Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/76

70 Blue River, we met a war party of Kaws (Kanzas), returning from the Pawnee country. They told us they had seen the Pawnees, and had beaten them in battle; but we learned afterwards, from a more creditable source, that it was exactly the other way. They had one or two fresh scalps and as many wounded men, and were leaving the world behind them as fast as possible. We saw their battle-ground afterwards and found on it two or three dead bodies. Here, the Emigrants, finding that it was inconvenient and retarding to their progress to travel in so large a body, dissolved their first organization and formed themselves into smaller companies.

It continued to rain, at intervals, for several days, and the road which had before been as good as we could wish, became quite muddy and bad. After leaving Big Blue River we continued to travel through a country very similar to that previously described, excepting that the proportion of timber was less, until we came to the Little Blue River—a distance of 70 miles; and here the hills bordering on the stream are a little sandy. After striking this stream we continued to travel up it 50 miles; then leaving it, turned across in a North Westerly direction, for the main Platte River. On the Little Blue River we found a few Antelopes, which were the first wild animals of any size, which we had seen since we had left the States; and after leaving the waters of the Kanzas we found no bees, and this, from all that we could learn, is the farthest point West which they have yet reached. Nor did we find any of the wild fowels, or smaller animals common in the Western States, until we passed the Mountains. We reached the Platte River in the evening; the distance across being about 25 miles, which is the greatest, on the whole route, without water.

After leaving the waters of the Kanzas, the character of the country changes rapidly. The hills, on either side of