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Show LARAMIE PLAINS- ALARM. 251 Laramie Plains, and travelled over a beautiful rolling country, covered with grass, with here and there a small lake or pond, formed in the low grounds by the drainage from the neighbouring hills. A meridian observation gave the latitude 41° 28' 16". From this point we took a course a little to the south of east, for a prominent landmark which rises near the heads of Lodge- pole Creek, an affluent of the South Fork of the Platte, and in ten miles reached the western fork of the Laramie River, upon the left bank of which we encamped. The river is twenty feet wide and eight or ten inches deep, flowing with a rapid current over a bed of pebbles. The bottom is about four miles wide, with abundance of fuel and grass. The trace to- day has been rather undulating; but an excellent road can be located without difficulty. Buffalo have been very numerous and tame. Day's march, twenty- one miles. Latitude, by observation, 41° 19' 43". 4. Long. 105° 57' 12". J& iday, September 27.- Clear and calm. Ther. at sunrise 41°. Slight frost on the grass in the low grounds. Crossing the west fork of the Laramie River, our course was'nearly due east, over a gently rolling prairie. The trace is smooth, and had we crossed the Laramie Fork about a mile to the northward, it would have been as level as could possibly be desired, with not a bush or ravine to obstruct the passage. The timber which clothes the hills on the south ceases at their base. Artemisia has entirely disappeared. About eleven o'clock, two of the scouts who had kept on the left flank of our little party were descried descending from the hills at full gallop, waving their hats, and giving the alarm of Indians. We were at the time in the midst of a broad- prairie, toward which rolling ridges sloped gently on either hand, and at a considerable distance before us rose a bold prairie ridge: not a bush or a tree was to be seen which could be converted into a covert for defence. The train was immediately halted, the pack- mules and loose animals caught up and led by their halters to prevent them straying from the band, and the men were formed into two lines behind our little wagon, between which the led animals were driven, the whole being closed up by a guard in the rear. In a few minutes our simple arrangements were - completed, and we moved forward over the plain, prepared to make as stout a resistance as circumstances would permit. In a hollow on our right lay two lakes, or ponds, and some three miles ahead ran the main fork of the Lafamie. Herds of buffalo |
