terruption.

I must pass rapidly over the next few days of our journey. We worked
our way along the rugged gorges through which the river forced a
passage, and we had torrents to cross, precipitous mountains to climb,
amid glaciers and masses of snow, where by a false step we should have
been hurled to destruction. But we were mercifully preserved.

Game in these wild regions is scarce, and we were frequently hard
pressed for food. In one of the valleys, at the beginning of this part
of our journey, nowhere was a drop of drinkable water to be found. For
hours we walked on, with bright fountains bubbling up on every side; but
they were scalding hot, or so impregnated with minerals that we dared
not touch them. Our fate promised to be like that of Tantalus: with
water on every side, we were dying of thirst. At length I espied, high
up on the mountain slope, a little green oasis, scarcely larger than a
small dinner-plate. I scrambled up to it, and, putting down my hand,
found a fountain of cool bright water issuing forth. I shouted to my
companions, who quickly joined me. Never was nectar drank with more
delight; and, revived and strengthened, we again pushed on.

Sometimes we slept in caverns, sometimes in huts built of clods and
boughs. Frequently we had to camp on the bare ground, without shelter,
our feet as close to the fire as we could venture to place them without
running the risk of their being scorched.

At last, to our great joy, we saw the western plains stretching out
before us. I call them the plains, although hills of all heights rose
in their midst. Far away to the south-west was the great Salt Lake;
while in front of us were the mountainous regions bordering the
Pacific,--California and its newly-discovered gold-mines. Now
descending steep slopes, now traversing gorges, now climbing down
precipices, now following the course of a rapid stream, we ultimately
reached level ground, and at last arrived at Fort Harwood.

"Why, Broadstreet, my dear fellow!" exclaimed the commandant, who, with
a number of other officers, came out on seeing us approach, "we had
given you up as lost! Some emigrants who escaped from a train which was
attacked reported that every white man on the other side of the pass,
for miles to the southward, had been murdered. They had heard, also,
that an officer and his men had been cut off, so we naturally concluded
you were the unhappy individual."

"Such would have been