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Show TO FORT BRIDGER. 53 places it is narrow, and so filled with rocks and boulders that a yawl- boat could hardly pass safely between them. In the spring and early summer months there is unquestionably water enough at such places to float a small steamer ; but at such times an equally formidable difficulty presents itself in the swiftness of the current.* Green River takes its name from the green foliage along its banks, which in many parts of its course appear in re markable contrast with the sterile land contiguous to them. Like all the mountain streams we crossed it was much swol len by the melted snow, and through its somewhat narrow bed at the point where the road strikes it, its current was exceedingly rapid. It was not fordable, and the ferry, dur ing the early summer months, yields a handsome profit to the Overland Stage Company, by whom it is owned. As usual, the ferriage was enormously high, and there is no way of evading the extortion to which the passing trains are subjected. This, like all the other ferries over the rapid streams of the West, is constructed and worked at a very slight expense to the owners. A description of it may not be uninteresting to the reader. There is stretched across the stream, a few feet above the water, a stout rope cable, to which a rudely constructed flat- boat, capable of carrying over a four- horse wagon, is attached by ropes at either end, passing through pulleys which slide along the cable. When the boat is about to cross the rope, the forward end is drawn in so as to make that end approach the cable, and the one at the hinder part is slackened so that the side of the boat will be brought obliquely against the current. The force of the water then propels it forward, upon the same principle that * Since the above was written, there has been published in the Denver and Salt Lake papers, a letter written by Bvt. Lt.- Col. Mills, in command of Fort Bridger, in which he states that he proposes to apply to the War Department for authority to explore the river next summer. The Colonel thinks a small steamer, with engines of more than ordinary power, can safely navigate the stream to within a short distance of his post. The Colonel's letter to the contrary notwithstanding, I am still of the opinion expressed above. |
