In one place they were so near together that an ox could hardly squeeze through.

In a very short time they came to a bunch of willows growing out in the open ground.

The little bunch or grove was forty or fifty feet in diameter, and in the center was a spring of water.

The center of the clump had been cleared out, making a sort of corral of bushes, enclosing the spring.

On the outside there was quite a little growth of grass, which was a fortunate thing for their poor beasts.
Away in the distance, rising up a little against the western sky they could see mountains with snow on them, and it seemed as if it were a journey of five or six days to reach them, but the good water and the grass bolstered up their spirits wonderfully for there was present relief and rather better prospects ahead.