TO THE GREAT SOUTH PASS. 77 



to our minds. These traders had mostly a plurality of wives, 

 which they purchased from their fathers with powder and 

 whisky, and which they put aside at their pleasure as soon as 

 old age has marred their beauty. We stopped a short time in 

 this village, but none of the Indians came around us, as they 

 were restrained by the traders from mingling among other 

 whites, of whom they were very jealous. These traders were a 

 rough, hardy set, and but a little better civilized than their 

 bronze-faced allies, whom they had a great influence over. 

 We encamped after nightfall, three miles w^est of the village, 

 on a broad plain overlooking the river which was about a 

 mile to our right. 



On the morning of the 17th, with cattle half dead with 

 hunger and thirst, we sloAvly drove from our night's camp, 

 and passing over a country rugged and desolate, we moved on 

 a high blufl" overlooking the river, which was about a mile 

 distant, and near a clear, sparkling stream which afforded us 

 excellent water. Here we bade a final adieu to the Platte (as 

 the road here left it), a river which I 'for one w^as heartily 

 tired off. We had encamped on its shores for a month and a 

 half, traveling during that time a distance of over four hundred 

 and fifty miles. When we first saw its dirty face at Fort 

 Kearney it was over a mile in width, lazily flowing between 

 forest-crowned islands and through a dull, monotonous plain. 

 As we ascended it, the hills, which bordered the narrowing 

 valley, began to grow higher and more abrupt, and barren sand- 

 bars to take the place of wooded islands. After a journey of 

 one hundred and fifty miles, we strike the South Fork ; in the 

 whole distance not having seen anything worthy the name of 

 tributary; the river decreasing rather than increasing in 

 volume, as the thirsty sands drink in its water. After having 

 crossed the South Fork, quite a change takes place in the 

 appearance of the valley; the river bottoms are often sandy, 

 and occasionally intersected by sandy blufls. The ranges of 



