e winter, Fremont determined to
cross the lofty Sierras which rose like a white wall to the west.
Once over the mountains, he hoped to gain the American settlements
in the Sacramento Valley, where already Sutter's Fort had been
established.

The party ascended Walker River, dragging, with great difficulty,
a howitzer which they had brought with them. The snows grew deeper
as storm succeeded storm. Feeling that they were really lost, the
disheartened men at length abandoned the gun, at a spot which has
since been named Lost Canon.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--LOST CANON, EASTERN SLOPE OF THE SIERRA
NEVADA MOUNTAINS]

When their own provisions were nearly gone, the party obtained
some pine nuts and also several rabbits from the Indians. A dog
which had been brought along made one good meal for the wayfarers.
An Indian who had been persuaded to act as guide pointed out the spot
where two white men, one of whom was Walker, a noted frontiersman,
had once crossed the mountains; but the guide made them understand
that it was impossible to cross at that time of the year, saying,
in his own language, "Rock upon rock, snow upon snow."

Although they could advance only by breaking paths through the
snow, and were reduced to eating mule and horse flesh, yet the
Fremont party pushed on. Finally they reached the summit of the
mountains and turned down by the head of a stream flowing westward,
which proved to be the American River. After three weeks more of
terrible suffering they came out of the mountains at Sutter's Fort,
where they obtained supplies and had an opportunity to rest and
recruit.

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--FREMONT PEAK, MOHAVE DESERT]

Fremont now recognized the incorrectness of the maps which had
so nearly caused the destruction of the party. As he says in his
notes: "No river from the interior does, or can, cross the Sierra
Nevada, itself more lofty than the Rocky Mountains... There is no
opening from the Bay of San Francisco into the interior of the
continent."

When the return journey was begun the party did not recross the
high Sierras, but turned southward through the San Joaquin Valley
and gained the Mohave Desert by the way of Tehachapai pass. The
route now led eastward across the deserts and low mountain ranges
of California and southern Nevada, until at last Great Salt Lake
was reached.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--SAGE-BRUSH IN THE GREAT BASIN]

Among the many geographical discoveries of the expeditio