Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/169

 sent no letter east since I left Ft. Laramie, and to give you the particulars of our journey to this place would be an almost endless job, so I will just glance at it and let it pass. We kept on the north side of the platt all of the way. It was at only a few miles from the Ft. where we commenced climing the Black Hills. The roads in some places were very bad, being very hilly, and the hills very steep and full of stone and rock. About 50 or 60 miles from the Ft. I broke the hind ex out of my little wagon. We fixed it up, and when we got to the last camping place on the Platt I put in a new one, and I brot it on as far as Ft. Boysse.

We crossed the South Pass on the 24 of July. The Wind River Mountains ly to the north & west, with patches of snow on their tops, otherwise no one would suppose there was any mountains within a hundred miles. The larger portion of the company did not know when we passed the ridge, neither should I, had I not kept a close watch. From this place the roads are more sandy, and less hilly, and here we begin to feel the want of water, however, we worked it so that we had no place more than 22 miles or there abouts that we had to go without water for our stock. In going from Sandy to Green River we kept the left hand road, or the old road, and had water a plenty. The Bear River Mountains I think are the steepest pitch of any on the road, and they are about the hardest on cattles feet. Mr Kinsman left me on Green River and went to Salt Lake with Lewis & Samuel Whitmarsh and some other, the rest of the way Irving & I drove our teems.

The Soda Springs are quite a curosity, but you have heard and read enough about them, all of the water in that reageon is more or less effected or has this acid tast. We went on from here to Ft. Hall, many of us and I think all of us expecting to get some provisions, but there was nothing but a little flour, at $15 pr hundred.

About the Fort, and a few miles down Snake River we found very good feed for our cattle, an article greatly needed, for they had been very much pinched, most of the way from Ft. Laramie. Twenty two miles below the Ft. we come to the American falls, Here the river first shows its real character, for here it passes down the rocks and between the rocks, roaring so as to be heard for a number of miles. And here I would say that this