OCR Text |
Show TO FORT McPHERSON. F S military posts. We passed the ruins of a large ranche where $ 20,000 worth of goods had been destroyed last July, the owner having left the premises only a day or two before the savages were upon them. At Plum Creek, our second camp from Kearny, were a large number of graves of settlers who were murdered and scalped at the time I referred to. All along the road graves of emigrants were seen daily, generally solitarv, but sometimes three or four together, and almost invariably we found inscribed upon a rough head- board the name of the individual buried there, and " killed by the In dians July , 1865." I will defer any comments upon these barbarities for a future letter, in which I propose to write more about the Indians of the plains than space would allow to be included in this. Notwithstanding the destruction of life and prop erty along the Platte within so recent a period, the ranches are as numerous this season, if not more numerous than be fore. The great incentive men have for conducting these establishments is the profit arising from their sales, and when we consider the risk incurred, and the discomforts to which the keepers are subjected, the large profits asked on the goods seemed not so unreasonable after all. Most of the ranches, in dangerous localities are construct ed with a view to defence against the Indians. The houses and stables have loop holes from which the occupants may fire upon an attacking party, and in some large corrals for the cattle surrounded by a wall of sods connected with the ranches, afforded a still further protection against the treacherous enemies of the white man. In this locality nearly all the ranches are built of turf, like the buildings at Fort Kearney, which I have described. In many instances the roofs are of the same material, and constructed by placing thatch upon a few timbers and upon this is laid the sods. Such roofs in Louisiana, during the wet season, would not be considered very desirable, but out here where but little rain falls they answer the purpose very well. The scarcity of timber, and the high price it commands, prevents it from entering into the construction |