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Show TO FORT McPHERSON. 13 at the Fort, and corroborates the statement of the officer. The only wild quadruped game now to be found in the vicinity is the antelope. Their fleetness and timidity, how ever, prevented us from securing any there, but subse quently, along another part of our journey, quite a number were shot, as I shall hereafter mention. The country in the valley of the Platte bore an entirely different aspect from that lying South of it, which we have already described. Here the surface was as level as around New- Orleans, and as far as the eye could reach up and down the river not the least irregularity could be observed between the Bluffs on the South, and the river on the North. It is to that portion of the valley contiguous to Kearney, that I refer ; further West ft assumes a some what undulating surface. Though different in appearance from the country I admired so much, and referred to in my first letter, this possessed a beauty of scenery in compari son not to be despised. The Platte river is filled with islands, ranging in size from a half acre, or less of surface, toone 60 miles long ; and upon them are trees, and many of the smaller ones are covered with an undergrowth of shrubbery, while on the main land not a bush or a tree is to be seen. But here the prairie grass was just assuming its richest green, and the lovely little wild prairie- flowers represented vegetation in a form quite as attractive as on the verdant islands. In places, the beautiful purple and white blos soms covered the ground so thickly as to almost hide the young grass ; and here and there grew the cactus. To the South lay the sand buttes, as they are called, which in creased in heighth, and became more abrupt as we proceeded Westward. These and similar ones far away on the North of the river where doubtless the banks of an immense stream which covered this whole valley not many centuries ago. From the highest of these buttes a magnificent view of the valley and river could be had, and I availed myself of the opportunity of seeing the country from one of them. I found a few friends to accompany me, and arming with car bines and pistols ( for this had been a favorite locality for In- |