Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/160

150 The morning following Alvord Valley was discovered and a place selected for a summer camp, the indications being that this valley was the headquarters of a considerable body of Indians. On the return to Camp Henderson the troop amused itself for an hour with the mirage on the dry lake, which performed an amusing pantomime, figures of men and horses moving over its surface, some high in the air, while others were sliding to right or left like weavers' shuttles. Some horses appeared stretched out to an enormous length, while others spindled up, the moving tableau "representing everything contortions and capricious reflections could do."

Returning by a different but not easier route to Gibbs' Creek, the" command remained in camp until June 2, when a scouting party which was out for three days found and killed five unarmed Snake Indians. While awaiting the arrival of the quartermaster's train at Camp Henderson, Captain Rinehart was sent on a scout up the Owyhee River, and during his absence a settler on Jordan Creek arrived in haste to report Indians in his neighborhood. On this information the main force started in pursuit, finding only satisfactory proofs that the Indians seen were Currey's Cayuse scouts, and they had taken a forced night ride in pursuit of themselves!

On the sixteenth of June, the supply train having arrived, the whole command set out by a new route for Alvord Valley. It consisted at this time of one hundred and thirty-three officers and men, having been joined at the mouth of the Owyhee by twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and privates of the First Washington Infantry, officered by Capt. E. Barry, Lieutenant Hardenburg, and Assistant Surgeon Cochran, U. S. A. Twelve miles from camp a rest of two days was taken, the horses being much jaded, this being the first rest of the whole command since the twenty-eighth of April. The re-