Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/145

 camped near a fork in the creek a grand place fair grass we mowed some hay enough to give our mules a lunch for a few days today some of our men shot several ducks I shot four prara hens and if nothing hap- pens we will have a rich dinner tomorrow.

Saturday July 14th This day has been spent in shoeing mules making hay &c We have had a glorious dinner a regular fowl soup delicious. Since we have been here we have had as much milk as we wanted of parties hurd- ing their cattle near us

Sunday July i^th 1849 Today we have crossed the Platte again being ferryed across by a party from 111. who on coming up to the ferry found it governed by a Mormon who was asking I2.50 for ferrying over a waggon they went to work and made a raft of log's dug out, they ferreyed us over for .50 cts a waggon this had the right effect to make him reduce his fare the same we had to swim our mules over we got all safely over and started at four oclock over a hilly sandy road we camped on the banks of the river in a pleasant grove some grass We are all well enough today to ride on horseback (distance from the old camp up to the creek 10 miles)

Monday July i6th This morning we moved at six oclock and the hardest road we have had very soft sand Bluffs We have all heavy loads today haveing one waggon for hay and buying yesterday at the crossing hard bread and rice to the amt of four hundred pounds we halted at noon on the river some little grass has the appearance of haveing been mowed the head teems eat it so close We had a meeting today noon to see about light- [en]ing loads we concluded to leave all but 500 lbs of our pork finding we did not consume near as much as was estimated We left it beside the road for all that need it we concluded to part with 75 lbs of coffee and all that could be spared We moved late this evening camped on a sand Bluff and found our hay most valuable distance 1 8 miles

Tuesday July ijth This forenoon our road was more hilly and sandy We left the river at 1 1 Oclock for good halted in a valley four miles be- yond the teams had to labor so hard that quite a number called a meeting to make arrangements for packing the company the majority voted not to pack but try it a day or two longer this afternoon the road has been better we have passed today some hard hills We camped tonight on the banks of a small creek found a spring some alkali taste to the water no wood but wild sage distance 20 miles

Wednesday July i8th Today we started early with a view of getting to a spring 14 miles distant we pased (rock Avanue) this morning but the road has generally been quite good we halted at noon near the spring and creek no grass we fed out the rest of our hay here as we found no grass this afternoon we passed "Willow Spring" a spring of as cold water as man ever tasted after leaving the spring we ascended a verry high hill