The ground was firm and gravelly; but the horses were too much fatigued
to move rapidly. After a long and harassing day's march, without pausing
for a noontide meal, they were compelled, at nine o'clock at night,
to encamp in an open plain, destitute of water or pasturage. On the
following morning, the horses were turned loose at the peep of day; to
slake their thirst, if possible, from the dew collected on the sparse
grass, here and there springing up among dry sand-banks. The soil of a
great part of this Green River valley is a whitish clay, into which the
rain cannot penetrate, but which dries and cracks with the sun. In
some places it produces a salt weed, and grass along the margins of the
streams; but the wider expanses of it are desolate and barren. It
was not until noon that Captain Bonneville reached the banks of the
Seeds-ke-dee, or Colorado of the West; in the meantime, the sufferings
of both men and horses had been excessive, and it was with almost
frantic eagerness that they hurried to allay their burning thirst in the
limpid current of the river.

Fontenelle and his party had not fared much better; the chief part had
managed to reach the river by nightfall, but were nearly knocked up
by the exertion; the horses of others sank under them, and they were
obliged to pass the night upon the road.

On the following morning, July 27th, Fontenelle moved his camp across
the river; while Captain Bonneville proceeded some little distance
below, where there was a small but fresh meadow yielding abundant
pasturage. Here the poor jaded horses were turned out to graze, and take
their rest: the weary journey up the mountains had worn them down in
flesh and spirit; but this last march across the thirsty plain had
nearly finished them.