Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/406

396 traveled up the river a few days & crossed South Platte, passed through Black hills, crossed the North Platte & steered our course towards Sweet Water which we struck at the entrance of the pass through the Rocky Mountains which place is called Independence-Rock, So named from the circumstance of the Mountaineers meeting here to celebrate the Fourth. The pass through the Mountains is about Ninety miles but so gradual, that the traveler would scarcely perceive he was ascending, were it not for the -great change in the atmosphere. We were on the Divide in July, & saw ice every morning, At no great distance on the right & left, are very high, snow peaks, We found great abundance of game from South Platte, until we left Sweet Water. I amused myself very well in killing Buffaloes though it was old sport to me. After crossing the Mountains, we passed Green River (or Colrado of the west;) Struck Bear River & followed it up to the Soda Springs. These Springs (which are numerous at this place) are among the great curiosities of the west; The waters of these springs are similar in flavour to those of Ballston & Saratoga, though some of them are very cold and much stronger, while there are others very hot. We arrived at Port Hall the last of September. Here, (though two thirds the distance was passed); the difficulties of the journey just commenced, though not so difficult as had been represented, yet the roads from this place were very rough & grass in many places very scarce. We followed down Snake River, passed the Blue Mountains & arrived at the very foot of the Cascades; Here many left their wagons & descended the Columbia River in boats, while others crossed the Cascades (a distance of Ninety miles). But the emigrants all arrived in the Valley between the Cascades & Pacific Ocean, about the last of November. The whole distance, from the Platte River, to the east base of the Blue Mountains, is entirely unfit for the residence of civilized man, and is inhabited only by wandering tribes of hostile Indians. They however did not trouble the Emigration, as the Sight of so large a body of whites, was sufficient to quell all hostility. The country from the eastern base of the Blue Mountains, to the Cascades, is peculiarly adapted to grazing purposes. The Indians in this vicinity, are not hostile, & are quite enterprising. They are anxious to own cattle & some are getting considerable herds they are also very fond of horses & some individual Indians own several thousand head of the handsomest I ever saw. The country between the Cascades & the Sea coast is some parts very heavy timbered lands, with a deep, rich soil though rather broken to please a western man. The size of the timber is enormous, there being abundance of trees measuring three hundred feet in height, & some as large as twenty feet in diameter. ''Big trees! but it is a fact.'' The timber of