Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/16

 the companies to disband. Many large parties were forced to split up in order to secure grass for their stock. A company place might have sufficient grass for a small party was not enogh for a large one. By the time south pass was reached most of the large companies had broken up into smaller groups or disbanded entirely. By 1852 the emigrants had begun to learn the lesson and over half of them joined no organized company, though small parties usually banded together from time to time. In fact there was one great train, some five hundred miles long and one wagon was seldom or never out of sight of others.

The problem of crossing the numerous rivers and streams was one which occasioned considerable work and difficulty, and often delay. At Kanesville there were a number of ferries, yet emigrants often had to wait several days before their turn came to cross. Then they sometimes had to do the work of pulling the boat or scow back and forth themselves, by means of ropes fastened on the banks of the stream. The cattle and other animals were forced to swim. In 1852 a steamboat ferried wagons across the river during a part of the season, carrying a dozen or more at a time. Across the smaller streams bridges of brush were often built when they were too high to ford. The following extract shows another exigency which had to be met. "Started at 8 o'clock and went 11 miles to the ferry on the Loup Fork. The ferrymen were gone and the boat sunk. We attempted to raise it but found it so much damaged as to be unfit for use. We