ntain Sheep stood perfectly still, looking down
at us. We could not see so much as the winking of an eye. Making ready
for another volley, we thought best to get nearer; but as we started
the head and horns and sheep disappeared behind the top of the ridge.
Further stepping proved that we had shot at the animal from a distance
of at least half a mile. Our guns were good for a range of two hundred
yards, at most.

Much of the time, especially while in the higher mountains, we were in
possession of little knowledge of our position. There were no marks
that we observed to indicate geographical divisions, and we had no
means for determining many exact locations, though some important
rivers and prominent mountain peaks and ridges were identified. We
knew little, if anything, then of territorial boundaries, and thought
of the country traversed as being so remote from centers of
civilization--at that time but little explored, even--that we could
not conceive any object in attempting to determine our location with
reference to geographical lines; nor could we have done so except on
rare occasions. Our chief concern was to know that we were on the best
route to California.

We crossed the summit of the Rocky Mountains by the South Pass. Though
it was July, the jagged peaks of the Wind River Mountains bore a thick
blanket of snow. Sometime after leaving the "Devil's Gate" we passed
Pacific Springs. There we gained first knowledge that we had passed
the summit, on observing that the streams flowed westerly. Patient
plodding had now taken us a distance of actual travel amounting to
much more than one thousand miles and, from time to time, into very
high altitudes. About four miles west of Pacific Springs we passed the
junction of the California and Oregon trails, at the Big Bend of the
Bear River.

Green River, where we first came to it, was in a level bit of country.
There this stream was about sixty yards wide; the water clear and
deep, flowing in a gentle current. For the accommodation of emigrants,
three men were there, operating a ferry. Whence they came I do not
remember, if they told us. We saw no signs of a habitation in which
they might have lived. The ferrying was done with what was really a
raft of logs, rather than a boat. It was sustained against the current
by means of a tackle attached to a block, rove on a large rope that
was drawn taut, from bank to bank, and was propelled by a windlass on
each bank. When a wa