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Show 32 FROM FORT KEARNY TO FORT LARAMIE. pure sand, and are much higher, and appear to be more wooded, than on the south side of the stream. About twenty miles above the - fort, the - character of the bluffs on the south side seemed changed, and presented a more gradual slope to tfee river; the soil contained more clay, and, at a distance of a mile back from their escarpment, they were cut up by oopstant ravines with banks preeipitous and, in some instances, perpendicular. In one spot, such was the tenacity of the soil, that an npright mass of earth in the form of a column had been left by the waters. Here were found fossils of a character similar to those obtained at the point where we first entered the valley: they were, however, in a very friable and decomposed state. Sunday, June 24.- Bar. 27.56; Ther, 83. Our journey fo* the last two days has been up the valley of the Platte, which, in some places, is more than a mile in width. From one spot I counted upward of twenty islands, which, being densely covered with green willows and cotton- woods, presented, in contrast with the naked monotonous country through which we were passing, a perfect picture of refreshing beauty. From the fact that the islands in the river are, for the most part, covered with trees, the almost total absence of this feature in the landscape of the valley must be attributed, in part at least, to the fires which periodically sweep over the country in the autumn, destroying every thing before them. On our return by this same route, in the fall of 1850, the country, for more than three hundred miles, had been com- . pletely devastated by these conflagrations, insomuch that our animals came near perishing for want of herbage. The north side of the river does not appear to suffer so much from this cause; which may, in part, arise from the direction of the prevailing winds. Encamped on the bank of the Platte, fifty- six miles above Fort Kearny. The bluife bounding the valley were of clayey soil, cut up by defep ravines, in many instances nearly perpendicular, their character becoming bolder as we advanced. The soil is richer and contains more clay. The plants seen were Tradescantia, the purple mallow, ( the root of which resembles the parsnip, and is used by the Indians for fooji,) the small yellow Oenothera, and a pretty, small stellate- flowered plant. Over large portions of the bottom, no flowers were met with; on the high ground, red mallow, Mjpnoio, Linum, a white Mimulus, and a sort of larkspur. The aloe was flowering in abundance on the face of some very steep bluffiu |
