WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 63 



escort, tents, and things away shortly after noon, 

 and started ourselves a couple of hours later. It 

 was with a feeling almost of exultation that I at 

 last found myself riding on the boundless prairie, 

 the tall flagstaff, and the wooden houses of the 

 fort fading in the distance, and before me nothing 

 but the illimitable wilderness. After a short 

 gallop, we overtook the outfit on the banks of the 

 Platte, an extraordinary river, which consists at 

 all seasons, except when in full flood, of a broad 

 band of shifting, soft, and dangerous sand, with 

 a little water trickling about in it. It is in some 

 places miles in breadth. There was a kind of 

 bridge, composed of numerous holes, with a few 

 wattles and planks and trunks of rotten trees 

 thrown across them, the whole structure being 

 supported on rickety trestles ; but it was in such 

 a dangerous condition that we did not attempt to 

 cross it, but preferred to ford the river, though 

 the bed of it was strewn with wheels, axles, and 

 fragments of wagons, a sight not very encouraging 

 to the traveller. However, by dint of much hard 

 swearing we got across, travelled a few miles on 

 the other side, and camped close to the source of 

 a little stream. Next morning shortly after day- 

 light two or three of us started on ahead on the 



