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Show 82 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. b d . sometimes it was veiled by long coarse grass. hot, are san , FI 1 ll nd whitening bones of buffalo were scattered uge S(U s a . h the ground was tracked by mynads of them, and every w ere ; f d ' .,1'th the circular indentations where the bulls had o ten covere ' wallowed in the hot weather. From every gorge and ravine, opening from the hills, descended deep, well-worn paths, where the buffalo issue twice a day in regular procession down to drink in the Platte. The river itself runs through the midst, a thin ::;heet of rapid, turbid water, half a mile wide, and scarce two feet deep. Its low banks, for the most part, without a bush or a tree, are of loose sand, with which the stream is so charged that it grates on the teeth in drinking. The naked landscape is of itself, dreary and monotonous enough; and yet the wild beasts and wild men that frequent the valley of the Platte, make it a scene' of interest and excitement to the traveller. Of those who have journeyed there, scarce one, perhaps, fails to look back with fond regret to his horse and his rifle. Early in the morning after we reached the Platte, a long procession of squalid savages approached our camp. Each was on foot, leading his horse by a rope of bull-hides. His attire consisted merely of a scanty cincture, and an old buffalo robe, tattered and begrimed by use, which hung over his shoulders. , His head was close shaven, except a ridge of hair reaching over the crown from the centre of the forehead, very much like the long bristles on the back of a hyena, and he carried his bow and arrows in his hand, while his meagre little horse was laden with dried buffalo meat, the produce of his hunting. Such were the first specimens that we met- and very indifferent ones they were- of the genuine savages of the praixie. THE PLATTE AND THE DESERT. 83 They were the Pawnees whom Kearsley had encountered the day before, and belonged to a large hunting party, known to be ranging the prairie in the vicinity. They strode rapidly past, within a furlong of our tents, not pausing or looking towards us, after the manner of Indians when meditating mischief~ or conscious of ill desert. I went out and met them · ' and had an amicable conference with the chief, presenting him with half a pound of tobacco, at which unmerited bounty he expressed much gratification. These fellows, or some of their companions, had committed a dastardly outrage upon an emigrant party in advance of us. Two men, out on horseback at a distance, were seized by them, but lashing their horses, they broke loose and fled. At this the Pawnees raised the yell and shot at them, transfixing the hindermost through the back with several arrows, while his companion galloped away and brought in the news to his party. The panic-stricken emigrants remained for several days in camp, not daring even to send out in quest of the dead body. The reader will recollect Turner, the 1nan whose narrow escape was mentioned not long since. We heard that the men whom the entreaties of his wife induced to go in search of him, found him leisurely driving along his r covered oxen, and whistling in utter contempt of the Pawnee nation. His party was encamped within two miles of us ; but we passed them that morning, while the men were driving in the oxen, and the women packing their domestic utensils and their numerous offspring in the spacious patriarchal wagons. As we lookpd back, we saw their caravan, dragging its slow length along the plain; wearily toiling on its way, to found new empires in the West. Our New-England climate is mild and equable compared |