with others, some bound for Oregon and some for
Cahfornia, the Donner party had a prosperous jour-
ney from the Missouri, and passed the great divide
in good health and spirits. The longer half of the
journey was accomplished; the cattle were in good
condition, and provisions abundant ; it was yet mid-
summer, ample time thought they to escape the
snows of th§ frowning Sierra. So, buoyant with an-
ticipations of a speedy and prosperous termination of
their travels, they arrived at Fort Bridger, one hun-
dred miles east of Salt Lake, on the 25th of July.
It was their intention to have continued in the Oregon
trail as far as Fort Hall, or beyond, before turning
southward toward California, but they were induced
to deviate from the usual route by L. W. Hastings, who
assured them that he had found a way shorter and
better than the old one, a cut-off it was called, the
name referrino- to the route and not the travellers.
Nor did Mr Hastings wilfully misrepresent matters
as many charged him with doing, for his route was
essentially the same as that taken by the emigration
of 1849, and by the overland stage and railway.
A. J. Grayson, the eminent ornithologist of Mexico and California, led a party of pioneers in this emigra- tion. He was accompanied by his young, devoted wife, and out of solicitude for her welfare, or other cause, he escaped two great dangers of the journey as by intuition. In a letter from San Franciseo written February 2'2, 1847, speaking of Hastings and his route which was represented to be better and 250 miles shorter than the old way, Mr Graysen fays : " This news created some excitement among the emi- grants; some were for going the new route without reflecting, whilst the more prudent were for going by the old trail via Fort Hall. I for one consulted Cap- tain Walker, who happened to be at Fort Bridger and well acquainted with both routes, and also a man whom I could believe ; so I took his advice and went by the old trail, together with a respectable portion
