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Show 16 TIIE JOURNEY OU'l', eJ others, and we socm had a large blazing the. We spent sev'Eir'al hours in putting out· arms in order, drying our clothes and bedding, and appeasing our a petites on roasted ribs and marrow bones. There were twen'ty of us, and we have f1·equently heard every one of that numbet· say, afterwards, that they had seen some rough ~ervtce in the world·, but they h~ad never ~et with any thing that could equal the ni;ght of the storm ori the Pt'atte. We continued to tmvel up the river, hunting as we' we'nt; but wit~out mu~h success. We saw a· nu mbet of small herds' of Buffalo; f>'ut they were generally too ,vi·ld to approach, and too: poO'r to eat a'fter we had kilte~ theni. At the Forks, one hundred miles .above· w'here we first struck the Ri ''et·, we encamped, and by going seve 1ial miles out- bey6nd the hills, we succeeded in killing a· number of Butfil.lo, th"e mea:t of which we brouaht in, dried and distributed amon'g the company, when they came ~p; but the quantity was so sma:fl, in propbrtio~ to the numbers with whom it was to be divided, that it made scarce.; 1.v a ta~ te . The Furks of the Platte is about the mi1dle ground 'between th~ Pawnees and the Sioux. We saw a few of the Pawnees, in passing through their country, w h~ were returning from the South, where they had been huntin~, with packs of dried Buffalo meat! to their villaae, situated about fiftv miles below"where we struek the Platte. 0 • They are high, but well propoi·tioned.and active. They raise some corn, but live principally upon the Buffalo, and are the most noto~ rious rascals any where East of the Rocky Mountains. The valley immediately at the junction of the two Branches of the Platte, is nearly twenty miles wide, and a large portion of it has a good soil. After we had passed the Forks, we made severn~ attempts to cross the South Branch, but always found the water too deep; and continued to travel up the South side; until we saw that it would be unpnssible for us to find a ford; when we stopped at a large Ccotton Wood grove, eighty five miles abov1e the Forks·~ Having determined to construct boats for this purp6s~, we' procured in the first place, a suffieient number of green Buffalo hide.s, a'nd hav- ' ing sewed two of them together for each boat, we stretched them' · over the wagon beds as tight as we could, with the'fl'esh side out','. and then turned them up in the sun to dry; and when th'ey be-· came thoroughly dry, we covered them with tallow and ashes; jn' drder to render them more impervious to the water. The bori.fs ·being completed, we proceeded ·to cross the goods · of' the ·compri"ii'y. Each boat W'as manned by six men. Some waded or · swam ' afong , WITH ITS I.N"CIDEN'fs. 1'7 6ide, while others pulled by a long r.ope which was attached for~ wa1·d. The River here was ubout a mile wide. In this way the goods were fenied over, and the e rnpty wagons were drawn a?~'?S~ by the teams a short distance below, where the River was \vider and shallower. The crossing was effected in stx duys, and without any seriohs accident. We pvssed here the fourth day of July. The cotintry, as we advanced We:st, became mot·e and more bart ·en, until here it was little else than a desert: and between th1s. point and where we first saw the Platte River, it receives uo trib: utaries from the South. Having crossed the South Fo~·k, we tln·ned across the· higher di_. viding lands, and traveled one day North West twenty miles, to' the North Fork, without \\oater. After traveling . up the North F01·k sixty five miles, thl'ough a country still increasing in sterility; we came to what is called the Chimney. It is situated on the I South side of the Not·th Fork, three miles from the River. It is a conical hill, one hundred and fifty feet high; .from the top .of .. which, a peculiar irz·egular shaft rises to the sa~e height-mak)ng the whole about three hundred feet. The base of the hill is elevated above the wate1· in the River, about seventy.five feet. It. is a hard eartH, composed of sand and clay, and nlay be seen fu~ twenty or thirty miles. The re are here several ranges of ~e.ta.ch~d Sand Hills, n .inhing parallel with the River, ihe sides oi \Vh.ich. are almost perpendicular, destitute of vegetatior!, and so' washed by the rains of thousands of years, as to pre'sent, at a distance, the appearance of Cities, T emples, Castles, Towet·s, Pdlaccs, and every I variety of great add magnificent structul'es·. On the 9'th of July \ve had a splendid prospect' o( th,es~ Sand Hills. A dark cloud at·ose in the 'Ves't, and t_!1~, .wh?,ly 1;egion was illu'm·ined b~ the reflected rays of thP. Su.n, whi,?.h, ~t1ell~wed by its effect, had lost thei1· dazzling power; and the r.rospect was softened, until it seemed one vast brillian't pic.ture, wrought with a mysteriously magic touch. Beneath the.r1sing cloud was a vast plain, l5ounded only by the distant horizon.· Here and ther~, upon i'ts sul'face, th e're arose splendid edifices, like beautiful white marble, fashion'ed in the style of every age and ~ountry, canopied by the clouds; )•e·t gilded and flooded by the mellowed light of the midday Sun. lt was so beautiful, that it could not be lost while it' lasted, u'ocl'" though the gathering clouds 'threatened to drench us· wiih thei t' c'ontents, we neverthel.ess continued tu· gaze u;ntil thi beilutiful illu'sion passed away. 3 |