Happily there has been no parallel to the misadventures of this ill-fated caravan.

It is difficult--without reading these, bald and awful details--to realize the vast difference between that day and this.

Today we may by the gentle stages of a pleasant railway journey arrive at Donner Lake.

Little trace remains, nor does any kindly soul wish for more definite traces, of those awful scenes.

Only a cross here and there with a legend, faint and becoming fainter every year, may be seen, marking the more prominent spots of the historic starving camp.
Up on the high mountain side, for the most part hid in the forest, lie the snowsheds and tunnels of the railway, now encountering its stiffest climb up the steep slopes to the summit of the Sierras.