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Show 40 FKOM FORT KEARNY TO FORT LARAMIE. the whole party wading alongside to incite and guide the mules, lest, from some sudden eccentricity, to which those animals are so constantly prone, a wagon might be capsized or precipitated into a hole. The water was perfectly opake with thick yellow mud, and it required all our care to avoid the quicksands with which the bottom is covered. The labour was excessive, on both men and animals, as the river was nearly half a mile wide, and the current from recent rains ran with great rapidity and force. Wading such a stream breast- deep four or five times, with such treacherous footing, was very exhausting, and we were glad to encamp, immediately after crossing, upon the left bank. Both man and beast suffered more from this day's exertion than from any day's march we had yet made. About one and a- half miles above the crossing a new Indian lodge was seen standing entirely alone. A fact so unusual excited our curiosity: upon going to the place, it was found to contain the body of an Indian ( probably a chief) raised upon a low platform or bier, surrounded by all the implements believed by these simple children of the forest to be necessary for his use in the spirit- land. The lodge was carefully and securely fastened down at the bottom, to protect its charge from the wolves. It was an affecting spectacle. His last battle fought, his last hunt over, here he lay in the solitude of death, abandoned by wife and child, and all he loved, yet surrounded by the tokens of their parting care, the rude proofs of a love that followed him to an unknown hereafter. We are now, by our measurements, four hundred and seventy- nine miles from Fort Leavenworth, and one hundred and eighty from Fort Kearny. Tuesday9 July 3.- Morning cool an* delightful; Ther. at sunrise, 71°; Bar. 26.59; Wind S. W., fresh and bracing. To- day we crossed the ridge between the North and South Forks of the Platte, a distance of eighteen and a- half miles. As we expected to find no water for the whole of this distance, the India- rubber bags were filled with a small supply. The road struck directly up the bluff, rising quite rapidly at first, then very gradually for twelve miles, when we reached the summit, and a most magnificent view saluted the eye. Before and below us was the North Fork of the Nebraska, winding its way through broken hills and green meadows; behind us the undulating prairie rising gently from the South Fork, over which we had just passed; on our right, the gradual convergence of the two valleys was distinctly perceptible; while immediately at our feet were the heads of Ash Greek, which fell off suddenly into |