ith
their hands to the rocks above them. A crust of ice and snow covered
the ground, and the horses being unshod, floundered and stumbled, and
often made narrow escapes from being precipitated into the abyss below.
The poor beasts seemed to comprehend the danger, and carefully tried
the ground at every step before venturing their weight fully upon it,
and shuddering and trembling, kept as far from the edge of the
ice-bound rocks as the narrowness of the pass would allow them. The sun
shone brightly, but it created little warmth, and in the middle of June
they were suffering the rigors of winter.

Safely they stood upon the summit of the Sierra! Away to the west a
smooth blue belt girt the horizon, while to the east a long range of
mountains rose against the sky. It was the Pacific on the west, and the
Wahsatch mountains on the east, with the broad valleys basking in a
summer sun between them, through which rivers wound their dark
serpentine lines, while away to the north-east the great desert lay,
with its white sands glittering beneath the rays that fell upon it.

What struck them as peculiar, was numerous dark spots scattered at
intervals over the barren waste, while in the centre lay some of
immense size, clothed with dark verdure, from the midst of which rose a
mountain, looking from that distance, like a shaft against the sky.
They concluded to themselves, these must be strips of land, yet in
their wanderings they had come across but one. They did not relish the
idea of being caught in darkness on that inhospitable elevation, and
turning their steps once more into the trail, began the descent.
Greatly to their relief, they found this more even and less steep, and
descended a few hundred feet without any great exertion. They now could
breathe freer, and began to be much relieved. Ice and snow also
disappeared, and keeping on their way steadily, by night they reached a
refreshing spring, around which grass grew in abundance, and by which
they encamped for the night. Tired and weary as they were, they were
more cheerful and happy that night than they had been for months
previously, it seemed to them that the great barrier had been overcome,
and they had safely passed the last fiery ordeal they should be called
to encounter. They felt as though the night had passed, and day was
dawning on their weary and forlorn prospects.

They were in no great hurry to be on their road the next morning, for
on awaking they found t