Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/423

Rh started, without any breakfast, and traveled a few miles, where we found willows for fuel, and where we took a hearty meal. We struck the river near the head of Grand Island, which is seventy-five miles long, covered with timber, and several miles wide, varying greatly, in places, as to width; but what was strange, there was not a solitary tree on the south side of the river where we were. The river above the island, as far as the Forks, is generally about two miles wide. Perhaps this is one of the most remarkable rivers in the world. Like the Nile, it runs hundreds of miles through a sandy desert. The valley of this stream is from fifteen to twenty miles wide, a smooth level plain, and the river generally runs in the middle of it, from west to east. The course of this stream is more uniform than any I have ever seen. It scarcely ever makes a bend. The Platte River was very high until after we had passed Fort Larimer [Laramie?]. This river has low, sandy banks, with sandy bottom, and the water muddy, like that of the Missouri. The current is rapid, and the river being very wide, is very shallow, and easily forded, except in high water. It is full of most beautiful islands of all sizes, covered with beautiful trees, contrasting finely with the wild prairie plains and bold sand hills on each side of the river. The plain on each side of the river extends out to the sand hills, which are about three miles through them, when you ascend up to a wide prairie plain of almost interminable extent. Upon this plain, and sometimes in the sand hills, we found the buffalo, and numbers of white wolves. In the plains, near the river, we generally found the antelope. When the season is wet, as was the case this season, the buffalo resort to the plain beyond the sand hills, where they find water in the ponds, As the summer advances, and the ponds dry up, they approach the river, and are found in the plain near it. You have, perhaps, often heard of buffalo paths. As you go from the river out to the wide plain, beyond the sand hills, through which you must pass, you will find valleys among those hills leading out toward this plain. These valleys are covered with grass, and the buffalo have made numerous paths, not only in these valleys, but over all the hills, where they could pass at all (and they can pass almost any where), leading from this wide plain to the river, where they resort for water, in the dry season. These paths are very narrow, and are sunk in the ground six or eight inches deep. In traveling up the Platte, almost every thirty yards we had to cross a path, which was about all the obstruction we met while traveling up this gently inclined plain. While hunting, there is no danger of being lost, for you can find a buffalo path anywhere, and they always lead the nearest route to the river. All the plains are covered with grass; but the plain upon the river has not only the greatest variety, but the most rich and luxuriant grass. The greatest general scarcity of wood we found upon the Platte, before we reached Fort Larimer [Laramie?]. We sometimes found bunches of dry willows, often Indian wigwams