we had staged a night attack by the "Indians" and were only too suc- 

 cessful in the farce. 



When the day came for me to start, the doctors encouraged me to think 

 that my Grandfather was decidedly better and I went away, not at all 

 anticipating that I should never see him again. We travelled to Fort 

 Bridger by the most direct route, by way of Chicago, Omaha and the 

 Union Pacific Railway, a journey, at that time, of five days. At the 

 fort we found a melancholy change; the garrison had been withdrawn 

 and we found only the very small civilian population left behind. How- 

 ever, the hotel, the post-office and the trader's store remained and they 

 sufficed for our immediate needs. Our horses had come through the 

 winter in very fair condition and we could hire the same wagon and 

 mules as we had the year before. 



The state of our finances enabled us to employ three men, raising 

 the strength of the party to nine. Taylor, the teamster and cook of the 

 preceding year, was reengaged, and "Mexican Joe" was taken on to 

 supply the camp with fresh meat, and Pearson, who had done some col- 

 lecting with Sam Smith and knew the localities. Pearson was a pis aller 

 for Smith, whom we wanted, but who did not feel free to accept our 

 oflfer, though I am sure he would have been glad to do so. The work 

 was just what he loved above all things and he liked all of us, especially 

 Speir, to whom he was warmly attached. He helped us to the best of 

 his abihty by advice concerning the most promising country for us 

 to work, laying out routes for us and showing us on the map where 

 we could be sure of finding water, the all important factor in arid- 

 region work. 



Our plan of work involved quite a long journey before we could 

 begin our collecting. Of the two basins in which the beds of the Bridger 

 formation are to be found, we had decided to try the eastern one, be- 

 cause it was more inaccessible and therefore much less collecting had 

 been done there than in the western basin, where we had ourselves 

 worked the preceding year. We had, therefore, more than one hundred 

 and fifty miles to go to reach our first principal camp. On the second 

 or third day after leaving Bridger, we reached the Green River and 

 crossed it by means of one of those ingenious wire-rope ferries, in which 

 the current of the stream is made to propel the boat from side to side 

 of the river. 



We made the mistake of not refilling our canteens at Green River 

 City, as we should certainly have done, had we known what was in 

 store for us. Shortly after noon we started out again on our eastward 



1:77] 



