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Show [ 23] 126 the ewning ~t "Turkt>y creek," hr.re there is no wood t ohe .1 hesitles thi~ all the grass around us had bet>n burnt up. anuF tbt·uary 20 .-'L ast n1. gbt we J1 a1 1 an awl·u 1 storm, l· t st~· 11 contin-l Sev~:ral mules have b ... en frozen to death. We nave b~'ell oUbf'll iged to lay abed . alJ day, . I k T~ Ill or<. er to eep warm. 11e snow is stdl drifting about funousl)> . · . . . February 21 -Tt1is roorn1ng IS the first hme for th~rty·six. hours that a11 y one h~s Vt>ntured out of bed .. My men ha,~ tbe1r pro· vi~ions ready cooked, anJ shared thPrl_l With. Mr. B.rown s party; of all the tents that bad beei). pitched Fnday n1ght, mu1e was tlte only 0 n e which ~ t iII n• maine d . The .s n ow had he a p e d u p a r o u 11 d the rest so that the inmates were o.bhged to '.lt·sert tl~t·m, ;:~nd. take re· fuge in the wagons. About m1ne, the w1nd had swept 1n such a way as to keep op.tn a pa~h around it, although the snow was on a }eVt:'l with the ndge po:e of the tent. We now broke up some board :; that were in the wctgons, and kindled a little fire. Soon the sun rn~w; but, instead of one sun, we had three; all seemed of equal brilliancy, but, as thry ?ontiuut·d to risP, t~e middle one only retained its circular form, wlule the other$ shot Into l111gr columns of tire, which blended with the air near their summits. The brt>adth of the columns was that of the sun's apparent diameter, and their bright about twelv.e times the same diamett'r; they were bt:tween twenty and thirty dt' grees Ji ·tant from the sun. Befrre the sun had ri:'t'n more than len degrees, tLis phenomena entirely disappeared. Some of the men called my atte11tion to this strange appt·aranee, but so engrossed were thry with their own calamitil's, that they hardly seemed to be in the least astonished at what they saw. After some little while we missed Preston and the sick man; we· inquired, but no one knew anything about them. It was now erident that they haJ been bur·ied beneath the snow drift, whieh, for some dis tauce around had filled up the nook in whieh we had encamped to the levPl of the prairil:'; as the drift was of considerable extent, much time would be wasted in examinir1g it, uuless we· could find where they haJ pitched their tent. At last, I notice~i o'ne poor fdlow digging away to find his boots· he sbowe,t me where the sick man had bt><•n. I called the men, ;nd i~nmerliate!y set to work. The snow was six feet dtep, and we had t>nly a little piece of board to dig with, and the cold was so great that no· one could work very long before his hantls became perfec.tly rigid. After a goot~ Jeal of hard digging, we found a pair of boots, which were recogn1zcd by the mt·n as Preston's property. This urge1l us to r~newed exertions; at l.!11gth we cleared the snow from a portion· of ins ~uffalo rob~, and lifting it up, we got sigbt of the poor ftl· low's 1ace; he cned out in a weak voice begg·inO' us for God's. k 1 L. . ' b sa e not to eave 11n to che. \Ve as:sured him that we would not forsake him, and again covered his faee until we could remove more of the snow; having dua as far as his waist five men caught hole! of him to drag him out, but the snow had be~n moist and was. packed very hard, and he was; held tight by the tt'nt which had been broke1~ down by the pressure of the snow; however, we dug. 127 [ 23] -a little ~ore until. we coultl get at the ridge pole of the tPnt, which we cut 1.11 two w.ilh our axt·s. We now drt'w Pre~ton out of the .<.Jrift, wh1ch had like to have provl'd h:s grave. His bed-ft'llow who had bet·n much weakt>nt·cl by Sl.ckue~~, was alrt--ady dt·ad; h;. was. the mlln whom we had dragged from JackRor1's gro\'e to B p,1wnee fork;" where he had been JHt:ke<.l up by Mr. Brown; since which time he h~~l . been rt:>COVt'rlng fast. P~>~r fellow! it was his d .... stiny to leave 1liS bones on the desert prall'lt'~, where wolvt--s howl his requiem. I ~aused the men. to dig him also ou.t of thr drift, and to put h1s borly mto a wagon, 1n order that we m1ght bury hiru at the Cotton Wood fork. Preston complainer! bitterly of the cold; the RU1lden chill which he ~:>xperi~·nced when we dragged him forth {for he seemed at first to he in a perspiration) inst~tJtly .st1fft>llt:'d his limhs. He begged, ?e prayed, that we would. brwg. h1~n nea~ the firt .. ; but we put him wto a wagon, and, wrl:lpp1ng l11rn In buffalo robes, we started on our miirch. Several. mnles had already bePn frozen to death. As we proceeded, rnul~s, that hacl s:arted off 1n apparently good rondition would drop down i·1 the harneRs, and their limbs would becom~ pt>rfectly rigid. Even one of the OXI:'n fell clown bPuumbed with cold. In a few hours we lost l'ix mult's and one ox, so that owr road. was marked out with dying animals. As we approached our destined camp groua~d, we saw a wolt that was so badly froztn as to be unable to move. One of the men put an end to its sufferings by a bullet from his rifle. The snow on the general Sllrfar.e of the prairie was not more than three or· four iJJches in clt·pth, so that I accomplished the m a r c h w i t b o u t a n y g rea t d i tn e u I 1 y by t w i I i g h t ; but n o n e o f the· tea m s a r r i v e d u n t il 11 o' c I o c k t h a t n 1 g h t. .February 22.-I now made all my arrangements for going oil\ wuh Mr. Smith, lE:aving my men to await the movements of Mr. Brown, who haJ agret>d to transport their provision and bedding as far as Independence, MissC)uri. Durin.~ the day, \Ye dug a grave for the unfortunate man who was suffocated beneath the snow. Oo a high lllufl' point, that over· hangs a deep pool of quiet water, elose to the spot where the road' cr.osses Cotton \V ood fork, is tbe last resting place of poor Pilcher. .M~·· Brown was in great embarrassment ~II nay about the safety of h1s teams. Several of them had not y~ arrived; the poor animals ha,l been out anot'her ni15lJt upon the prairie, where they could nol g~t a morsel to eat. . In the evening, Preston came into camp; he had been put m.to a ~agon that remaint1i la:;t night upon the prairie, about 8 ~dt-s dtst~n.t. This morning he started an1~ walked to camp. He ooked ns li he had been sil:k for a long tune, so great was the ~hock his constitution hau sustai~ed. He told us that when he b;s~ a~oke, he felt vt:·ry eomfortable, and h~d no di~culty in ei4thlng. At l~nath he perceived his companton was dywg. He now made dforts t~ escape from his perilous situation, and found |