of emigrants." Arrived at Fort Hall there appeared
another allurement in the shape of a cat-off. "Here
we met with a Mr Applegate," continues Mr Gray-
sen, "just from Oregon, who came that far to meet
the emigration, and conducted them through a new
route which he had discovered over the Cascade
mountains to Oregon. This was good news to the
emigrants, as it was represented as being a nearer and
better route of course. This caused a good many to
go to Oregon who were bound for California, as they
thought they would reach there before they could
California. But the nature of the route led me to
believe it a very difficult one, if not impassable for
wagons, which I have since learned was the case.
This route continues on the California trail nearly to
the California mountains, where it takes a north-
west direction over two lofty ranges of mountains —
the Cascade and the Umpqua."
Resting three days at Fort Bridger, the Donner company turned their faces southward, passed Salt Lake, and on toward the Truckee river. But alas ! the farthest way round would have been the shortest way to their destination. Although this route was shorter and better than the other, it was then new, unbeaten, and often these emigrants were compelled to stop a day, or two days, sometimes eight days to explore, to cut away underbrush, to grade a bluff or bridge a marsh. Arriving at the southern end of Salt Lake they fell into the track of a company in advance of them, and so for a time made better pro- gress. But short was their sheen. At a place to which they gave the name Twenty Wells, they spent the night of September 6th. Some of the wells, which vary from six inches to nine feet in diameter, they sounded to a depth of seventy feet and found no bottom. After a hard day's drive, the next evening they encamped in a beautiful meadow covered with luxuriant grass, and where were natural wells like the others, Upon a split stick conspicuously placed
