Mark D. Manlove

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were heavily loaded. They saw a brindle bull dog that had tired out and lain down in the road to rest. They thought it a grizzly bear, so halted and waited for us, as luck would have it. When we came up, we went close and found out what it was.

John and I concluded we would take a cut off. The creek made a long bend. It was a deep stream and sixteen feet wide, but we could jump from a high bank to a lower one. We sailed over it anyway and traveled down it a ways, getting out of sight of our company. We saw Indian tracks and came upon a bunch of Indians camped in a bunch of willows. One had a buffalo robe over his head like a woman wears a shawl and he raised out of the bushes with his bow and arrow ready to shoot. We clapped our chests to show we were good and walked straight along. He then, with another, came out and talked and motioned. We motioned and held up our fingers to show that there were lots of us in the company and that the others had gone on around. John gave them some fish hooks and they motioned that they knew what they were for. As soon as we could decently, we left, but kept a watch out that they did not shoot at us, for they will shoot as one is leaving.

The next place of importance was Salt Lake City, which was two years old then. Each man had a five acre lot to build on then and from the summit of the mountain we first came in view of the City, about five or six miles off. The little adobe huts just put me in mind of muskrat houses in a grassy valley.

We stopped there some two or three days and rested our animals, and traded flour for cheese and milk. The mormons had no flour, but

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expected their harvest in, in about two weeks. I didn't keep the date, but I think it was along in July. On the third of July before we got there, there had been a heavy frost. John went to hear Brigham Young preach. He told of some one [someone] who went to hell "cross lots." The mormons give one-tenth to the Church. I attended meeting during the week. When in Salt Lake City we camped on the Jordan. When we left, – we were about nine miles from the lake, – and we saw plenty of salt, which they would break in chunks and haul in by the wagon load. We were not right at the lake, but could see it.

The water from the mountains ran down each side of the streets and each one had the privilege of using the water at certain hours for the gardens.

After leaving Salt Lake City, Bear river [River] was the next stream to cross. We had to swim the horses across. We saw a drowned horse which some emigrant had lost when trying to cross. This river was very deep.

We came to a little stream about twenty feet wide and deep, with a steep bank down. Here one of us would get on a mule and take a pack across on his shoulder, then go back for another.

Jack Bellum had traded a Chahuhn [Chauhan] pony for a mule. The mule had given out, but was recruited a little. The mule had gotten everything over except Jack, and he was afraid. The mule was very stubborn and slid down the steep bank and went to drinking, throwing Jack over his head into the water. His pistol slipped out and he paid John fifty cents to get it. Then all decided to go in swimming, Jack among the rest.

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We struck Humboldt river [River] and went down it to the Sink, where it comes to the sandy desert and is spent. Before we got to Humboldt Sink we passed Thousand Spring Valley, where there were thousands of springs, some cold, some hot. We came to one place where there was a marshy pond covered with moss. About six inches under the moss we could chop out large nice pieces of ice.

During this time I lost one-half pound a day in weight and Jonathan had a spell of mountain fever and was very bad for two days. He lay on his mule as we traveled. There were ponds and lakes with rushes, some of which grew nine feet high.

John and I stopped to hunt one of the mules and thus got separated from the company, as they went on to find grass and we expected to overtake them when they stopped to rest.

John took a mule called Jack and went to hunt the lost mule. I found the mule, but John hunted until evening. By this time they had almost a day's start of us. There was sage brush here and there.

We were near the Sink of the Humboldt river [River] and the bank was so steep we could not get the mules down to water, so we carried water in our hats up to them. We went on way into the night, then stopped where there was a little grass and picketed the mules and slept till morning. We had had nothing to eat since the morning before, but went on. We could not find the others in the company. There were many people scattered around to rest. We went around among those fellows, but could not buy anything to eat, as they were all scarce of provisions. We had about four dollars and fifty cents, but they gave us something to

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eat. The water was brackish and the more one drank, the more one wanted to drink. It was a terribly hot place, but the mules got some grass and we stayed there till evening. Then we started to go to Truckee river [River]. It was twenty-five miles across a desert to Truckee river [River]. We had no canteen. Traveling along about twelve o'clock at night we went to sleep a walking. John would stumble up against me once in a while and I knew he was asleep and I would wake once in a while as if from a dream. We laid down and took a nap, fastening the mules to the underbrush.

Next day about eleven o'clock we came to a boiling spring We could not travel fast; one mule was lightly loaded and the other had no load, but we could walk better than the mules could carry us, for they were nearly given out. John happened to have a little ginger in one of his pockets and there was an old tin can lying there, so we made ginger tea which we drank and it refreshed us. John's eyes were very sore from the alkali dust. Along late in the afternoon we got to within seven miles of Truckee river [River]. There we came across a man from Galena, Wis., – a gambler who was taking a party thru to California. He had three or four wagons. The sand was deep and he had sent the men to the river for water while he and his wife stayed in one of the wagons. I went to him and told him how we had become separated from our party and wanted to buy some provisions. He said he was scarce and hadn't any spare to sell, but he had some crackers and he gave us a few crackers. Our youngest mule, about three years old, in crossing this desert would pick up stones and work them around in his mouth and then drop

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them out. The other was an older mule and could stand more.

When we got within three miles of the river, the younger one gave out, so we tied him to some sage brush and went on. About ten o'clock we got to the river. The river was about two feet deep, the water nice and clear from the mountain and the sand sloped down to the water.

We just went in and bathed our faces, and drank and bathed again and felt refreshed. Then we crossed over and when we came to the other bank the grass was waist high, as fine grass as ever you saw growing. We turned the mule into this grass. The next morning I went around among the people who were there and tried to buy provisions. I bought four pounds of flour and a little piece of bacon. I had a frying pan tied on to the pack. I mixed up some dough and we had our breakfast. I went over the river to see about the mule. I met Whitesides who said he had one of his men bring in the mule and tie it to some sage brush where I would fine [find] it. I took it across the river and turned it on to the grass.

The boys of our company were not there and I knew they must have gone the other road and when Chas. Miller [Charles Miller] came in he told us they had gone the other way. We rested there a day and then started to go to Sacramento on one-half a pound of provision a day each.

We went up Truckee river [River] and crossed twenty-seven times in a day. Charley Miller and two fellows from Michigan passed us, but when they stopped for dinner we passed them. In the afternoon about thirty Indians came down and saw them first, so we got our mules under the bushes. They came down on the emigrant trail and looked around, but