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Show " [ 174 ] 2-t the conntry he was to proceed to the American ?ompany's fort ~t the mouth of L;ramie's fork, and await my arrival, wluch would be prw~ to the 16th, as 011 that and the f~llowing night would occur some occnlLatwns which I was desirous to obta1n at that place. . July 5.-Before breakfast, all was ready. yve had one led !10rse Ill aduition to tho ~e we rode, and a pack mule, destmed to car~y our Hlstruments, provisions, and baggage; the .la t two artieles not. be.tng o~. very great weight. The instruments con 1 ted ~~ a sextant, artdictal hott~.oll, &c., a barometer spy gla s, at\J compass. I he chronometer 1 of coUJ :se kept on my per 01;. l had ordered th? c~ok to put up for us srome il~ur, co~e.e, and suoar and our rifles were to {nrntsh the re ·t. One blanket, 111 addttiOu to hi~ .. ~ddle and saddle blank9t, fnrnished the materials for each mau's bed, and every one was provided with a chan~e of l.i~en. All were armed with rifles or double barrelled auns; and, 111 addltwn to these, Maxwell and myself were furnished with excellent pistols. Til us accoutred, we took a parting brcakfa t with ot~r friends, a.nd set forth .. Onr journey the first day aflorded Jlo~lllng of any mterest. We s~10t a unffalo toward suuset, and, having obtamed some meat for our ev~n w g meal, encnmped where a little timber afl'o~·dcd u.s the mcaus of makmg a fire. Ua ving disposed our meat on roastwg sticks, we proceeded to ~npack our bales in search of com~e and sugar, and ilonr for brea.d. Wtth the exception of a little parched coffee, unground, we found nothtng. ~nr cook had neglected to put it up, or it had been somehow foro-ottcn. Tned and hungry, with tough bull meat without salt, (for ":e h.ad not been a~le to kill a cow) and a little bitter coil'ce, we sat down 1n silence to our nusCl ·able fare a very disconsolate party; for ycst(~ rday's feast was yet fresh in our memories, aud this was our first bru h with misfortuue. Eacl? man took his blanket, and laid himself down silently; for the worst part of tllese mishaps is, that they make people ill-humored. To-day we had travelled ahout thirty-six miles. July 6.-Finding that our present excursion would be attended with considerable hardsh ip, and unwilling to expose more persons than necessary, I determined to send Mr. Preuss back to the party. His horse, too, appeared in no conditiou to support the journey; and accordingly, after breakfast, he took the road across the hills, attended by one of my most trusty men, Beruier. The ridge between the rivers is here about fifteen miles hroad, and I expected he would probably strike the fork near their evening camp. At all events, he would not f<l.il to find tlteir trail, andrejoill them the next day. We cotltinued our journey, seven in number, including the three Cheyen nes. Our general course was south we.;t, up the valley of the river, which was sandy, bordered on the northern side of the vallny by a low ridge; and. on• the south, after seven or eight miles, the river hills became higher. . ·ix mile frotu our resting place we crossed the bed of a considerable stream, now entirely dry-a bed of sand. In a grove of willows, ncar the mouth, were the remains of a cousidcrable fort, con~tructeu of tru11ks nf lar~e trees. It was apparently very old, and had probably been the scene of some hostile encounter amono- the roving tribes. It solitude funned an impressive contrnst to the pictlll·e which our imngiuations involnutarily drew of the bn.y scene which had been enacted here. The timber appeared to have been much more c xten~ve formerly tlla11 now. There were but few tree<>, a kiiH1 of loug leaved willow, staudiug; aud 25 [ 171 ] numerous trunks of large trees were scattered abont on the around. In many similar places I had occa. ion to remark an apparent progressive decay in the timber. Ten miles farther we rc~ched the month of Lodge Po~e creek, a clear and haltdsome. tream, runnlllg through a broad valley. lq us cotu?e t.hrougl~ the bottom 1t has a. uniform breadth of twenty·two feet, aud stx 1nclws 111 d ~p t h. A fc\~ wtllows on the banks strike pleasantly on the eye, IJy the1r greenness, Ill the midst of the hot and barren sands. Tile mnorplw: was frcc]t~et.lt among the ravines, lmt the unfiower (ltelianlhus) wa the charactcnsttc; and 1lowers of deep warm colors seem most to love the saudy soil. The impression of tbe contltry travelled over today was one of dry and barren sands. We turned in towards the river at noon, and ga vc our horse: two hours for food and rest. I had no otll r therm~mcter than th on~ attached to the barometer, which stood at sgo, the height of the column 111 the barometer being 26.235 at meridian. The sky was clear, with a high wind fmm the outh. At 2 we continued our journey; tl.lC wiud !~ad moderated, and it became almo 't uncndurably hot, and our ammals ullercd everely. In the conr e of the afternoon, the wind rose suddenly, and blew hard from the southwest, with thunder and Jio-htniug, ~nd squalls of. rain; tbeso were blown against us with violcncc0 by the Wllld; and, haltmg, we turned our backs to the storm until it blew over. Antelope were tolerably frcq uent, with a large o-ra v hare· but tile former were shy, aud the latter hardly worth the delay gf stoppiu~ to shoot them; 5o, as the evening drew near, we again had recourse to a1~ old bull and encampeu at sunset on an island in tlte Platte. ' We ate our me~t with a good relish this evening, for we were all in fine health, and had ndden nearly all of a long s~mmcr's day, with a burning sun reilccted from tl~e ands: .l\1 y companiOns slept rolleJ up in their blankets, and the Illdtans .lay m the gra s u~ar the fire; but my sleeping place generally had an atr of more pretensiOn. Our rifles were tieu together ncar the muzzle, the butts resting on tl1c (Tround and a knife laid I . 0 ' on t te rope, to cut away 111 case of au alarm. Over this which made a kind of frame, was thrown a large India rubber cloth, w'hich we u ed to cover onr packs. This made a tent sufficiently large to receive about half of my bed, aud was a plac of shelt r for my instrument ; and as I was careful always to put thi part again t the wind I could lie here with a eJJsation of satisfied enjoyment, and hear the \:iud blow, and the rain p~tter close to my head, and know that I should be at least half dry. Certmnly, I never lept moro soundly. The barometer at sunset was 26.010, thermo1~1eter 81°, Ulll~ cloudy; but a gale from the west sprano- np with the setttng sut1, ~lld 111 a few minutes wept away every cloud from the sky . . Tlw even1~1g was ~c'ry fill e, aud J remained up to take some astronomtcal obscrvatwns, wluch made our position in latitndc 40° 51' 17", and longitude 103° 07' 00". .July 7.-:\t our cumr this mornino-, at G o~~loclc, the barometer was at 2G 183, thermometer (Hl0 , and clear, with a liaht wi1td from the southwest. The past night lwd lwcn S<tually, with hi ,,.h ~~ittds, a11d ocra ionally a few drops of rai n. Our cuokin~ did not occnpy muclt ti111e, a11d we left camp early. Nothi11g of' inletc.~t occnrrcd durin~ the JJlomi tJg. The same dr?uy bar.retlll l'~. , exce pt tltat a haru ma1ly clay had replact·d the sandy sod. BuOalo ab--olntcly covered the rbi11 on both iucs the river, autl whenever we asccuded the hills, scatter d herds gave life to the vic\v |
