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The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate (467 pages)
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Page: of 467
THE EXPEDITION OF THE DONNER PARTY
came separated and lodged in the snow; and all had to
cling to the mountain-side until break of day, when the
train again returned to its twice abandoned camp,
having been compelled, however, to leave several of
the wagons where they had become stalled. The report concluded with the statement that the men at once
began log-cutting for cabins in which the company
might have to pass the winter.
After the messengers left, and as father and Uncle
Jacob were hastening preparations for our own departure, new troubles beset us. Uncle was giving the
finishing touches to the axle, when the chisel he was
using slipped from his grasp, and its keen edge struck
and made a serious wound across the back of father’s
right hand which was steadying the timber. The crippled hand was carefully dressed, and to quiet uncle’s
fears and discomfort, father made light of the accident, declaring that they had weightier matters for
consideration than cuts and bruises. The consequences
of that accident, however, were far more wide-reaching
than could have been anticipated.
Up and up we toiled until we reached an altitude of
six thousand feet, and were within about ten miles of
our companions at the lake, when the intense cold
drove us into camp on Prosser Creek in Alder Creek
Valley, a picturesque and sheltered nook two and a
half miles in length and three-quarters of a mile in
width. But no one observed the picturesque grandeur
of the forest-covered mountains which hem it in on the
north and west; nor that eastward and southward it
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