e lives of the tribes
of Israel. They had no reason to expect a storm of rain or snow, but
came to them just as they were perishing. A little further on they came
to a small stream of water, and as the bed showed only a recent flow it
must also have come from the little local storm further up the mountain.
They used this water freely, even though it was not very good, and it
acted on them very much like a solution of Glanber Salts.

They decided at first that they had better follow the stream southward,
but after a little time, feeling the sickness caused by the water, they
saw it was no advantage and turned west again, bearing to the north
toward a sort of pass they could now see in the mountains in that
direction. This stream is now known as the Amargosa, or bitter, river.

The new direction in which they marched gave them an up-hill route for
thirty or forty miles, rough and barren, with no water or grass. There
was no road or trail to follow, the oxen were as weak as their owners
from drinking the bitter water, and the road needed some clearing and
breaking in places before the wagons could pass. They moved quite slowly
and reached the summit on the second night with the loss of a single ox.
The Author would say here that this was the last ox which was allowed to
die without using the flesh for food, and it was from this same one he
cut a steak to eat on Christmas eve, 1849.

From the summit they took a way down a dark, deep canon having a steep
slope, and very rocky and bad, but down which the oxen drew their loads
much easier than when they came up, reaching water on the third day,
where there were many springs, and a sort of coarse grass for the oxen.
The place is now known as Furnace Creek. The Jayhawkers passed on, and
here at these very springs was where the Author overtook the Rev. J.W.
Brier delivering a lecture to his children on the benefits of an early
education, as referred to in his narrative.

As the Jayhawkers drove out of this Furnace Creek Canon the valley into
which they came was very narrow, the high, snow-capped mountain before
them seemed steeper and rougher than ever, so steep in fact that it
could not be ascended by a man on foot. A short distance below could be
seen a lake containing water, and the pass toward which they had been
directing their course seemed to the north of them. They therefore
turned their course in that direction. The road was sandy, and the brush
that grew on it was on