from the
Columbia, belonging to Charles Towns; and another Indian horse which
carried our cooking utensils; the two former gave out, and the latter
strayed off into the woods as we reached the camp: and Derosier knowing
my attachment to Proveau, volunteered to go and bring him in.

"Carson and I climbed one of the nearest mountains; the forest land
still extended ahead, and the valley appeared as far as ever. The pack
horse was found near the camp, but Derosier did not get in.

"We began to be uneasy at Derosier's absence, fearing he might have been
bewildered in the woods. Charles Towns, who had not yet recovered his
mind, went to swim in the river, as if it was summer, and the stream
placid, when it was a cold mountain torrent foaming among the rocks.
We were happy to see Derosier appear in the evening. He came in,
and sitting down by the fire, began to tell us where he had been. He
imagined he had been gone several days, and thought we were still at the
camp where he had left us; and we were pained to see that his mind was
deranged. It appeared that he had been lost in the mountain, and hunger
and fatigue, joined to weakness of body, and fear of perishing in the
mountains had crazed him. The times were severe when stout men lost
their minds from extremity of suffering--when horses died--and when
mules and horses, ready to die of starvation, were killed for food.
Yet there was no murmuring or hesitation. In the meantime Mr. Preuss
continued on down the river, and unaware that we had encamped so early
in the day, was lost. When night arrived and he did not come in, we
began to understand what had happened to him; but it was too late to
make any search.

"March 3.--We followed Mr. Preuss's trail for a considerable distance
along the river, until we reached a place where he had descended to the
stream below and encamped. Here we shouted and fired guns, but received
no answer; and we concluded that he had pushed on down the stream.
I determined to keep out from the river, along which it was nearly
impracticable to travel with animals, until it should form a valley.
At every step the country improved in beauty; the pines were rapidly
disappearing, and oaks became the principal trees of the forest. Among
these, the prevailing tree was the evergreen oak (which, by way of
distinction, we shall call the live oak); and with these, occurred
frequently a new species o