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Show ' [ 243 J 50 may be n1nch jmprovcd, .·o as to avoid the greater pnrt of tlte inequalities it now prcseu ts. l•'rom tbc mouth of the Kanzas to the Green river valley we?t of the Rocky Monntaiu8, there is no ::-uch thing as u n ountain 1oad ou the line of communication. We continued our way, and fonr miles bcyolld the ford, lnclian w re di,.,covered agaiu, nud I halted while n party were st~nt fonvnnl to as,;crtain who they were. ln a short time they rcturu('d, accompanied by a number of Inuiaus of the Oglallnh band of ioux. From tl1em we received .. onrc interesting in formation. They had formed part of the great vi llagc, which they informed u !nul broken up, ;uHl was ou its way home. The greater part of the village, 111cluding the Arapahoes, 'heyenncs, and Ocrlallah. , had crossed the Platte eio·h1 or ten miles below the mouth of the ~ 'weet \Vater, and were now behind the n:onntains to tl1c south of us, iutcndi11g to regain the Plattr. by way of Deer creek. 'They I! ad taken 1lt i till u ·nal route in search of grass and game. 'They gave u~ a vPry d i~cou rng iucr picture of the country. The great drought, i.llld the plngne of grusshopper , had swept it so, that scarce a blade of grass was to be seen, and there was uot a bu1falo to be found in the whole region. 'J'hci r people, they further said, had been nenrly starved to death, aud we would find their xoacl ma~kcd by lodges which they had thrown away iu order to move nlore ra.ptdly, and by the carcases of the hor~es which they had atcu, or \Vhich had perished by tarvation. Such was tlJc pro,:;pcct before n~. Wheu he had fit1ished the intNpretatiou of the ~c thincrs, l\1 r. Bissonette immediately rodr. up to me and ur()'eutly ad,,iscd that I should entirely abandon the further prosecution of ~ny exploration. "Le mcilleure auf...,. que je pourrais vous dowwr, c'est de virer de suite:' " 'rho Lest ad vice I can give .<rive yon, is to turu back at once.'' It was his owu inlctHion to retnru, as we had now reachcc..l the point to which he Jwd encr;.,o-ed to nt~ end me .. In rr.ply, I called up my men auc..l communicated to tl~c1~ fully tl1e lnf?rrnatJOn I had jn t received. J then exprc>ssed to them my fixed dctcrminauon to proceed to the end of the enterprise on which lllad been sent ~mt ~s the situation of the conntry gave me some rca ·on tu upprehend tllU~ lt mtght be attended with an unfortunate wsult to some of us I would leave it optional with them to contiune with me or to return. ' Amo11g them were some five or six who l knew would remain. 'Ve had still ten day's provisions; and, shoultl no game be fonud, when thi · stock was expended, we had our horses and tntlles, whiclt we could cat, whe11 other mca11s of :;ubsisteuce failed. llut not a man fliuclwd from the undertaking. "We'll eat the mute-,:' saiu llilsil L:tjeunes!:le; and thereup? n we shook hand · with our interpreter ancl Ills Indian., and parted. \V1th them I sent back one of my mcu, J)tlmes, whom tl1e errects of au old woun~ in the leg rendered incapable of continuing- the jouruey on foot, a11d hts horse seemed on the point of ui\'ill<.T out. llaviuu n·s~.)lvcd to dis- ' . . '=' <::1 n enctm1Lwr onrsel~es tmmcchately of every 1hing not absolutely ueces .. ·ary to our future operatLOn.s, I turned directly in towurd~ the river, atH.l encamped on the left bani~, a little auove the place where our council had been held, and ~vhet:e n tluck grove of willuw.; o1I'cred a suitable spot for the object I had Ill VICW. The. carts having been di charged, the covers and wheels were taken off, nncl, wtth the fnunc:, carried into-some low places amono- the willows aud co11cealed in the deuse foliage in such a manner that tht~ glitter of the' iron •c ) 51 [ 243] ·work might not attract the observnlion of some stmggling Indian. In the sand which had heen blown up into wa.vc.· among the wtllows, a Iaro-e hole was Lhen dt1g, ten feet qnare and six deep. ln the nl<'<U11imr, all our ctlec1 · had been. prcad out upon tile g round, and whatever was dc~igned to be carried along witl1 11s s pnratcd and laid usid c, and the remainingpart carried to the I tole and carefully cov 'rcu np. As mucl1 as possible alL traces of our proceedings were ohliwrated, and it wanted but a rain to render onr cache sa{c beyond d iscov 'ry. A II the men were now set at work to arrange the pac1~-saddlc and make np the packs. '['he day wa' very warm and calm, and the sky entirely clear, except when', as usnn.l along the snmmi ts of the mou ntni llOlls ridge opposite, the ·clonds had congregated in tnilSS('S. Our lodge bad been planted, and, on accou11t of the hen.t, the ground-pins had been taken out, and the lower part sltglttly rni 'Cd. Ncar to it was f:tanding the barometer, which swtmgin a tripmJ frn.1ne; and within the lodge, where a small fire had been bnilt, Mr. Preuss was oecn pied i 11 obf'len'ing the tempcratu re of boi I i ng water. At this in~tant, and wiliwut any warning, nntil it was within fifty yards, a viole11t gu ·t of wind da~IINl down the lodge, buryinrr n11dcr it Mr. Preu s ancl abou1 a dozen men, who had attempted to keep it from bei11 (rcn.rried away. I sneer dcd in savinrr the baromet r, whid1 the lodge wqs earring ofr witlt i tself, hut the thermorne1er wa ·broken. We had no other · of a high graduation, none of tho e which remained going higher than 1:35° Fahrenheit. ur astronomical observatious gave to thi place, whi ch we uamed Cache camp, a lon~itnde of L07° 15' £).)" , latitnc..lc 42° 50' 53''. July ~9.-All our arrang-ctn nts having- been completed, we left the cncampnwnt nt 7 o,cloek this monung. Jn this vicinity the orclinnry road leave~ tho Platte, aucl crosses over to the Sweet Water river, which it strikes near Rock Independence. Inst nd of following this road, I hnd determined to keep the immediate valley of tiJC Platte ~o far as the month of the '' ect '\Vater, in the expectation of finding better g-rass. To this I w:ts furth r promp~cd by the. nature of tny i liSt l'llCI ion . To IvT r. Carson was as igned the_ oflic ... of gntde, as we had nnw reached a part of the conutry with whtch, or a great part o[ which, long re, ideuce had made him fi.1m iliar. Ju a few miles w~ reached the Red Btlltes, a famon~ laudtnnrk in 1his country, whose rreologrcal composition i~ rcll sandstone, limestoue, and ralcarccns sand~ton e, and ptH.ld i ng-stonc. The river here cut· its way through a ridge; on the eastern side of it arc the lofty escarpments of red argillaceous sand tone, which are called the Reel Buttes. fn this passage tlte stream is not much comprcs. ed or pent up, there being a bank of con ~ idt>nthle though variable breadth ou either ide. Immediately on entering we di covered a hand of huffitlo. 'rhe hunters fitiled to kill any of 1hem. the leading hunter being thrown into a ravine. which occasioned som delav, and in the mcautime the J1erd clamherecl up the steep face of the ridge. it is sometimes wonderful to ~ec these apparently cltuns~r animals make their way np and down the mo. t rugged and broken precipice . \Ye halted to noon before we had clcarell this pa ·suge at n spot twelve miles llistant from .Cache camp, where we found an abundance of grass. So far the account of the Indians wa~ fonnd to be false. On the banks were willow and cherry trees. The cherries were not yet ripe, but in the thicke1s were numerous fr sh tracks of the grizzly bear, which arc very {()nd of this fruit. The soil here is red the .compo. it ion being derived from the red sandstone. A bout seven miles bro~1ght |