ide, narrowing
the pass so that they were obliged to travel in Indian file. It was a
singular place--the grey, smooth, rocky precipices--the strip of blue
sky far above--an open chasm, in which one would naturally expect if
anywhere, to encounter spirits and hobgoblins. Happily for our
wanderers, they were well aware they had not emigrated from the old
world, but in their place feared to encounter hostile Indians. Emerging
from this defile, they continued their course over a rocky surface, the
vegetation every moment growing more sparse, and when night came on
they were nowhere near water, and all they had to relieve their thirst
was what they found in crevices of rocks that had collected there
during the last rain. A little scanty herbage was all their horses
could find after their hard day's travel, and had they not brought a
supply of fowl from the lake where they had camped the night before,
they would have gone supperless to rest.

At early dawn they left that inhospitable spot, and by sunrise came to
the top of the acclivity of the range. Below them lay a beautiful
valley clothed with verdure, through which flowed a considerable river,
and beyond the range of hills that skirted it on the other side, rose
the topmost snow-covered peak of the Sierra. They found the descent
into the valley far more difficult than the ascent, the trail often
leading them along a narrow footpath, the rocks rising perpendicularly
on one side, while on the other were yawning chasms a hundred feet
below, apparently ready to receive them, should they stumble, or
deviate from the rugged path before them. They made the descent in
safety, and rested themselves for the remainder of the day on the bank
of the river. On examining the stream, they found it too deep to be
forded in the usual way of riding their horses over. They built a raft,
on which they crossed, holding the horses by the halter, making them
swim by its side.

The next morning, with a day's supply of provisions for themselves and
animals, they began the ascent of the range before them, the summit of
which they gained the next day with perfect safety, and then began the
opposite descent, camping for the night on the western side. The slope
at this point was less rugged and difficult of descent than the other,
and they encamped at its base, having made extraordinary marches the
last few days, taking into consideration the dangerous path over which
they had travelled. There was n