After starting, the usual number of slight accidents occurred, but there was nothing to interfere with our steady progress into the silent, lonely land, where the great Dragon, whose tail we were now just touching, tore the air to tatters with his writhings.

Our light oars were snapped like reeds, but luckily we had plenty of extras, and some ten-foot ones were cut down to eight, and these proved to be strong enough.

On the morning of the 23d we were treated to a snow-storm and the air was very cold.

It soon cleared, however; and the sun shone again bright and warm, and we went on rejoicing.

The next day we reached the mouth of Black's Fork, and after this the river was deeper and we were less troubled by grounding, the boats being only three inches out of water at the gunwales.