RETURN ROUTE. 123 



of three or four hundred yards in length and about forty broad, called the 

 Devil's Gate, as I afterwards ascertained. 



Its walls arose perpendicularly to a height of between four and five hun- 

 dred feet, and consisted of trap rock, sandstone, and granite. 



Dismounting, I ascended to the summit, where a grand and picturesque 

 scenery burst upon the view. 



Above, the broad valley of the Sweet Water stretched far away to the 

 westward, bounded on either side by frowning mountains, that, towering 

 to the height of fifteen hundred or two thousand feet, present their snowy 

 summ.its in proud defiance of wind or storm, and laugh at the impotency 

 of a summer's sun ; — on the south, shaking their piny tops in scornful 

 derision ; and, on the north, with denuded crests of broken granite, chal- 

 lenging the lightnings of heaven and wooing its loudest thunders ; — while 

 further along, the clouds played in humble sportiveness around the base of 

 the great chain dividing the waters of two oceans, nor dared ascend its 

 dizzy heights to range amid eternal snow. 



Below, in silent grandeur, arose to view the grantic mass that responds 

 to the day-dawn of a nation's existence, surmounted by its lone pine, and 

 bearing upon its broad register the sculptured names of the audacious 

 disturbers of its solitude ; and further yet, the parti-colored peaks of the 

 Black Hills, now white with fresh-fallen snow, now darkened with clus- 

 tering pines, seemed musing in modest retirement; while far around, in 

 every spot accessible to discriminating vision, dense herds of grazing buf- 

 falo covered the prairie with their pall-like mantle of countless numbers. 



It was indeed a magnificent prospect, and needed only the garnishing 

 hand of spring to render it at as enchanting in loveliness as it was impres- 

 sive in wild sublimity. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Return route. — Oregon trail from Independence Rock through the South Pass.— 

 Cross the Sweet Water and Platte. — Mountain Fowl.— Journey up Medicine 

 Bow. — Dangerous country. — A fight with the Sioux. — The " Carcague." — A. sur- 

 prise. — Visit to the Crow village. — Number and character of the Crow nation — 

 Selling a prisoner for tobacco. — Description of Laramie Plains. 



Previously to leaving this place, considerable discussion arose relative 

 to our future course. 



The proposition was to continue up the Sweet Water valley to the 

 dividing ridge at the head of Green river, and return by the same rouj;e ; — 

 versus the suggestion to cross the Sweet Water and proceed up the Platte 

 to the conflueiice of a large tributary from the south ; thence, keeping by 

 the valley of the latter stream as far as the Medicine Bow Mountains, re 

 turn to the Fort by the way of Laramie river. 



