ere determined to cross the continent, no
matter what the difficulties and dangers. Wagons could be drawn
by the oxen over the plains and deserts with little difficulty,
although there were some dangerous rivers to be crossed. Mountains
and canons offered the most serious obstructions. In many places
the wagons had to be let down over precipices with ropes, or be
taken apart and carried piece by piece around the obstructions.

It was not the mountains alone which made the trip "across the
plains" one long to be remembered. It was often difficult to obtain
water and fodder for the animals, and at many points savage Indians,
bent upon plunder, were in hiding, waiting for a chance to stampede
the cattle or kill the emigrants. The way was marked by abandoned
wagons, household goods, bones of cattle, and the graves of human
beings.

The trail led from the Missouri across the state of Kansas to the
Platte River, then followed this long stream to its head at South
Pass on the continental divide. From the South Pass the trail led
southwest past Fort Bridger, in southwestern Wyoming, through Echo
Canon and over Emigrant pass of the Wasatch Range down to Salt Lake
City, which had been founded but a short time before the discovery
of gold. West of Salt Lake City the trail skirted the northern
shore of the Great Salt Lake, and after passing a low mountain
divide in what is now northwestern Utah, reached the head waters
of the Humboldt River. Thence the path ran along by this river down
to the place where it disappeared in a vast sandy desert known as
the sink of the Carson. The Carson River, after the dreary desert
was passed, led the emigrants still westward toward a wall of mighty
mountains known as the Sierra Nevada. Here Nature seemed to have
done her utmost to shut off California, with its fertile valleys
and rich gold-fields, from the longing eyes of the emigrants. There
are, however, several low places in the range, and through one of
these openings, at the head of the Carson River, the travellers
gained the western slope of the mountains. Then in good time they
reached the mining town of Placerville, and at length Sacramento,
the capital of California.

[Illustration: FIG. 91.--CHIMNEY ROCK

On the old overland trail near the Platte River, western Nebraska]

In order that the pony express might make the time required over
the two thousand miles, five hundred horses and several hundred
men were needed. The stations we