All this time Mrs. Tamsen Donner was tortured with fear and dread, lest
her children had perished in the dreadful storm on the summits. At last
Clark yielded to her importunities, and decided to visit the cabins at
Donner Lake, and see if there was any news from beyond the Sierra. Clark
found the children at Keseberg's cabin, and witnessed such scenes of
horror and suffering that he determined at once to attempt to reach
California. Returning to Alder Creek, he told Mrs. Donner of the
situation of her children, and says he informed her that he believed
their lives were in danger of a death more violent than starvation.
He informed her of his resolution to leave the mountains, and taking a
portion of the little meat that was left, he at once started upon his
journey. John Baptiste accompanied him.

The cub would have weighed about seventy pounds when killed; and now
that its flesh was nearly gone, there was really very little hope for
any one unless relief came speedily. In attempting to make their way
across the mountains, Clark and Baptiste did the wisest thing possible,
yet they well knew that they would perish by the way unless they met
relief.

Mrs. Tamsen Donner did not dare to leave her husband alone during the
night, but told Clark and Baptiste that she should endeavor to make the
journey to the cabins on the following day. It was a long, weary walk
over the pitiless snow, but she had before her yearning eyes not only
the picture of her starving children, but the fear that they were in
danger of a more cruel death than starvation.

Chapter XV.

A Mountain Storm
Provisions Exhausted
Battling the Storm-Fiends
Black Despair
Icy Coldness
A Picture of Desolation
The Sleep of Death
A Piteous Farewell
Falling into the Firewell
Isaac Donner's Death
Living upon Snow-water
Excruciating Pain
A Vision of Angels
"Patty is Dying"
The Thumb of a Mitten
A Child's Treasures
The "Dolly" of the Donner Party.

On the evening of the second day after leaving Donner Lake, Reed's party
and the little band of famished emigrants found themselves in a cold,
bleak, uncomfortable hollow, somewhere near the lower end of Summit
Valley. Here the storm broke in all its fury upon the doomed company. In
addition to the cold, sleet-like snow, a fierce, penetrating wind seemed
to freeze the very marrow in their bones. The relief party ha