Many bones of horses and cattle now appeared along the trail.

They seemed to have been there a long time, and some were partly decayed.

On this waterless stretch one of their number, a Frenchman, wandered off, searching for water in little hollows or puddles, and never came back to camp.

He was supposed to be dead, but ten years afterward some surveyors found him in a Digger Indian camp.
An idea how selfish men will get under such circumstances may be gained by relating that on one occasion when an ox was killed the liver was carried to the brave little Mrs.Brier for herself and children, and she laid it aside for a few moments till she could attend to some other duties before cooking it.

Darkness coming on meanwhile, some unprincipled, ungallant thief stole it, and only bits of offal and almost uneatable pieces were left to sustain their lives.