Page:Rocky Mountain life.djvu/278



Proceeding by the valley of a creek tributary to the above river. the day following we came to a considerable branch from the south, and camped near its mouth, for the purpose of killing buffalo of which vast numbers thronged the vicinity.

The valleys of the Yampah and Little Bear were broad, in places, with a deep soil of dark, sandy loam, and tolerably well timbered.

The country contiguous to them was rugged and generally sterile; the soil, with the exception of the creek bottoms, being shallow and sandy, and infested with extensive fields of absinthe.

By the way we passed a fort, formerly occupied by a company of trappers under the command of Frapp, near which himself and four other whites were killed in an engagement with the Sioux some two years since. The Indians lost fifteen or twenty of their warriors in killed and wounded, but succeeded in driving off eighty head of horses as their booty.

Among the rocks of the hills I noticed frequent clusters of larb, richly laden with its deep red berry,52 both tempting to the eye and pleasing to the taste.

On reaching the Platte we were ushered into a large and beautiful circular valley, known as the New Park.

This valley is thirty-five miles in width by thirty in breadth, and is shut in upon all sides by lofty mountains, whose summits tower far above the snow-line and sport their white-caps through each returning year. It is well watered by numerous streams that trace their course from the neighboring heights to commingle with the Platte.

The river makes its exit from this place by a forced passage through narrow defiles, between the Medicine Bow and New Park Mountains, forming a cañon several miles in length, defined by precipitous walls, varying in height from fifty to six hundred feet.

The New Park valley affords considerable timber of various kinds, and fertile soil, well adapted to cultivation. The superfice is usually a thick mould, compounded of clay, sand, and gravel, with decomposed vegetable matter; while the bottoms disclose a rich alluvion of two or three feet depth.

The entire country was crowded with game, in countless numbers, both of buffalo, elk, and deer. It seemed as though a general ingathering from mountain, hill, and plain, had taken place to winter in this chosen spot.

It is said the great abundance of game first suggested the christening of the locality as the New Park.

52 The larb-berry is of a deep red color, and somewhat larger than the common currant. It is of a sweet spicy taste, and very pleasant. It grows upon a small ground vine of evergreen, with a leaf assimilating the winter-clover in shape, and is found only in mountainous regions.

We remained in our encampment till the 5th of December, and improved the interval in procuring a choice supply of meat, and feasting upon those delicious viands which mountaineers so well know how to acquire and dispose of.

The day preceding our departure, a fall of snow covered the ground for several