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Show [ 174 J 12 On all sides was beard tlw strange language of his own ~eople, wild, and harmonizing well with the1r .ap_pearauc.e. I l!stened to h1m for .some time with feeliugs of strange cunostty a~1d H~terest. He was now apparently thirty-five years of age; and, on mqmry, I learned that he bad been at St. Louis when a boy, and there had learued the Frencl: language. From one of the Indian women I obtained a fine cow and calf m excha~ge for a yoke of oxen. Several of th em brought us vege.tables, .ynmpkms, ouions, beans, and lettuce. One of them brought butt~l, and fi om a halfbreed near the river I had the good fortune to obtam some twenty or thirty ~unds of coffee. ~he dense titJ? ber iu which we had enca_~1ped interfered with astronomical observatwns, and our wet and damaged stores required exposure to the suu. Accordingly, tile tents were struck early the next morning, aud, lea viug camp at six o~c!ocl , we moved about seven miles np the river: to a handsome, open prame, .some twenty feet above the water, where the fine grass afforded a luxunous repast to om horses. Dnriug the day we occupied ourselves in ~11akiu g a~tron~mical ob~ervations, in order to lay down the country to tl11s. place; .1t being our cust~m to keep up our map regularly in the field, whtc~ we fo_und attende~ .with many au vantages. The men wer~ ~mpt busy .w drymg ~he provis.wns, painting the cart covers, and otherwise completwg our eL!Ulpage, until the afternoon, when powder was distributed to them, and they spent some hours iu firing at a mark. vVe were uow fairly iu the Indian country, aud it began to be time to prepare for the chances of the wilderness• Friday, June 17.-The weather yesterday had not permitted us to. make the observations I was desirous to obtain here, and I therefore did not move to-day. The people coutinucd their target firing. In the steep bauk of the river here, were nests of inuumerable swallows, into one of which a large prairie snake had got about half his body, and was occupied in eating the youug birds. The old ones were flyillg about iu great distress, darting at him, and vainly endeavoring to drive him of[ A shot wounded him, and, being killGd, he was cut open, and eighteen young swallow& were found in bis body. A suddeu storm, thn.t burst upon us in the after noon, cleared away in a brilliant suuset, followed by a clear uight, which enabled us to determine our position in longitude 95° 38' 05", aud in latitude 39° 06' 40". A party of emigrants to the Columbia river, under the charge of Dr. \Vhite, an agent of the Government iu Oregou Territory, were about three weeks in advance of us. They consisted of meu, women, and children. There w ere £ixty-four men, and sixteen or seve11teen families. They had a considerable number of cattle, and were transportiug their household furuiture in large heavy wagons. I understood that there had been much sickness amoug them, and that they had lost several chi!Uren. One of the party, who had lost his child, and whose wife was very ill, had left them a bout one hundred miles heuce on the prairies; and as a hunter, who had accompanied them, visited our camp this evening, we availed ourselves of his return to the States to write to our friends. .The morn.ing of tlw 18th was very unpleasant. A fine rain was falling, with cold wmd from the Borth, and mists made the river h11ls look dark a~d glo~my. We left our camp at seven, journeying along the foot of tbe htlls whtch border the Kansas valley, generally about three miles wide, and e~tremely rich. We halted for dinner, after a march of about thir- 13 [ 17.! J teen mi~es, on tli~ banks of o~e of the many little tributaries to the Kansas, which !ook l~ke trenches Ill the prairie, and are usually well timbered. After crossmg th1~ stream, I rode off some miles to the left, attracted by [he appearance of a cluster of hnts near the month of the Vermillion. It was a lar~e b~lt deserted Ka11sas village, sc1.ttered in an open wood, along t.he marg lll o( the s tream, 011 a ~pot chosen witll the customary fndian fon?ness for beanty of scenery. l he Pawnees had attacked it in the early spnng. Some of the ho uses were burnt, and others blackened with smoke a ~1d weeds w_c i:e al r.eady getting possession ?f t~1 e c leared places. Riding np tb.e Vermdlton nver., I reached tl:e ford 1n tune to meet the earls, and, crossmg, encamped 0~1 Its \~estern side . T he w eather continued cool, the t.h~n.no~letcr bemg: this evemng.as low a~ 49°; bnt tl te n~ght was sufficiently clc d. I for astr.onomiCal observatwns, whtch placccl us 111 longitude 96o 01 · 07", and lntttnde 39° 15' 1 9". At snnset, the barometer was at 28.845 thermometer 64°. ' We breakfasted the n.cxt morning at half past five, ancl left our eucrrmp- 1 1ent early. The morn1t1g was cool, the thcrmomf'ter being at 45o. Quitt mg the n ,ver ?attorn, the road ran along the u plauds, over a rolling country generally m vtew of the Kausas, from eight to twelve miles distant. .Many la.rge boulders, of a very co~ pact. sandstone, of various shades of red, some of them fou~ ?r five to~s ll1 wCight, were scattered along the hills; and 1nany beantJful plants m flower, amoug which the amorp!w ca l . . 1 . nescens was a ~ 1aractenst1e, en I vene~ the gre~n of the prairie. At the heads of th~ ravmes. I remarked, occaswnally, lhtckets of ~alix longifolia, the most co~mon Willow ?f the country. \Ve travelled mneteen miles, and pitched ou1 tent~ at ~ve.nmg 011 the head waters of a small creek, now ncar! dr but ~avmg 1~ lt~ bed several fine springs. The harometer indicited~~ considerable nse I.n the country-.here about fourteen hundred feet above ~he sea-Jnd the mcreased. elevat ion a~peared already to have some slio-ht Influence upon the vcgetatwn. The mght was cold, with a heavy de~v. the thermometer at 10 p. m. stauding at 46° barometer os 483 0 ~ t . l . d 0 ' ,c. • • lll post 1011 was. w ong 1tu e 96 14' 49", and latitude 39° 30' 40". The mormng ~f the 20th was .fine,.with a southerly breeze and a brio-ht sky; and at 7 o clocl~ .we \~ere on the march. The country to-day ,~as ntth~~· more ?roken, nstng . still, and covered every where with frao-ments of stltc.eous IJmestonc, partiCularly on the snmmits, where they were5 small a.nd ti:Ickly strewed as pebblf's on the shore of the sea. In these ex Josed st~natiOIJ S grew but fe ~v pl~nts; though, wheuever the soil was aoo~ and pi otected from th~ w mds, m the creek bottoms and ravines, at~d on the slo. p.e s, t.h eyh flounsh. ed. abundantly,· amone- th em the amor·n' t'll u rltrt, s I re-talm . mI gh 1 ts c ar. ahc tbe nstic place. vVe crossed ' at 10 a m the BI." v . ·11' c . ., b ei tnl JOn '!' 11c 1 ~sa nc . ottom of ab.ou t one mile in breadth, one-third of whicl; IS occup1ed by timber. lVIakmg our usual halt at noon after a d , march of twenty .. four miles, \~e reached the Big Dine, and 'encam e~~~~ the upla~1ds of the western stde, near a small creek where wa p .fi large spnng of very cold water. Thi~ is a clear and handsome sst~ea~e about one hundred and twenty feet w1de rnnning w1·th ·d ' ~ h · · ' ' a rapi current t troug a. well-ttmbered . valley. To-day antelope were seen runnin ' over th~ !nlls, and at evening Carson brought ns a fine deer. Lo · dg of the camp 96° 32' 35" latituue 39° 45' os" Tl . ngttu 0 75o " 1 ' • 1e1 mometer at sun~et • .. t l.. peasant southerly breeze and fine mornino- had g1·ve11 l "' gaI e , · 1 · a· · ::, Pace to a Wit 1 In teat tons of bad wea th er; when after a marc11 of t .' en mt1 e s, |
