Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/25

 had taken, that it was quite dark by the time we reached the River. When we came to the place where we had left the camp, we learned from one who had been waiting for us, that they had moved down the River, in hopes of finding wood. We therefore threw the remainder of our things, which had been left, upon our horses, and started to look for the camp. We saw our way by the lightning, and after traveling as we thought long enough to have gone several miles, we turned over the point of a hill, and saw a small light like that of a candle, away below us on the River. Taking a straight line for the light, we at length reached it, after having waded through a dozen sloughs up to our waists. We had expected to find a large blazing fire, and thought how comfortable we should be when we could warm and dry around it; and as we had not eaten any thing since morning, our appetites began to remind us how excellent a piece of roasted Buffalo meat would be. But how sadly were we disappointed, to find our companions shivering around a few coals, over which for fuel there was only a heap of green Willow brush. Wet, cold, and hungry, we spread our beds, which were of course was wet as water could make them, and turned in; but not to sleep—it was only to dodge the wind, and shiver the night away. At length the sky became clear, and the cold increased. We watched the stars, which seemed stationary in the sky. A dozen nights, according to the reckoning of our feelings, had time to have passed, and to us it appeared as though the sun would never rise; but at length it came, and never was dawn of day hailed more rapturously. One who was braver than the rest, summoning all his resolution, crawled out of bed: he would have leaped and ran, had he been able; but that was impossible.—His limbs refused to do their duty, and taking a hatchet, he waded across an arm of the River to an Island, upon which there was wood, and began cutting and carring across. His example aroused others, and we soon had a large blazing fire. We spent several hours in putting our arms in order, drying our clothes and bedding, and appeasing our appetites on roasted ribs and marrow bones.

There were twenty of us, and we have frequently heard every one of that number say, afterwards, that they had seen some rough service in the world, but they had never met with any thing that could equal the night of the storm on the Platte. We continued to travel up the river, hunting as we went; but without much success. We saw a number of small herds of Buffalo; but they were generally too wild to approach, and too poor to eat