44 



and very rapid, but so shoal that we found it unnecessary to dismount 

 from our horses or unpack our mules."'^' As this was in June, the 

 rivx^r shouki have been in flood. 



Thomas J. Farnham in his Travels in the Great Western Prairies, 

 etc., London, 1813, speaking of the Platte, says: '"'This river is not 

 navigable for steamboats at any season of the year. In the spring 

 floods the bateaux of the American fur traders descend it from the 

 forts on its forks. But even this is so hazardous that they are begin- 

 ning to take down their furs in wagons. * * * During the sum- 

 mer and autumn months the Avaters are too shoal to float a canoe." 

 (Page lOG.) 



Fremont's expedition went up the South Platte in July, 1842. He 

 states that the stream was not navigable for anything drawing 6 

 inches of water. 



Edwin Bryant, in AAliat I Saw in California,'' states that he met a 

 fur trader who had started down the Platte with furs and was obliged 

 to leave his boats on account of the low water June 11, 1849. 



Stansbury's expedition crossed the South Platte a short distance 

 above North Platte June 28. 1849. He states that the river was 

 easily crossed in low water. (Page 272.) 



None of these early explorers speak of the river as being dry, yet 

 all seem to agree that it got very low, in the summer at least. As 

 Fremont says: '' It is not navigable for anything drawing G inches of 

 water." 



There are yet living in the basin of the Platte a great many people 

 who went to that section before irrigation began. Statements as to 

 the condition of the river have been secured from a number of those 

 early settlers. 



W. R. Bryant, of Cheyenne, Wyo., says that he " was along the 

 Platte River in Nebraska and Colorado during the sixties in every 

 year until 1870. He never saw the Platte dry l^ut once; that was in 

 the fall of 1804, for a distance of about 75 miles below the Colorado 

 line. In that season water could be found anywhere in the bed of 

 the Platte by digging 2 or 3 feet into the sand." 



H. B. Kelley, of Cheyenne, Wyo., said thj't the Platte occasionally 

 ran dry in the neighborhood of Julesburg. He remembered one or 

 two occasions when it was so, but could not give the dates. He is 

 of the opinion that in both branches of the Platte there was more 

 water in the early days than now, and suggested as a possible reason 

 for this the removal of the timber on the headwaters. 



Maj. John Talbot, of Cheyenne, Wyo., stated that he came to Fort 

 Laramie, Wyo., in 1854; he said tliat the South Platte never ran dry 



o Long's First Expedition, vol. 1, p. 407. Philadelphia, 1823. 

 6 D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1840, p. 83. 



