Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/23

Rh Emigrants, finding that it was inconvenient and retarding to their progress, to travel in so large a body, dissolved their first organization and formed themselves into smaller companies.

It continued to rain, at intervals, for several days, and the road which had before been as good as we could wish, became quite muddy and bad. After leaving Big Blue River, we continued to travel through a country very similar to that previously described, excepting that the proportion of timber was less, until we came to the Little Blue River—a distance of 70 miles; and here, the hills bordering on the stream, are a little sandy. After striking this stream, we continued 50 miles; then leaving it, turned across in a North Westerly direction, for the main Platte River. On the Little Blue River we found a few Antelopes, which were the first wild animals of any size, which we have seen since we left the States; and after leaving the waters of the Kanzas we found no bees, and this, from all that we could learn, is the farthest point West which they have yet reached: Nor did we find any of the wild fowls, or smaller animals, common in the Western States, until we passed the Mountains. We reached the Platte River in the evening; the distance across being about 25 miles, which is the greatest, on the whole route, without water.

After leaving the waters of the Kanzas, the character of the country changes rapidly. the hills, on either side of the narrow valley of the Platte, which is from five to ten miles wide, are little else than huge piles of sand. The valley itself, is quite sandy; but it nevertheless produces a rich grass, which our animals were very fond of. It is also covered, in many places, with the Prickly Pear, the thorns of which frequently get into the feet of the loose cattle and produce lameness. The River is from one to three miles in width, and the bed of the channel is entirely of quicksand. When we came to it, it was quite full, and the water was every where running level with its banks, but seldom overflowing them, and was running with a strong, even current. There is, in many places along the Platte, a kind of salt, with which the ground, in spots, is covered; and the water in the River is slightly impregnated. In some of the sloughs and pools, back from the River, the water is very strong. We found but little wood here, and none except immediately on the River. We were frequently unable to procure it, and were compelled, sometimes, to make a strange substitute in the excrement of the Buffalo, in order to do our cooking. The varieties of timber are few; the principal kind being what is commonly called Cotton Wood. We saw