and as, during the winter season, the
temperature often undergoes a sudden change of many degrees at the time
the storm sets in, the perspiration is checked, and the system receives
an instantaneous shock, against which it requires great vital energy to
bear up. Men and animals are not, in this mild climate, prepared for
these capricious meteoric revolutions, and they not unfrequently perish
under their effects.

While passing near the head waters of the Colorado in October, 1849, I
left one of my camps at an early hour in the morning under a mild and
soft atmosphere, with a gentle breeze from the south, but had marched
only a short distance when the wind suddenly whipped around into the
north, bringing with it a furious chilling rain, and in a short time
the road became so soft and heavy as to make the labor of pulling the
wagons over it very exhausting upon the mules, and they came into camp
in a profuse sweat, with the rain pouring down in torrents upon them.

They were turned out of harness into the most sheltered place that
could be found; but, instead of eating, as was their custom, they
turned their heads from the wind, and remained in that position,
chilled and trembling, without making the least effort to move. The
rain continued with unabated fury during the entire day and night, and
on the following morning thirty-five out of one hundred and ten mules
had perished, while those remaining could hardly be said to have had a
spark of vitality left. They were drawn up with the cold, and could
with difficulty walk. Tents and wagon-covers were cut up to protect
them, and they were then driven about for some time, until a little
vital energy was restored, after which they commenced eating grass, but
it was three or four days before they recovered sufficiently to resume
the march.

The mistake I made was in driving the mules after the "norther"
commenced. Had I gone immediately into camp, before they became heated
and wearied, they would probably have eaten the grass, and this, I have
no doubt, would have saved them; but as it was, their blood became
heated from overwork, and the sudden chill brought on a reaction which
proved fatal. If an animal will eat his forage plentifully, there is
but little danger of his perishing with cold. This I assert with much
confidence, as I once, when traveling with about 1500 horses and mules,
encountered the most terrific snow-storm that has been known within the
memory of the old