bore the same
four children every day, faithfully, carefully, with never a stumble nor
fall, as though fully aware of the precious nature of his burden.

In this new march John and I took the oxen and pushed on as usual,
leaving the families to follow on, at a slower pace, the trail we made.
The trail was slightly inclined. The bushes stunted at the best, getting
smaller as we proceeded, and the horse bones, new and ancient are now
thickly scattered along the way. The soil is different from that we have
had. We can see the trail, winding gently here and there, swept clean by
the wind, and the surface is hard and good; but when the mule gets the
least bit off of it she sinks six inches deep into the soft sand, and
the labor of walking is immense. I stepped out to examine the peculiar
soil, and found it finer than superfine flour. It was evident that a
strong wind would lift it in vast clouds which might even darken the
sky, but we were fortunate in this respect, for during all the time we
were on this peculiar soil, there was no wind at all, and we escaped a
sand-storm, a sort of storm as peculiar to this region as are blizzards
to some of the states of the great west.

Our first night's camp was out on the barren waterless plain, now known
as the Mojave Desert. There were no shrubs large enough to make a fire
of, and nothing to tie our cattle to, so we fastened all our animals
together to keep them from scattering and getting lost. We ate a little
dry meat and drank sparingly of the water, for our scanty stock was to
last us another day, when we might reach prospective water holes.
Starting early, John and I took all but Old Crump and the other
travelers, and hurried on to try and find the water holes as early as
possible. We, as well as the oxen were very dry, for we left all the
water we had with the party, for the children, for they cannot endure
the thirst as the older people can. We reached the camping place before
night. Quite a time before we reached it, the cattle seemed to scent the
water and quickened their pace, so we were confident it had not dried
up. We got ahead of the oxen and kept there until we reached the little
pond and then guarded it to keep them from wading into it, in their
eagerness to reach some drink. They all satisfied their thirst, and then
we removed the harness, built a fire of the dead cabbage trees which we
found round about, laid down the beds and arranged them neatly, and had
all nice