II. 



©Jo tfte baniL of tfte Si>uffafo. 



'E at last got under way, but on account of un- 

 broken teams, ignorant drivers and desertions, 

 0\l it was several days before we got in working 



order. Sometimes the whole night guard, with their outfits, 

 would decamp in a body, leaving the cattle to wander over the 

 country. The deserters were replaced by better men obtained 

 from returning trains, with which we sent back our sick. 



After some days of tribulation we crossed the valleys of the 

 Big and Little Grasshopper, and reached Walnut Creek on the 

 8th of July. Here we saw our first deer, which our wagon- 

 master gave chase to on his mule, but with limited success. 

 On the night of the 17th, when one hundred and twenty miles on 

 the road, we had the most terrible thunder-storm I ever saw. 

 I was out all night herding the cattle, and the glare of 

 lightning and crash of thunder rendered them hard to 

 manage. They hardly lay down all night, but wandered fit- 

 fully about, which made it hard for us. However, the sun 

 rose bright and warm the next morning, when we could 

 hardly realize what a night we had passed. 



Our next night's camp was by the side of the new-made 

 grave of a teamster, who had been run over by a stampede of 

 oxen. A mound marked the spot on our arrival, but by 

 morning the herd had so trampled down the wet earth that no 



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