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Show I [ 243 J 30 the left, in about ten miles from the fort, we reached Caclw a la Poudre where we. hnlred to ~won. r~-,his i~ a very beautiful mountain stream, abou{ one hundred feet wide, flowmg w11h a full swift current over a rocky bed. We halted un~er the shade of some cottonwoods, with which the stream is wooded sca~terrugly. ln the upper part of its course, it runs amid the wildc) s~ n~~unram scen:ry, und bre~king throtwh the Black Ilills falls into the llatte about ten miles below thrs place. ln rhc cour ... c of our late journey I h~td ruanngcd to become the possessor of a vcr~ untractable mule, a perf~ct VIxen, and her I had turned over to my Spanrard. It occupied u, about half an hour t?-day to get th~ ~addle upon her; but, once on her back, Jose could uot b? dismounted, re~llzmg the accounrs given of Mexican horses and horsemans!up; and we contmucd our route in the aflernoon. ~t . evcu~ng wa encamped on Crow (?)creek, having travelled abouttwenty- erght miles. ~o?c of ~he parry were well acquainted with the country and 1 hatl great dlfJJctdty 111 ascertaining what were the names of the srremrl~ we crossed between the North. aud Sot.Hh fotks of the Platte. 'rhis I supposed ~o be Crow ~n'ek. lt ~s what Is called a salt stream, and the water ~lands m pools,.havmg no coutmuous course. A llne grainccl sandstone made ~ts appearance m the banks. 'rhc observations of the nio·ht placed us in Iutlluue 40° 42' : longirude 1 0?~0 33' 2711 • The barometer a~ suuset was 25.2:3L. A~tacbed thcnnometer at 6ti . Sky clear, except in the east with a Iigh t wmd from the north. ' July Ia:- 1._'herc bring .no wood here, we used last night the bois de vr~clw, w~1~h IS very plenttful. At our ct~mp this morning, the barometer wa.s at 2:J.235, the attached thermomet r 60° . A few clouds were movinrr through ~ deep blne sky, with. a light wind from the west. After a ride of twelve nul.e~, 1n a nor.lherly d1rcction, over a plain covered with innumerable qnant.tties of crzctz, we reached a small creek i11 which there was water an~ where several herds of buffalo were scattered about among the ravines; whtc~l al wa!s ~fford good pn tnrag~. yY" e se?m now to be passing along the bd.se of a pll1tcau of the Black hrlls, m which the formation consists of marl,' some o( tl.lCm w.hitc and laminate~,. the country to the left rising s~1dde~1ly and fallmg oil gradually and un1formly to the right. In five or SIX .miles of a northeasterly cour ... e, we struck a hitrh ridcre broken into c~m~al pcal~s, o.n w~lOse summit large boult.lcrs wc~e gathe~ed in heaps. ! he m~lgnetl~ daecti?J~ of the. ridge is northwest and southeast, the glitterIng wJwc o! Its precipitous stdes making it visible for many miles to tho south. lt Is com~osed ?f a soft. earthy J imestoue, and n1arls rcscmblin.ot~ a~ here~fter dcscr;beu, m tl~e netghuorhood of tl~e Chimney Rock, on tb':> ~01 th fork of t!1c llatte, easily worked by the wmds and rains, and sometimes moulded mto very fa. tustic shapes. At dlC foot of the northern slope was the bed of a creek some [ort y feet wide, coming uy frequent falls from the bench above: It w.as shnt 1t1 by high perpeudicnlar banks, in which were s~rata of white lammat~~d ~arl; its bed was perfectly dry, and the leading f~ature o~ the whole region 1s one of remarkable aridity, and perfect freedom from .mo1sture . . It~ about s.ix n1iles w.c crossed the bed of another dry creek' and contmtung onr nde over a h1gh level prairie, a little before sundown. :_e cam~ suddenly l~pon a bcauti!"ul creek, which revived us with. a f~elrn_, of delr.ghtcd surpnse by the plensnnt contra~t of the deep verdure of ltS banks, With the parched desert we had passed. vVc bad suficrcd nmch to-day, both men and hor e~·, for want. of water; having met with it , 1 I • / \ I 31 [ 243 ] bnt once in our uninterrupted march of forty miles; and an exclusive meat diet creates much thirst. . . . " Las bestias tienen ntucha hambre," said the young Spantard, tnquuingly, "y la geute tarnbien," said l, "antigo" we'll camp. here. A stream of rrood and clear water ran winding abont throtwh the httlc valley, a~d a herd of bufialo were quietly feeding u little distance helow. It w.ns qmtc a hunter's paradise; and while some ran Jown toward the b.and to lulL oue for supper, others collected bois de vaclw, for a fire, there lJctng no wood; and I amused myself with hunting for plauts amonrr the gra~s. . It will IJe seen, by occasional remnr.ks on tile geologtcnl formatwn, that the constituents of the soil in these rccrwns arc good, and every dny served to streuothen the impression in my r~iud, confirm.ed by sul>sPqucn~ observation, that the barrcu appearance of the country, IS due almost cutnely to the cxrrcmc dryness of the climate, ~loug our ro~tc the cot~utr_y l~ad seemed to increase constantly iu clevntron. Accordmg to the md.IcatlOn. of the barometer, we were at our encampment, 5,440 feet above the sea. 'rho evening was very clear, with a fresh breeze from the south, 50° c~st. The barometer at sunset was 21.862, the thermometer attached showmg 68o. 1 su pposcu this to be a. fork ofT Jodge Pole creek, so fur. as I could d~terminc from onr nncerrain means of information. A~trononucal ob ·ervauons o-avc for the camp a lon,ri tude of 105° l3' 3 ", and latitude 41° 0 ' 31''. n J11t11 l!ltlt.-The wi~d continued fresh frorn rhe snmc quarter i.n the mom1ng, the day being clm~r wirh the exccpt_ion of a few clouds In the horizon. At our camp at stx o'clock, the he1ght of ~he bar~metcr w~s 24. 30 the artached thermometer 6l 0 . Onr course thLs mornlllg was ~Ircctly ~lOrlh, by compass, the variation being l 5° o~ 16° easterly. A n?c of four miles brourrllt us to Lodcre Pole creek, wh1ch we had seen ul 1ts mouth on the South fork; crossing on the way two dry streams, i~ eighteen mile from our ellcampmcnt of the past night we reached a l11gh .bleak ridge, composed entirely of the ~a~c earthy li~nesronc and marl prcvwuslydescribcd. I had never seen anythmg which unpressed .so strongly on my mind a feeling of desolation. The valley throu~h wh1ch ran t~e waters of Horse creek, lay in view to the north: bnt to? far to have any mfiu~nce on the immediate view. On the peak o[ the ndgc whe~·c I was st~ndma-, some six or seven hundred feet above tile river, the wmd wab hrgh and blertk; tile barren and arid. country seemed as if it had been ~wept by fires, and in every direction the same d11ll ash-colored hue, dcnvc~ from the formation, met the eye. On the smnmits were some stu.nted ptnes, many of them d~ad, all wearing the same m;hen hue of desolatiOn. We left the place with pleasure; and after we had descended several h~1ndrcd feet, halted in one of the ravines which at rhc distance of every mile or two, cut the flanks of the ridge ~ith little rushjng streams, wearing somcthiug of a mountain character. We had already bcgnn to exchange the comparatively barren lands for those of a more fertile character. Though the sandstone formed the broken banks of the creek, yet they were covered with a ~hin grass; uud the fifty or sixty feet which formed the bottom l.and of the l1ttle ::»trcam, \vas clothed with Tcry luxuriant arass: among whtch I remarked willow and cherry, (cerasus virgiuiana j) and a quanttly of gooseberry and currant bushes occnpicd the greater purL . . . The creek was three or four feet broad an(l about s1x mchcs deep, w1th a swift current. of clear water, and rokral>ly cool. We had struck it too low Jowu to find the cold water, which we should hnvc enjoyed nearer to ils • |