Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/24

14 AMOS WILLIAM HARTMAN who left the frontier early in the spring might have to feed their stock on grain for a short time until the grass grew up, but after that they had a great advantage over the majority of the season's emigration. After a few thousand head of stock had passed the grass became very scarce and parties were found very often to drive their animals a considerable distance off the road for feed. If a particularly favorable camping site was found a company would occasionally lay over for a day or two so as to rest and recuperate their stock. The three most frequently mentioned articles in an emigrant's journal or diary are water, grass and fuel. When nothing better was available the emigrants had to drink out of mud puddles, buffalo wallows or what- ever happened to be at hand. One exclaims, "Many a drink of water did I take that I would not have washed in at home." 61 Another relates, "This forenoon we filled our water casks with what we knew to be the leachings off from the putrid carcasses of dead horses, mules, and oxen." 62 At Rabbit Springs, on the northern road to Cal- ifornia, in 1849 the migration was so heavy and the water so scarce that men stood in line with tin cups and dipped the muddy water up as it trickled into the bottom of the shallow wells which had been dug. Water for the stock was often out of the question there. 63 In the middle of the desert between Humboldt and Carson Rivers water sold for $1.00 a gallon in 1850. 64 The effect of poor and insufficient water and lack of grass bevame very evident long before the end of the trail came in sight. The course of the trail was marked with the skeletons and the dead bodies of cattle, oxen and horses, with abandoned property, and with wagons and 61 Dutton, op. cit., p. 460. 62 Harlan, op. cit., p. 57. 63 Delano, op. cit., p. 181 . 64 Stewart, op. cit., p. 184.