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finished when our guide who had been looking farther down the river came in with news that he had found a ford where he thought we could cross, we started for it & crossed, Capt Tuttle? lost one mule by drowning , we all got wet more or less, the weather quite cold & it soon commenced raining & continued until in the night we camped near a small stream near which grew many clumps of Willows I selected a dry clump & set fire to it & succeeded in rearming myself & drying my blankets a little, we made up our bed in the rain on the wet grass, but we slept sound, nevertheless 17 dried our wet clothes & left camp early & travelled fast, as we are getting short of provisions are in hopes of getting some ^ provisions of the Mormons,, Country rolling, crossed snow in spots 3 or 4 feet deep - snow balled = & had some to eat - soon after passed over a low ridge & came to a little creek that ran to the South West the first water found that Empties into the Western Ocean, the ascent had been so gradual we knew not we were on the Western slope of the mountains, we stopped to noon about one Oclock on a branch of snake river, we found some difficulty in following the stream the banks were near the stream & very steep, killed one or two sage hens, about the size of common hen of a ^ brownish greyish mottled color = some like a hawk = flesh rather dark colored, but good, camped near some low bushes on the creek bottom grass good, night very cold with a heavy unclear 18th Wednesday travelled down the creek in the forenoon, had very hard travelling sometimes climbing the steep bluffs sometimes fording the rapid stream as it wound through the narrow valley, saw considerable torn page (Cottonwood) some dead from fire running through it, nooned under some cottonwood trees, in the afternoon stri - torn page