22 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



pistols also ill the train arsenal, but for motives of policy they 

 were not given out. Some of our men could punish one 

 another with fist and tooth sufficiently without using these. 

 At noon on the 25th we met a part of the troops sent to Utah, 

 returning. They were artillerymen, with some cavalry or dra- 

 goons, as they were then called, and General Harney, still living 

 in 1888, was with them. They had gone four hundred miles 

 before taking a return course. 



We reached the valley of the Little Blue on the 26th of 

 June. This was full of mosquitoes, and at night noisy with 

 wolves. While herding that night, a wolf crossed a knoll 

 within twenty yards of where I was lying down, looking in 

 silhouette against the clear sky to my excited fancy as large 

 as a horse. 



Our route lay the next day along the valley of the Little 

 Blue in the direction of the Platte River. The road was 

 miry and lined with the carcasses of dead oxen lost by pre- 

 ceding trains, which filled the air with sickening odors. We 

 afterwards left the valley and crossed high ground, from which 

 we had a fine view of the lower country to the south. Broad 

 vistas of verdure, traversed by belts of darker green, marked 

 the timber-lined streams. The main trunk was the Blue, and 

 from this extended short branches. 



The 1st of August found us among a range of sand hills 

 which announced our approach to the valley of the Platte. 

 These were a succession of knolls and ridges from thirty 

 to sixty feet high. Amid their defiles our wheels sunk deep 

 in the sand, and we frequently doubled teams in order to get 

 through. From these we came to the broad, level bottom of 

 the river, which was marked by numerous wooded islands. 

 In the distance we saw Fort Kearney, the low buildings of 

 which were just visible above the prairie. When within a 

 mile the train was stopped, and orders given for each man to 

 overhaul his load, and put the flour which was in any way 



