Some conception of their great undertaking
in crossing the continent may be imagined when we reflect there were no
roads, no known way across the vast arid plains, no mountain cuts, no
bridged streams, no drinking water for miles upon miles with long
tedious marches resulting in sickness and death.
To one acquainted with the country, knowing the obstacles they overcame,
it is a matter of wonder that women and children were ever able to
perform it. It must be remembered that their destination reached, their
trials had only fairly begun. They were surrounded by savages, they were
over a thousand miles from the habitation of a white man. They had
pitched their tents on an alkali plain that had never been tilled; not a
blade of grass grew in the soil and this in a climate where not a drop
of rain or even a cloud appeared for six months in the year. Irrigation
had never been tried, and the whole scheme was an experiment, the
failure of which would have been fatal to the settlement. The first
winter was spent in their wagons and in tents, while their subsistence
was upon a scanty supply of vegetables.
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