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Show [ 174 J 14 we halte d to noon on a s.. mall creek ' wher. e the water st·o od in. deep pobo ls. In the ban l c o f t l1 e ci.C e l.r. lt"mestone mac de tts appearandc e 1l1 af l's t.i a(! tn• m a to uft f t tl · 1~ Itl tile afternoon the people seeme to sn e~ or wan o one oo 11c \, ' . 1· f · b · d. · t d water. 1'h e road led along a high dry ndge; dark 1 It1es o ttm er 11t1 .t ea e . 1 1 d r streams in the plains below; butt 1ere was no wa e1 neat, t te.l lei a ds o '-very oppressive witll a hot wind, and the thermometer ann t 1 e a y was ' ·' · b d 1 t t 90o Alono- our route the ammpha has been 111 very a un ant )tl va~ ~iable .bloom~in some places bending beneath the wetght of purple clusters. in others without a flower. It seems to love best the su~my ~lopes, · 1' d ·}r 80·1 w1t 1 and southern exposure. Every where the 1 ose. IS met 1 a a1 ... · ·1· · It t with and reminds us of cultivated gardens and ctv1 ~zatl_on. . 1s sea - tered over the prairies in small l.>ouqnets, and, when _glttt~nng m the dews and waving in the pleasant breeze of the early m?rmng, 1s the_ 1'?ost beau~ tiful of the prairie flowers. T_he r~1·terr:isia, absu:the, or. pnu_ne ~age, as it is variously called, is increa Ing 111 stze, and gli tters him sdve1, as the southern breeze turns up its leaves to the ~uu. All these plants have their insect inhabitants, varionsly colored; takmg_ generally the hue of the flower on which they live. The m·tem_isia has 1ts_ small fly accompan.y~ ing it through every change of elevatwn and latt~~dc;. and wherever ~ have seen the asclepias t·nbe?'osa, I have_ ah~a~s temallccd, too, 01~ t_he flower a large butterfly, so nearly rescmblll1 £? 1t m . colo~· as to ?.e d1st_m~ guishable at a little distance only by ~he motwn_ of 1ts '~mas. 1rav~llnt ~ on the fresh traces of the Oregon emtgrants relieves a little_ the loneliness of the road. and to-nio-ht after a march of tweuty~two m1les, we halteu on a small c'reek, whicl~ h~d been one of the\r encampments. As we auvance westward, the soil appears to be gettmg more sanuy, and the surface rock, an erratic deposite of sand and gravel, rests h~ rc on a bed of coarse yellow and gray and very friable sandstone. . Evemn_g close_d over with rain and its usual attendant, horues of mus'}mtoes, wlth wh1ch we were annoyed for the first time. . . ' June 22.-We enjoyed at breakfast thts morn~ng a luxury, very unusual in this country, in a cnp of excellent co.ffc_e, with crec~m from ou~ cow. Being milked at night, cream was thus had 111 the mormng. Our nnd~day halt was at Wyeth's creek, in the bed of which were numerous boulders of dark ferruginous sandstone, mingled with_ others of the red sandstone, already mentioned. Here a pack of cards, I y1llg loose on the grass, marked an encampment of our Oregon emigrants; _and it was at the _c.lose of the day when we made our bivouac in th~ mtdst of orne well~tlmbcred ravines near the Little Rlue, twenty-four mtles from our camp of the pre~ ceding night. Crossing the next morning a number of handsome cre~ks, with clear water and sandy beds, we reached, at 10 a.m., a very beaut1fnl wooded stream, about thirty-five feet wide, called Sandy creek, and sometimes as the Ottoes frequently winter there, the Ottoe fork. The country has b~come verv sandy, and the plants less varied and abundant, with the exception of the arnmplw, which rivals th e grass in quantity, though not so forward as it has been fonnd to the eastward. At the Big Trees, where we had intended to noon, no water was_ to be found. The bed of the little creek was perfectly dry, and, on the adpcent sandy bottom, cacti, for the first time, made th eir appearance. We made here a short delay in search of water; and, after a hard day's march of twenty~eight miles, encamped, at 5 o'clock, on the Little Blue, where our arrival made a scene of the Arabian desert. As fa st as they arrived, 15 [ 174 J men an_d hor8es rushe~ into tho stream, where they bathed and drank toge ther 111 common enjoyment. vVe were no\v in the ran ae of the Pawnees, who were ac~ustomed ~o infest this part of the cgnntry, stealing h_orses from compames on. their way to the mountains, and, when in ~mmClent force, ?rrnly. attaclnn~ ancl plund~riug them, and subjectiug them to vau?us Jnnds of msult. 1< or ti-le first _tunc, therefor , guard was mounted to-mght: Ou_r route the next mornwg lay up tho valley, which, bord_ ered ~~lulls w1th graceful slopes, looked uncommonly green and bcant_ I ~nl. I he stream was about_ fifty f~et wide, and three or fonr d13ep, fnnged by cotton wood and willow, w1th frequent groves of oak tenanted by flocks of turkers. Game here, too, made its nppeurance in grca.tor plenty. Elk were 1rcquently seen on the hills, and now and then an antelop~ bounded across our path, or a deer broke from the groves. The r?ad 111 the afternoou was over the upper prairies, several miles from tlu' nver, and we encamped at ~unset on one of its small tributaries, where an abundance of prele (eqtusetum) afforded fine forno-e to om tired ani! nals. We had travel lee~ thirty-one miles. A heavy bank of black clonds 11~ the wc_st cat~~ on ~s 111 a. storm bet ween nine and ten, preccdetl by a ~w_lent wmd .. I he raul fell 111 such torrents that it was uinlcnlt to breathe fac1ng the '~ md? the. thunder rolled incessantly, and tile w ho!e sky was tremulous with _hghtnwg; now :nd then illuminatea by a blinding flash, st_ICceedcd by p~tchy darkness. Carson had the watch from ten to midmght,. and to hun had been as~i?t~ed our y01~ng compagnons de voyage, Moss1s. J_3rant an~ R. ~en ton. l hts was the1r first night on guard, and snch an t~t.rodu ctwn d1cl _not augur_ very auspiciously of tho plea nres of t.lle expednw~. lVIany LIHngs c.onspt red to render thei r situation uncom- 101·table; stone_s_ of desperate and bloouy Indian fights were rife in the camp; onr posllwn was badly chosen, surronuded on all sides by timbered ~ollows, and occupying an area of ~everal hundred feet, so that ncccssanl~ the _guards were far apart; anc~ no~v and then I could hear Randol ph, as 1freheved by the sound ~f a vo~ce 1n the darkness, calling out to the sergeant of th ~ guard, to direct his attention to some imaginary alann; OUt they Stood It ?Ut, and took their l.lll'll regularly afterward. T!lC J~ext mmnmg we had a specimen of the false alarms to which all parttes 111 these wild regions arc su hject. Proceeding up the valley obJects were. seen on the. opposite hills, which disappeared before a glass ?onld be b1 ought to ben1 upon them. A man, who was a short distance 111 the rear, came spurring up in gr~t haste, shouting Indians! Indians! He had been near enough to see and count them, according to bis repo rt an~ had made o_ut twenty~seven . I immediately halted ; arms w.cre ex~ a 1~~n~~l and put 111 order; the ~sual preparations made; and Kit Cat·son, spn_nomg upon on_e of th ~ _huntmg ho!·ses, cro~sed the river, and galloped off mto the opposite pl'ames, to obtum some certain intel ligence of their movements . .l\IIonnted _o~1 a fi_ne horse, without a saddle, and scouring bareheaded over the prames, Ktt ~vas one of the finest pictures of a horseman I have ever seen. A short t11no enabled him to discover that the Indian war party of twenty-seyen consisted of six elk, who had been gazing curiously at ?ur carav~n us It passed by? and \':ere now scampering off at full speed. Thts was our first alarm, and 1ts excttement broke agreeably on the monoto~ y of the day. At our noon hal t, the men were exercised at a taro-et. and m the evening we pitched our tents at a Pawnee encampment oflas: |
