ountain country. Up to 1834 he was a trapper, and had wandered back
and forth among the mountains until they had become very familiar to him.
During the next eight years, in which he served as hunter for Bent's Fort,
on the Arkansas River, he learned to know the great plains. He was,
therefore, very useful to Fremont as a guide.

He was also well acquainted with many Indian tribes. He knew their
customs, he understood their methods of warfare, and was well liked by the
Indians themselves. He spoke their chief languages as well as he did his
mother tongue.

After returning from his first expedition, Fremont made up his mind to
explore the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. He
succeeded in getting orders from the government to do this, and set out on
his second expedition in May, 1843, with thirty-nine men, Kit Carson again
acting as guide.

[Illustration: Kit Carson.]

The party left the little town of Kansas City in May and, in September,
after travelling for one thousand seven hundred miles, they reached a vast
expanse of water which excited great interest. It was much larger than the
whole State of Delaware, and its waters were salt. It was, therefore,
given the name of Great Salt Lake.

Passing on, Fremont reached the upper branch of the Columbia River. Then
pushing forward down the valley of this river, he went as far as Fort
Vancouver, near its mouth. Having reached the coast, he remained only a
few days and then set out on his return (November 10).

His plan was to make his way around the Great Basin, a vast, deep valley
lying east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But it was not long before
heavy snow on the mountains forced him to go down into this basin. He soon
found that he was in a wild desert region in the depths of winter, facing
death from cold and starvation. The situation was desperate.

Fremont judged that they were about as far south as San Francisco Bay. If
this was true, he knew that the distance to that place was only about
seventy miles. But to reach San Francisco Bay it was necessary to cross
the mountains, and the Indians refused to act as guides, telling him that
men could not possibly cross the steep, rugged heights in winter. This did
not stop Fremont. He said: "We'll go, guides or no guides!" And go they
did.

It was a terrible journey. Sometimes they came to places where the snow
was one hundred feet deep or more. But they pushed forward for nearly six
weeks. Finally