tells her mother "Well, Ma, if you never see me again, do the best that you can"; thirty-one people remain in the camps. There have been ten deaths at the lake camp and four at Alder Creek. February 23, 1847: Patrick Breen's diary: "Froze hard last night. To day fine & thawey. Has the appearance of spring. All but the deep snow. Wind S.S.E. Shot Towser [a dog] today & dressed his flesh. Mrs Graves came here this morning to borrow meat—dog or ox. They think I have meat to spare; but I know to the Contrary. They have plenty hides; I live principally on the same." February 24, 1847: First Relief: John Denton is unable to continue and must be left behind. February 25, 1847: First Relief: Ada Keseberg dies and is buried in the snow. Patrick Breen's diary: "Froze hard last night. Fine & sunshiny to day. Wind W. Mrs Murphy says the wolves are about to dig up the dead bodies at her shanty; the nights are too cold to watch them; we hear them howl." February 26, 1847: Patrick Breen's diary: "Martha's jaw swelled with the toothache: hungry times in camp; plenty hides, but the folks will not eat them. We eat them with a tolerable good apetite. Thanks be to Almighty God. Amen. Mrs Murphy said here yesterday that [she] thought she would Commence on Milt. & eat him. I don't [think] that she has done so yet; it is distressing. The Donners, 4 days ago, told the California folks that they [would] commence to eat the dead people if they did not succeed, that day or next, in finding their cattle, [which were] then under ten or twelve feet of snow, & [the Donners] did not know the spot or near it; I suppose they have done so ere this time." February 28, 1847: The First Relief, heading down the mountains, encounters the Second Relief coming up. After nearly five months' separation, James Reed meets his wife and two of his children, but learns that the other two are still at the camp. Patrick Breen's diary: "1 Solitary Indian passed by yesterday, come from the lake; had a heavy pack on his back; gave me 5 or 6 roots resembling Onions in shape, taste some like a sweet potato, all full of little tough fibers." (In Eliza Farnham's California, In-Doors and Out (1856), John