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Show 20 COVE SPRIN~ is about one mile up the stream. It is very bea~tiful. After passing several small branches of the Blue and Ottoe creeks, all having sandy beds, you reach the LITTLE BLUE, twenty-eight miles from the Eig Blue. It is fifty feet wide, timber plenty, grass and water good. You now are in the Pawnee country. Watchfulitess is -required to prevent their stealing your stock. Your camp must be well guarded every night, and your stock caraled, if necessary. Your course lies up the valley until you diverge into the high table land of the prairie. 'fhe valley is well timbered, grass and water plenty. Sixteen miles from where you leave the valley, you find both wood, water and grass tolerably good. The road is good. You find no water the remainder of the ~~~~~~distance. Fill your casks. The distance to the PLATTE is twenty-one miles. Cook enough provisions for the distance. If the season is very dry, you J better strike the Platte as soon as you can. You usually strike the Platte or Nebraska opposite Grand Island, twenty miles below its head. From the mouth of the Kansas to this point, the distance is reckoned at three hundred and twenty-eight miles. Lat. 40°41'06; Lon. 98 ° 45'49'f. Wood for fuel can be found on the Island if the river is low. To the head of the Island 20 miles the road is good. From the "head" to the fo~ks of th~ Platte, 90 miles, the emigrant can · supply himself with fuel from the island, or with buffalo chip! [buffalo dung dried by years of exposure to the su~.] Buffaloes are so1netimes plenty here. You have now been out rnore than a month, and experienced aU the perils and hardships of life on the Plains. Many are no doubt down with sickness, mostly billioui complaints; many - 21 with rheumatism, contracted by being in the water much of the time. To every one who designs crossing the mountains we would earnestly say, avoid large quantities of medicines, pills, calomel, &c. ,-cleanliness and frequent bath in~ -' are your best preventives of sicl{ness-(never bathe if you feel fatigued-it matters not how warm you are, if you are not exhausted). The best time for bathing is about 9 or 10 in the morning; you are then stronger than at any other time in the day. Heed not the coldness of the water if it is soft. After leaving the water, instantly commence the most active rubbing, with a coarse towel, until a reaction takes place in the skin; dress rapidly, drink a good draught of pure water, and com.., mence a smart walk until perspiration ensues; cool gradually, and our interest in California for it, but you will "throw medicine to the dogs." About a mile from the forks of the Platte, you will find a spring of cold pure water, drink carefully of it. Cm reaching the Fork, lat. 41' 04' 47'-long. 100-'43. The trail lies up the south fork of the Platte, some distance to the• crossing place. There is no fixed crossing place; it changes frPquently during the season; cross where you can. There \\·ill not be much difficulty in crossing when the river is not high. When you ente~ the river, always incline down stream with the bars. The trail then crosses the prairie to the north fork. there is no trail, cross the prairie anywhere. The distance across is 22 miles; if you cross above the bluffs, there is neither water nor timber, and the grass is thin. You descend to tbe valley through tl' ASH HOLLOW; by descending the bluff 5 miles above Ash Hollow, you avoid much heavy sand. The descent is good except in one place. There is a !pring |