Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Reminiscences of a trip to Pike’s Peak and down the Rio Grande in the year 1859, at the time of the Pikes Peak gold craze (Peter Westerlund)
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on the top of an elevation and from there we
discovered at a distance something appearing lilic a small
lake. The lay of the land, appeared to be smooth.
We concluded to take the nearest road to the water,
and that was straight across. We left the main road
and estimated the distance to be about three or four
miles. Darkness overtook us and we did not succeed
in finding the lake and were forced to camp where
we were over night. You can imagine our
disappointment having gone without water all day and
knowing that it was close by. But no one
complained. Each took the situation calmly and quite
as if nothing was lacking. We drank a little of
what we had left before retiring into our tents for
the night. That night I dreamt I drank and drank
till I had emptied a whole bucketful of water, and
I remember how good I thought it tasted, but still
f awoke in the morning more thirsty than I had ever
felt. At the first brake of dawn we climbed into
our wagons and saw the pond about half a mile off.
We at once hitched up aud drove to the water-pond.
To our disappointment the water was salty and could
not be used. Walking around in the grass we got
soaking wet up to our knees from the dew. It then
struck me that I might get some dew to drink. I got
two tin eups and commenced to shake the grass over
them. The others laughed at me, but before long
I had a cupful, and then the rest of them did the
same. In that way we quenched our thirst for that
time. We ate our bread and continued our journey
thinking that we would come to a. stream before iong.
Soon we met a couple of wagons and noticed that
each one had a ten-gallon cask hanging under the
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