as they became
unserviceable and could go no farther. We had no salt, sugar, coffee,
or tobacco, which, at a time when men are performing the severest labor
that the human system is capable of enduring, was a great privation. In
this destitute condition we found a substitute for tobacco in the bark
of the red willow, which grows upon many of the mountain streams in
that vicinity. The outer bark is first removed with a knife, after
which the inner bark is scraped up into ridges around the sticks, and
held in the fire until it is thoroughly roasted, when it is taken off
the stick, pulverized in the hand, and is ready for smoking. It has the
narcotic properties of the tobacco, and is quite agreeable to the taste
and smell. The sumach leaf is also used by the Indians in the same way,
and has a similar taste to the willow bark. A decoction of the dried
wild or horse mint, which we found abundant under the snow, was quite
palatable, and answered instead of coffee. It dries up in that climate,
but does not lose its flavor. We suffered greatly for the want of salt;
but, by burning the outside of our mule steaks, and sprinkling a little
gunpowder upon them, it did not require a very extensive stretch of the
imagination to fancy the presence of both salt and pepper. We tried the
meat of horse, colt, and mules, all of which were in a starved
condition, and of course not very tender, juicy, or nutritious. We
consumed the enormous amount of from five to six pounds of this meat
per man daily, but continued to grow weak and thin, until, at the
expiration of twelve days, we were able to perform but little labor,
and were continually craving for fat meat.

The allowance of provisions for each grown person, to make the journey
from the Missouri River to California, should suffice for 110 days. The
following is deemed requisite, viz.: 150 lbs. of flour, or its
equivalent in hard bread; 25 lbs. of bacon or pork, and enough fresh
beef to be driven on the hoof to make up the meat component of the
ration; 15 lbs. of coffee, and 25 lbs. of sugar; also a quantity of
saleratus or yeast powders for making bread, and salt and pepper.

These are the chief articles of subsistence necessary for the trip, and
they should be used with economy, reserving a good portion for the
western half of the journey. Heretofore many of the California
emigrants have improvidently exhausted their stocks of provisions
before reaching their journey's end, and have, in