78 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



hills which bound the valley are now higher and very rock}^ 

 and a few stunted cedars make their appearance. As you 

 advance, natural curiosities, like the Court House and Chimney 

 Rock, make their appearance, and the geological features of 

 the country are changing greatly. Continuing farther up the 

 river, it becomes better timbered, and its shores sandier, until 

 you reach Laramie, when another change comes over it, for 

 here it becomes a river of the mountains, and continues so to 

 its native home in the backbone of our Continent. Sometimes 

 between rock-walled canons, at others through a narrow, desert 

 plain, flanked by desolate hills, we see it rapidly flowing on its 

 way, over pebbly and rocky beds, its volume often increased 

 by the streams which come from the neighboring mountains 

 to join it. Ascending it from Kearney to where the California 

 trail leaves it, we find its width has decreased from over a mile 

 in width to less than three rods; and while witnessing this 

 decrease, I had seen so much hardship and so little pleasure, 

 that it is no wonder that I parted from old Father Platte with- 

 out tears. Its mosquitoes had lacerated me, its waters had 

 nearly frozen me, its bogs had engulfed me, and its sand had 

 choked me ; and it was with heartfelt joy that I caught a last 

 glimpse of its waters, which an intervening blufl* soon hid 

 forever from my sight. 



From our noon's encampment we passed over a gloomy, 

 God-forsaken country, and corralled at night in a deep and 

 rocky gorge, through which our road led. We had not ex- 

 pected to find water here ; but on searching, we found a little 

 brook fiowing at the bottom of a deep ravine, near the corral. 

 Thinking ourselves very fortunate, we filled our kegs, but upon 

 trying the water we found it to be so abominably alkaline as 

 to be unfit for drinking. There was not a spear of grass in 

 the vicinity of the corral, so that our miserable, broken down 

 animals were compelled to fast another day. 



Owing to hunger, thirst and the bitter coldness of the night. 



