Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/15

 before the grass was long enough to furnish food for the animals, the outfitting towns were crowded with emigrants. Hotels were full to overflowing and often all available camping space around the city was occupied.

At the outfitting towns the emigrants, if they had not already done so, bought their covered wagons, oxen, horses, cattle or mules, and supplies. Tents and firearms accompanied practically every party. The superflous articles can better be described later, when they will be more exposed to view. The great majority of the wagons were drawn by oxen. On a long journey they held out better than horses, though they could not be driven much over sixteen miles a day on the average with safety, while horses could be driven from twenty to twenty-five miles. Some companies took no wagons at all but packed their supplies on pack mules and either walked or rode horses themselves. At the outfitting towns also the emigrants formed into companies, varying in number from a score or so to a hundred and fifty or more. Some of these were highly organized with a captain, lieutenants and other officers. The gullible did not lack for sharpers to relieve them of their money. At Kanesville the Mormons sold worthless guide books and gogles made from common window glass, the former at from fifty cents to two dollars a copy and the latter at fifty cents a pair, to all whom they could persuade that those articles were indispensable on an overland journey.

Soon after the trains were on their way across the plains the companies which had been so carefully organized on the frontier began to break up. Some wanted to go faster than others and soon left the slower members behind. Many of the companies consisted of heterogeneous groups which quarreled among themselves and forced