Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/73

Rh This season the fire was started somewhere on the south Yamhill, and came sweeping up through the Salt Creek gap. The sea breeze being quite strong that evening, the flames leaped over the creek and came down upon us like an army with banners. All our skill and perseverance were required to save our camp. The flames swept by on both sides of the grove; then quickly closing ranks, made a clean sweep of all the country south and east of us. As the shades of night deepened, long lines of flame and smoke could he seen retreating before the breeze across the hills and valleys. The Indians continued to burn the grass every season, until the country was somewhat settled up and the whites prevented them; hut every fall, for a number of years, we were treated to the same grand display of fireworks. On dark nights the sheets of flame and tongues of fire and lurid clouds of smoke made a picture both awful and sublime.

In the summer of 1844, the cattle, horses and wagons left at old Fort Walla Walla were sent for and the remnants arrived at the settlement late in the fall. A part of the cattle were not found. A few it was supposed, had been appropriated by the Indians. Probably fifty head reached the settlement, a majority of which belonged to Jesse Applegate. What was recovered of the wagons I don't know, except that of the three left by Lindsay Applegate only four wheels were found and brought down, and they were all hind wheels. Those wheels were used to make two carts.

Wagons were made wholly of wood. The wheels were without hub, spoke, or felloe; they were simply short sections of large trees, three or four feet in diameter, sawed off and holes made in the center for the axles. This wagon was called a truck, a very clumsy affair, which without a load, a small yoke of oxen could not draw with ease even on level ground. The friction on the spindles in the wheels, though they were well tarred, was such that, even with a load of rails requiring three yoke of oxen to draw them, the truck did not need any brake going down a steep hill. Under a heavy moving load, the spindles, if not abundantly tarred, would send forth a fearful scream with variations that could he heard for miles. One evening after dark we heard loud screaming or yelling a mile and a half away across the prairie, and presently a fire