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The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California - To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources by Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont
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feet above the surface. Through this and the interstices of the rock, the
water found its way. Favored beyond our expectations, all of our registers
had been recovered, with the exception of one of my journals, which
contained the notes and incidents of travel, and topographical
descriptions, a number of scattered astronomical observations, principally
meridian altitudes of the sun, and our barometrical register west of
Laramie. Fortunately, our other journals contained duplicates of the most
important barometrical observations which had been taken in the mountains.
These, with a few scattered notes, were all that had been preserved of our
meteorological observations. In addition to these, we saved the circle;
and these, with a few blankets, constituted every thing that had been
rescued from the waters.

The day was running rapidly away, and it was necessary to reach Goat
island, whither the party had preceded us, before night. In this uncertain
country, the traveler is so much in the power of chance, that we became
somewhat uneasy in regard to them. Should any thing have occurred, in the
brief interval of our separation, to prevent our rejoining them, our
situation would be rather a desperate one. We had not a morsel of
provisions--our arms and ammunition were gone--and we were entirely at the
mercy of any straggling party of savages, and not a little in danger of
starvation. We therefore set out at once in two parties, Mr. Preuss and
myself on the left, and the men on the opposite side of the river.
Climbing out of the canon, we found ourselves in a very broken country,
where we were not yet able to recognise any locality. In the course of our
descent through the canon, the rocks, which at the upper end was of the
decomposing granite, changed into a varied sandstone formation. The hills
and points of the ridges were covered with fragments of a yellow
sandstone, of which the strata were sometimes displayed in the broken
ravines which interrupted our course, and made our walk extremely
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