102 A GREAT PRAIRIE FLOOD. 



" My company was encamped on a bluff about 25 feet 

 high, at the foot of which was the dry sandy bed of a 

 stream the bed averaged about 100 feet wide. The opposite 

 bank was low, and from it the ground extended away in a 

 broad bottom, to meet a line of hills. About eleven o'clock 

 on a clear, bright, beautiful, starlit night, I was lying reading 

 in my tent, when I heard a distant roaring, rushing sound, 

 gradually swelling in power. Guessing at once the cause, I 

 rushed out, and placed myself on the edge of the bank, over- 

 looking the sand. In a few moments a long creamy wave 

 crept swiftly, with a hissing sound, across the sand ; this ap- 

 peared to be only a few inches deep. Following it at a 

 distance of about 60 feet was a straight, unbroken mass of 

 water, at least four feet in height a perfect wall of water. 

 From this the mass gradually rose to the rear, covered with 

 logs and debris of all kinds, rolling and plunging in the tre- 

 mendous current. In 10 minutes from the passage of the 

 advance wave, the water was at least 15 feet deep, and the 

 stream nearly half a mile wide. It was three days before 

 this stream was fordable, and fully a month before it returned 

 to its normal condition." * 



The wisdom of the old traveller's maxim, always if 

 possible, when upon the march, to cross a stream im- 

 mediately upon arriving- upon its banks, before en- 

 camping for the night, is made apparent by this 

 anecdote because if a freshet should occur during 

 the night, its passage may be impracticable the next 

 day, and you may have to wait a considerable time 

 before its waters, on subsiding, render the ford possible. 

 The danger of passing fords when rivers are in flood, 

 has been proved only too often. 



Another event of the same character is recorded, in 

 which the sufferers were the 3rd Regiment of Infantry, 



* The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, p. 83. 



