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Show 228 FORT BRfDGER- BLACK* 8 FORK- MILITARY POST. fuel, grass, and water abundant, and at convenient points. Lat. 41° 18' 46"; long. 110° 48' 00". Thursday, September 5.- Morning cool and slightly cloudy. Ther. at sunrise, 87°. A march of sixteen miles brought us to Fort Bridger, on Black's Fork of Green River. This is a trading-post much frequented by the Shoshonees, Utahs, and Uintah Indians, and is owned and conducted by Messrs. Vasquez and Bridger, froih both of whom we received the kindest attention and every assistance which it was in their power1 to render. Black's Fork, upon which the fort is situated, is a considerable stream of excellent, clear, sweet water, which rises in the Bear River mountains, and discharges its waters into Green River, or ' the Rio Colorado of the Gulf- of California; A mile and a- half above the fort, it divides into four streams, which reunite two miles below, forming several islands, upon the westernmost of which the fort is beautifully located, in the midst of a level, fertile plain, covered with a luxuriant growth of excellent grass. Ntamerons groves of willows and cotton- wood, with thickets of hawthorn, fringe the margins of the streams, and afford fuel and timber for the necessities of man, and shelter for cattle from the inclemency of the winter. Black and white currants are tolerably abundant, and are now ripening upon the banks of the rivulets. The emigrant road forks here, one branch leading to Fort Hall, by the Soda Springs, and the other, pursuing a more southerly cotirse, leadB to the City of the Salt Lake, the distance to which by the travelled road is one hundred and twenty- four and a- half miles: this, may be materially shortened by a judicious location of the route. From its position ijith regard to several powerful Indian tribes which inhabit this region, Fort Bridger offers many Advantages for the establishment in its vicinity of a'military post. It occupies the neutral ground between the Shoshonees and the Crows on the north; the Ogallalahs and Sioux on the east.; the Cheyennes on the south- east; and the warlike tribe of the Utahs on the south. A competent force established at this point would have great influence in preventing the bloody collisions which frequently occur between these hostile tribes, and would afford protection and aid to the great tide of emigration which, for years to come, must continue to flow in one ceaseless current to Oregon and California. The party remained here fceveral days, to readjust the packs, and to complete the final arrangements - for crossing the plains. The |