Journal of John Work. 307 was clothed with verdure and flowers, but afterwards several patches of snow was seen in the woods, and the rest of the ground seemed to be freed of it, not long since, and vegetation has yet made but small progress. From where we are en- camped, there are two' roads to cross the mountains ; that to the right is represented to be the best road, but at the same time likely to have more snow in it than the other. Our guide has decided, therefore, to take the latter. Payette, accom- panied by the Indian, went a good piece into the wood with the intention of proceeding to foot of the mountain tO' ex- amine it, but the Indian got tired and returned. So far as they went, the road is not bad, and the snow, which is only in patches, not deep. The Indian says it is all the same way to the mountains, and that though the snow is deeper that in a day he expects he will get over the whole of it. Tuesday, May 20th. Stormy. Showers in the morning, and drizzling rain the most of the day. In order to allow the horses to feed and have their bellies full, lest we might be a night on the mountains without food, we did not move camp today ; the grass is not good, but the horses got a little. Wednesday, May 21st. Fine, fair weather. At an early hour we were on the move and crossed the dreaded mountains^ by midday, but one of the horses stepping off the road in a thicket of woods was left and had to be sent back for, which prevented us from proceeding in the afternoon. We are here on the side of a nearly bare hill, which yields tolerable good feeding for the horses. The road across the mountains is not bad nor is the mountain itself
I Wind River Mts.----
