vicinity with no better results.

It was while engaged in this discouraging work that they met
a trader belonging to the Hudson Bay Company. He had been pushing
operations in every direction, but the stories he told were of the
same general tenor as those of the larger party. He had been as
unsuccessful in the way of trade as they had been in catching the
fur bearing animals.

The Hudson Bay trader, however, was confident he could succeed
where they had failed, and he made such liberal offers to Carson
that he and several of his companions accepted them on the spot.

The first point which they visited was the Humboldt River, from
which had come reports of the abundance of beavers. They began near
the head waters of the stream, and carefully trapped down to the
Great Basin. Meeting with only moderate success, they made their
way to Big Snake River. After remaining there a considerable time,
the party divided, the Hudson Bay trader and his friends going
northward toward Fort Walla Walla, while Carson and the larger
number set out for Fort Hall.

The journey thither was one of the most distressing which Kit
Carson ever undertook. The country through which most of the march
led is one of the most dismal wastes on the American continent.
Except in extent, a journey across it is similar to that of the
parched caravans across the flaming sands of Sahara. Carson and his
companions were accustomed to all manner of privations, but more
than once their endurance was tried to the utmost point.