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CHAPTER 9

Sutter's Fort: The San Joaquin Valley:
Return to Utah Lake *

MARCH 6, 1844. . . . We continued on our road through the same
surpassingly beautiful country, entirely unequaled for the pas-
turage of stock by anything we had ever seen. Our horses had now
become so strong that they were able to carry us, and we traveled
rapidly-over four miles an hour; four of us riding every alternate
hour. Every few hundred yards we came upon a little band of deer;
but we were too eager to reach the settlement, which we momen-
tarily expected to discover, to halt for any other than a passing shot.
In a few hours we reached a large fork, the northern branch of the
river, and equal in size to that which we had descended. Together
they formed a beautiful stream, 60 to 100 yards wide; which at first,
ignorant of the nature of the country through which that river ran,
we took to be the Sacramento.

We continued down the right bank of the river, traveling for a
while over a wooded upland, where we had the delight to discover
tracks of cattle. To the southwest was visible a black column of
smoke, which we had frequently noticed in descending, arising from
the fires we had seen from the top of the Sierra. From the upland we

____________________
* This chapter is from Frémont's Report on his second expedition. The entry
for March 6 chronicles Frémont's arrival at the junction of the North Fork of
the American River with the South Fork which they had been following; the
two formed the American, and not, as he at first thought, the Sacramento.
The descent from the crest of the Sierra had been fairly rapid, but not without
its tribulations. Frémont with seven men had gone ahead of the main party
to reach Sutter's Fort and send back provisions. One of these men, his mind
affected by the recent hardships, had wandered away for a time; another,
Preuss, had got lost for three days, and been reduced to eating raw frogs to
sustain himself. But at last they were safe, and able to look forward to the
hospitality of Sutter's establishment, where they could get food and fresh
mounts.

-376-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Narratives of Exploration and Adventure. Contributors: John Charles Frémont - author, Allan Nevins - editor. Publisher: Longmans, Green. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1956. Page Number: 376.
    
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