The weak and faint must fail, and the strong said to the weak;--"Stand up; be a man; don't fall down;" and so the strong spurred on the weak and kept them up as best they could.
Down the mountain they went, on the west side and instead of Los Angeles, which some of them expected to see, they saw only a salt lake in the midst of a barren desert valley and their route lay directly across it.

They traveled in several directions as they went across.

One went across the valley on a strip of dried mud between two small lakes.
Others followed down along the east side of the lake near the foot of the mountain, where they found some good water and an old Indian camp.
They found some mosquite beans, which they did not know were of much use, but really, if they had known how to fix them up a little they would have been good food.
Capt.

Doty's mess crossed between the lakes on the strip of dry mud while others went on where it was still soft and left marks of their foot-steps.

Both parties turned up a small canon on the west side and began the ascent of a black and barren range, containing no water, but in the bed of the ravine near the summit they found some damp sand and tried to dig with their hands to find some of the precious fluid.