CONTINUATION OF THE FOSSIL HORSE ROUND-UP 

 ON THE OLD OREGON TRAIL 



By JAMES W. GIDLEY, 

 Assistant Curator oj Mammalian Fossils, U. S. National Museum 



The results of the Smithsonian expedition to the Snake River Val- 

 ley, Idaho, in 1929, were so encouraging that it was decided to con- 

 tinue operations for another season or two. Accordingly, early in 

 May, 1930, preparations were made to resume work at the site of our 

 former collecting ground. 



For five clays, rain, snow, and general had weather held our party 

 in the little town of Hagerman, Idaho. But on May 9, high winds and 

 a brilliant sun gave promise of drying up the county roads sufficiently 

 to make possible a move into camp, and no time was lost in loading 

 a two ton truck with camp equipment, a week's supply of rations, 

 boxes, lumber, and about 30 gallons of water. Our trusty Ford was 

 also loaded with baggage and lighter material, and we were soon on 

 our way. Our objective, a camp site at the edge of the desert near 

 the fossil bone deposit worked last year, was only two miles in an air 

 line from Hagerman, but there intervened the canyon of the deep 

 and swiftly flowing Snake River, and on its bank to the west a sloping 

 sandy escarpment of over 600 feet elevation above the river bed. To 

 reach this camp, therefore, it was necessary to cross the river on the 

 main highway bridge about four miles south of Hagerman and make 

 a detour of about 25 miles over a hilly and little-used country road 

 through the border of the desert country. Part of this route was over 

 a portion of the picturesque Old Oregon Trail, hallowed by the strug- 

 gles and privations of a pioneer people opposed by the stubbornly 

 waged warfare of the Indians, who were fighting for their beloved 

 lands and hunting grounds. Over this trail during the following weeks 

 we made our biweekly trips to town for water, supply provisions, and 

 materials as they were needed. I learned from the early settlers in 

 the region that this was a particularly hazardous stretch of trail in 

 the early days. Here the old trail left the river to wind its way up the 

 steep divides to the top of the plain about 5 miles to the west, whence 

 it continued westward over a dry sage-brush-covered desert to the 

 next place where water was to be found, a total distance between 

 watering places of over 20 miles. In these days of automobiles this 

 journey is so easily accomplished that the word hardship does not 

 occur in connection with it. 



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