country in 1843, gave a description of their signal fires. He says: "A hole is dug in the ground wider at the bottom than at the top; this hole was filled with combustibles and set on fire; once well ignited the hole is nearly closed at the opening. By this means the smoke rises to a considerable hight in a column, and thus information was conveyed to different tribes of the approach of an enemy or friend, and whether they are coming in large or small bodies."

tribes may not have been so docile, yet none of them were very formidable. But the most extraordinary daring of these American adventurers presented such a remarkable contrast to the indolent creole, who seldom left his house, on account of the rays of the sun, to which he did not like to expose himself, while the American trapper furnished him an imposing example of strength and endurance effected by their rough pursuit, and a comparison between both these nationalities, already at that time, was showing the chances of each of them in an eventually coming conflict.

About the gluttonous habits of the Indians he writes: "The Indians that constituted the crew of the schooner, having been rather stinted of food for a day or two, determined on a feast as a recompense for Neither the Spaniards nor their progeny, the native their previous fasting. They presented on that occa- Californian, knew anything of California outside of sion a spectacle I had never before witnessed of dis- the Coast range district and the great valleys where gusting sensual indulgence, the effect of which on they used to pasture their herds of all kinds of stock. their conduct, struck me as being exceedingly strange. In 1820, Captain Luis Arguello, by order of the gov The meat of a heifer, most rudely cooked, was ernor of California, went on an exploring trip through eaten in a voracious manner. After gorging them- the northern region of the territory. He followed the selves they would lie down and sleep for a while, and upper part of the Sacramento river and penetrated as get up and eat again. They repeated this gluttony far as Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia river, being until they actually lost their senses, rolled upon the without a doubt the first Caucasian, who traveled on ground, dozed, and then sprang up in a state of deli- that route. To him some of the rivers owe their rium. The following morning they were all wretchedly names; thus the Yuba river, Rio de las Uva (grapes); sick, and had the expression peculiar to drunken men Feather river, Rio de las Plumas; Bear river, Rio de recovering their reason after a debauch." los Osos; etc. Nothing, however, is known of an exNotwithstanding their filthy habits, the Indians gen-ploring trip into the heart of the mountains that skirt arally were very healthy; their principal remedy for all the great valley basin to the east; the sight of their diseases, where the natural means of their herbarist medicines did not bring the expected result, consisted in hot air baths, called temes chal, constructed as a big oven or hovel, out of mud, with a small hole for entrance on the side, and another one on the top from which the smoke escaped; the interior, with the natural soil for the floor, was big enough to allow about half a dozen persons to use the room at the same time, and they kept on with adding sticks to the fire as long as they could stand the heat. A profuse perspiration soon followed, which was scraped off with a kind of a wooden spoon; and thereafter they used to plunge into the cold water of the river, for which purpose the temes chals usually were built close to a river's bank.

The Spanish settlers always considered the Indians not belonging to the missions, particularly those on the Rio Colorado and adjacent countries, as most ferocious and inimical to the white man, and that it was almost impossible to pass through their territory; thus they were astonished by the first appearance of the American trapper, and still more so by learning the fact that they had escaped the vengeance of the wild Indians; this opinion, however, is a great exaggeration, based upon the imperfect knowledge of the country they were living in; for although some of the

snow-clad crest made the effeminate race shiver, and probably the grand scenery and gigantic beauty of nature enclosed in the mountains, had not charm and attraction enough to warm them up again; so the whole region remained to them a terra incognita, and they felt fully satisfied to have given the name: “Sierra Nevada," meaning snowy mountains.

To the daring and adventurous advance-agents of the civilization of the great West it was withheld to make the first exploring voyages over an 1 through the mountain region. The trappers of the American Fur Company and the Hudson Bay Company passed over them at different times and over different routes to and from their choice trapping grounds in the great valleys and the Coast Range mountains of this coast.

The first of these trapping expeditions that crossed the Serra Nevada is supposed to be one fitted up by the American Fur Company in the summer of 1825, under Jedediah S. Smith (for his discovery of gold, see "Discovery of Gold,") as leader, from Green river station. He advanced to the country west of Salt Lake, discovered what is now called Humboldt river, calling it Mary's river after his Indian wife; pushing further on, he found his way blocked by the great mountain range, but this instead of building up a hindrance for further explorations, invited his adventure

lake, but failing to accomplish the purpose of their mission they retraced their steps over the mountains back to the Humboldt and Green rivers. Mr. Meek is still a resident of Siskyou county in this state. Nearly every party of trappers who passed through the country left a few of their number here, and after the fur trade began to break up, from about 1838 and later, many of them settled down on the streams of California. One of this class of settlers in El Dorado county, although a somewhat late one, is Lewis B. Myers, of Greenwood, El Dorado county, California.

some nature to see what could be found for his trade name was Baptiste Truckee, a Canadian, and his name on the other side. Where he crossed the Sierra is was given to the stream he had discovered. Following only a matter of supposition, but it must have been up the run of this river they penetrated as far as not far from where the old emigrant-road crossed Donner Lake, but the snow-bound mountains-it afterwards, near the head waters of the Truckee. The being then in the month of December-did not invite party trapped for beaver and otter from the American them to a crossing, and they returned to the Meadows river to Tulare lake, and had their camp for a while on the Truckee river, passing through Washoe valley near the present site of Folsom, following their cal- to Carson river, and discovered Walker river, called ling in a northerly direction and finally returning over after the captain of the company, and crossed the the mountains about the locality of Walker's pass. In mountains through Walker's pass, also called after May, 1827, we find the same J. S. Smith with only a him. They went into camp on the shore of Tulare few companions on another voyage, near the mission of San Jose, having lost most of them on his way into the Mojave country, on the Colorado river, in a fight with Indians. He made his way through, arriving in January at the mission of San Gabriel, procured passports for himself and companion from the general at San Diego, and camped in May near the mission of San Jose, where he wrote a letter to Father Duran, stating that he was on his way to Oregon in the peaceful business of trapping; and after having reunited himself with the company he had left on the American river, the year before, he started for the Columbia river, following the coast, but was attacked by Indians at the mouth of the Umpqua river, and all but himself and two others were killed and robbed of all their traps and furs. They escaped to Fort Vancouver and after telling their story to the agent of the Hudson Bay Company, a party was fitted out to recover the stolen property and chastise the Indians, and meeting with success in both directions, they returned to Fort Vancouver; the greater portion, however, followed Alexander Roderick McLeod on a trip into California, which they entered by the same route where Smith had come out, and trapped on the streams of the valleys.

Next to Smith's stands the record of Joseph R. Walker, who started in July, 1833, from the rendezvous of the American Fur Company on Green river, with a party of about forty trappers. Stephen H. Meek, now of Sikiyou county, was one of this party, and to him we are indebted for the following information :

In the year 1838, the United States government sent out a fleet of vessels under command of Commodore Chas Wilkes, on an extended voyage that lasted five years. In the month of September, 1841, a detachment of this expedition started on an overland trip from Vancouver, on the Columbia river, to Yerba Buena, (San Francisco,) passing down the Hudson Bay trail and the Sacramento river. This party consisted of:

Lieut. George E. Emmons, in command.
Past Midshipman, Henry Eld.

Past Midshipman, George W. Colvocoressis.
Assistant-Surgeon, J. S. Whittle.

Seamen Daughty, Sutton, Waltham and Merzer.
Sergeant, Stearns; Corporal, Hughes.
Privates, Marsh and Smith.

There were attached to the expedition for observations, etc.:

T. R. Peal, naturalist.

W. Rich, botanist.

James D. Dana, geologist.
A. T. Agate, artist.

J. D. Breckenridge, assistant-botanist.
Baptiste Guardipii, guide.

Tibbats, Black, Warfield, Wood, Molair and Inass, mountaineers.

They advanced to the country west of Salt Lake, and suffered a great deal from want of food and water until they reached Mary's River, now Humboldt, following this stream to its sink; then it was decided to cross and trap for the following summer on the Cali fornia side of the mountains; so they went on, but The years 1840-1841, introduced a new feature in again ran short of water, and had to send out in search the history of the exploration of the territory on this of it, and one of their hunters came upon the Truckee coast. Dr. John Marsh's-then a resident of this river, near the Meadows; turned his horse and in full country-glowing description of California, given in speed brought the joyful news back into camp, shout- the newspapers of St. Louis, Missouri, commenced to ing: "A great river! A great river!" This man's attract considerable attention, and some adventurous

Captain J. B. Bartelson, captain of the party; re- passing down along the Stanislaus, then crossing the turned to Missouri, is now dead.

Mitchell Nye, had a ranch at Marysville, probably of the territory, disbanding at Los Angeles. Memnow alive.

Wm. Betty or Belty, returned East by way of Santa 1876. Fe.

men by describing the wonders of the Sacramento Valley-exhausting both men and animals. Our single chro
Breaking Road through the Snow-On the Upper Truckee nometer had stopped during the day, and its error in
River-Appearance of the Central Ridge of the Sierra Ne-time occasioned the loss of an eclipse of a satellite
vada Cold Increasing-Experience with the Second In-

dian Guide-Making Sleighs and Snow Shoes-On the this evening. It had not preserved the rate with
Summit-Hard Struggle to bring the animals over the which we started from the Dalles, and this will ac-
Snow--Delicacies of the Table-The Rock Forming the count for the absence of longitudes along this inter-
Summit-Camping on the Head Waters of the American val of our journey.
River-Comparison of the Pass with the South Pass of the
Rocky Mountains, in Regard to High, Latitude and Lon-
gitude-Early Rising Repaid with a Beautiful Sight of
Sunrise-Scenery of the Mountains Amilst and After a
Storm-Second Unintended Bath in the Cold Stream-
Structure of the Central part of the Sierra and of the Sum-
mit-Fremont's Favorite Horse giving out on top of Pilot
Hill-An Indian Mistakes the party for some of his Fel-
lows-High Qualities of the Country for Pasture-The we expected to reach that night. We followed a trail
Lower Foothills appear like Parks in Old-settled Countries down a hollow where the Indians had descended, the
---An Indian Village-Arrival and Reception at Sutter's snow being so deep that we never came near the
Fort-History of the Donner Party.

The last observation was taken on the 27th of Jan-
uary, with 38° 18' o1" for the latitude, and the eleva-
tion above the sea, 6,310 feet. January 29.-From
this height we could see at a considerable distance
below, yellow spots in the valley, which indicated that
there was not much snow. One of these places

ground; but this only made our descent so much John C. Fremont, then Brevet Captain of Topo- easier, and, when we reached a little affluent to graphical Engineers, on his return from his first ex- the river at the bottom, we suddenly found ourselves ploring expedition to Oregon, passed south on the in the presence of eight or ten Indians. Our friendly east side of the Sierra Nevada, crossing it under all demeanor reconciled them, and when we got near kinds of hardships and suffering from privation, from enough they immediately stretched out to us handthe Carson river to the American river, in the month fuls of pine nuts, which seemed an exercise of hospiof February, 1844. His experiences are laid down tality. The principal stream still running through an in his report to the Chief of Engineers. Out of this unpracticable canyon, we ascended a very steep hill, we shall quote such of those passages as are of interest in regard to the character of the mountains, the nature of the inhabitants and their limited knowledge of the regions they were living in; their principal interest, however, consisting in the fact that this passage took place in El Dorado county: On the evening of January 28, 1844, the party of twenty-five men passed the mountain range dividing the Carson river from the basin of Lake Tahoe, and from here we may follow the verbal quotation of the report:

"Jan. 28.-To-day we went through the pass with all the camp, and, after a hard day's journey of twelve miles, encamped on a high point where the snow had been blown off, and the exposed grass afforded a scanty pasture for the animals. Snow and broken country together made our traveling difficult; we were often compelled to make large circuits, and ascend the highest and most exposed ridges, in order to avoid snow, which in other places was banked up to a great depth.

which proved afterwards the last and fatal obstacle to
our little howitzer, which was finally abandoned at this
place. We passed through a small meadow a few
miles below, crossing the river, whose depth, swift
current, and rocks, made it difficult to ford; and after
a few more miles of very difficult travel emerged into
a large prairie bottom, at the farther end of which we
encamped, in a position rendered strong by rocks and
trees. The lower parts of these mountains were cov-
ered with the nut-pine. Several Indians appeared on
the hillside, reconnoitering the camp, and were in-
duced to come in. Others came in during the after-
noon, and in the evening we held a council. We
explained to the Indians that we were endeavoring to
find a passage across the mountains into the country
of the whites, whom we were going to see; and told
them that we wished them to bring us a guide, to
whom we would give presents of scarlet cloth and
other articles, which were shown to them. They
looked at the reward we offered, and conferred with
each other, but pointed to the snow in the mountains,
and drew their hands across their necks and raised
them above their heads, to show the depth; and sig-

During the day a few Indians were seen circling around us on snow shoes, and skimming along like birds; but we could not bring them within speaking distance. They seem to have no idea of the power nified that it was impossible for us to get through. of firearms, and think themselves perfectly safe beyond arm's length.

They made signs that we must go to the southward, over a pass through a lower range, which they pointed To-night we did not succeed in getting the howitzer out. There, they said, at the end of one day's travel, into camp. This was the most laborious day we had we would find people who lived near a pass in the yet passed through, the steep ascent and deep snow great mountain, and to that point they engaged to