was safely reached some days later.

There they were warmly welcomed by Fremont, who had entered upon
his third exploring expedition, the last under the authority of
the United States government, though two others were afterwards
undertaken on his own responsibility. As was to be supposed,
Fremont taking lessons from his previous experiences, was much
better equipped for his third than for either of the other preceding
expeditions. He had about fifty men, among them in addition to
Carson and Owens, being Maxwell, the famous mountaineer, Walker who
was a member of Captain Bonneville's expedition to the Columbia,
besides other hunters and scouts less known but not less skilful
and daring than they.

We have already given tolerably full accounts of the two exploring
expeditions of Fremont, and it is not our purpose to narrate the
particulars of the one which followed. There is a sameness in many
of the occurrences but the third time the Pathfinder penetrated
into the recesses of the far west, he became involved in a series
of experiences totally different from the preceding and deeply
interesting of themselves.

Several months were spent on what may be called the Great Divide
-- that is the region where the waters flow east or west to either
ocean, and in the autumn of the year they encamped on the southwestern
shore of the Great Salt Lake.

Before them stretched a vast arid plain to which the trappers
referred with a shudder of terror. They had heard of it many a time
and the common legend was that no man white or Indian who had ever