Show 142 now became a being given him he went on It matter of serious importance to find water for the mules as they had been without for nearly forty hours most of the time under the saddle and almost without food Nothing therefore remained but to go on during the night Our course lay over a flat of damp and salt clay mud in many places soft and deep which made the traveling slow and laborious All traces of vegetation had vanished and even the unfailing artemesia had disappeared The animals were so tired and weak that the whole party was on foot driving our herd before us I began to entertain serious fears that I should not be able to reach the mountain with them nor was I certain that when we did reach it we should be able to find water in time to save their lives Oct 29 — Before us indeed lay the mountain vhere we hoped to find both food and water for them but between fifteen or twenty miles in extent which lay a mud-pla- in must be crossed before ive could reach The first it dried mud the part of the plain consisted simply of small crystals of salt scattered thickly over the surface Crossing this we came upon another portion of it three miles in width where the ground was so entirely covered of so soft a consistence with a thin layer of salt that the feet of our mules sank at every step into the mud beneath But soon we came upon a portion of the plain where the salt lay in a solid state in one unbroken sheet Our extending apparently to its western border mules walked upon it as upon a sheet of solid ice At two o’clock in the afternoon we reached the western edge of the plain when to our infinite joy we beheld a small prairie or meadow covered with a profusion of good green grass through which meandered a small stream of pure fresh running water among clumps of willows and wild roses artemesia and rushes It was a most timely and welcome relief to our poor famished animals who had nov been deprived of almost all sustenance for more than sixty hours during the greater part of which they had been in Another day without water and the constant motion Both man and whole train must have inevitably perished here three beast being completely exhausted I remained days for refreshment and rest Moreover we were now to of seventy miles prepare for crossing another desert which still lay between us and the southern end of the lake they began their journey across Following Hastings’ cut-o- ff |