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Show TO FORT McPHERSON. 23 be forded. Various conjectures were made, as to what should be done, when Major Norris of the ad Cavalry came up with two companies of his regiment to cross the river also, he being en route for Fort Laramie. The Major has been marching over the plains, and crossing streams for about half his life, and is not to be discouraged by trifles. He was familiar with the Platte, and as soon as he came up said it was fordable. Col. Carrington disagreed with the Major, but as he was not under the Col's command, he insisted on attempting to cross his train. Giving cc Pigeon " ( his favorite horse) to his First Sergeant, the Major directed him to go into the river and find the be^ t fording place, which was done immediately,, when the wagons followed, and then the men. Profiting by the example, the next day the Infantry and their train crossed also without accident or the loss of a dollar's worth of property, public or private. The rapid stream proved to be only a bug- bear ; and the Major by his bold example, saved us an additional march of 200 miles, by way of Denver, which was seriously talked about when he arrived. It was cold weather for fording streams. Early the fol lowing morning the thermometer indicated 33, and two days thereafter I had equally reliable evidence of a still lower temperature. Upon rising on the 6th of June I found ice an eighth of an inch thick on the water in a bowl in my tent awaiting my morning ablution. Our marches still com menced at an early hour, and about this time I often found it necessary for comfort to abandon my horse and walk briskly for an hour or two with my overcoat on. And this-occurred in a latitude less than a degree North of that of St. Louis, and at no great elevation. I often thought when shivering with cold, of my sensations in New Or leans at the same season and at the same hour of the morning when the sea breeze had not sprung up to make the heat tolerable, and I concluded that I would rather shiv er in the pure, dry, cold, invigorating atmosphere of the Northwest, than sweat and swelter in the hot, humid ener- |