192 BLACK JACK CREEK. 



away ; so during this day's march I shot nothing but 

 an owl and a hawk in short, I saw no game of any sort 

 whatever. 



Exhausted with heat, feverish in myself, but yet in 

 no way unwell, we reached a wooded creek called Black 

 Jack, and encamped for the night, and it was here for 

 the first time that I had recourse to my tin cans for a 

 dinner; from an adjacent cabin, however, we procured 

 some nice new milk. While looking among these excel 

 lent inventions for prairie life, I came across a tin can 

 of hermetically-sealed cherries, and, greedily opening 

 it, found the fruit excellent, free from any spirituous 

 combination, and, with a parched and feverish sen 

 sation upon me, intensely grateful and refreshing. The 

 beef and vegetables were too rich and too hotly spiced 

 for the state in which men find themselves when tra 

 velling on the plains ; so, having eaten a little, I gave 

 the rest to the men, advising them to mix it with 

 their soup soup made of water, flour, and a few 

 slices of bacon. To that weak decoction the spiced con 

 tents of the can, I afterwards found, made an agreeable 

 addition. During the night two of my dogs got loose, 

 for which Greorge received a well-deserved admonition. 

 According to the computation of Mr Canterall, we were 

 then distant from Kansas city about fifty miles. 



On the morning of Wednesday, the 28th of September, 

 having roused my men early, we were breakfasted and 

 packed up ready to start before seven in the morning, 

 and -a glorious morn it was. During the march I gave 

 my men permission (those not actually on duty) to carry 

 their guns for any game that might by accident come 

 near them, and they shot a turtle-dove and a meadow- 

 lark, which brought out a caution to them from me, that 



