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Show 12 FROM FORT KEARNEY I was surprised to see so many women among the emi grants, and to see how easily they adapted themselves to the hardships required in a journey across the plains. As a rule they travel without tents, sleep in and under their wagons without removing their clothes, cook their bacon and flour in a frying pan, or sometimes in a dutch oven over a fire of " buffalo chips ; " but they seem to enjoy vigorous health, and appear contented and happy. One of the best drivers of a four horse wagon I observed on the plains was a woman. In addition to the trains going West, we met quite a number belonging to freighters travelling in an opposite direction. They had wintered beyond the mountains, and were now making their usual summer trip. To curtail drivers as well as rest the oxen, several wagons, for they were empty, were tied one behind the other, and the oxen of the first drew them all, while those thus rendered supernumary were driven in herds along with the train. Throughout our march, but particularly along this part of the route, where the travel is so extensive, the road is strewn with the remains of animals who have perished by the way. From the recently dead beast, to the whitened bones of those that had died long ago, their remains could be seen almost constantly. Interspersed with the bones of the cattle were numerous buffalo skulls, unmistakeable traces of the buffalo hunter in times past. These skulls and the old buffalo- trails made when they sought the Platte for water, or to cross in their yearly northern migration, were the only indications we had that the animal ever frequented the valley. At one time the buffalo were as numerous in this section of the country as anywhere on the plains. I was informed by an officer who was stationed at Fort Kearney, in 1853 tnat tnev were so numerous in that vicin ity during the summer of that year, as to require on one occasion a piece of artillery to drive large herds from the immediate vicinity of the fort, as there was danger of them being stampeded and rushing through the post, endangering life and property. The old order book of that time is still |