278 PREVAILING ROCK. 



and two children. Our surprise at this laughable denouement was only 

 equalled by their own. 



They announced themselves in search of the Arapaho village, and ex- 

 pressed much pleasure at meeting with the whites. Our visitors having 

 passed the night v/ith us, the next morning we yielded to iheir solicitations, 

 and set out with them to the village, some eighteen miles distant, in a 

 northwest direction. 



About noon we arrived at the place, and found six or seven hundred 

 lodges of Arapahos, Chyennes, and Sioux, encamped in a large valley 

 skirting a small affluent of Beaver creek. 



The village, being prepared to move, in a few moments succeeding our 

 arrival, was en route for the Platte river. The spectacle was novel and 

 imposing. Lodge followed lodge in successive order, — forming vast pro- 

 cessions for miles in length. Squaws, children, horses, and dogs, mingling 

 in promiscuous throng, covered the landscape in every direction, and gave 

 it the aspect of one dense mass of life and animation. 



Here a troop of gorgeously dressed and gaily painted damsels, all ra- 

 diant with smiles and flaunting in conscious beauty, bestriding richly ca- 

 parisoned horses, excited the admiration and commanded the homage of 

 gallantry ; there a cavalcade of young warriors, bedaubed with fantastic 

 colors — black, red, white, blue, or yellow, in strict accordance with savage 

 taste — habited in their nicest attire, swept proudly along, chanting their 

 war-deeds in measured accents to the deep-toned drum ; and then another 

 band of pompous horsemen scoured the spreading plain, in eager race to 

 test the speed of their foaming chargers ; and, yet again, a vast army of 

 mounted squaws, armed with the implements for root-digging, spread far 

 and wide in search of the varied products of the prairie ; then, among the 

 moving mass, passed slowly along the travees, conveying the aged, infirm, 

 and helpless, screened from the heat of a summer's sun by awnings of skins, 

 that beshaded their cradled occupants, — while immense trains of pack-ani- 

 mals, heavily laden with provisions and camp equipage, as they crowded 

 amid the jogging multitudes, united to complete the picture of a travelling 

 Indian villaoe. 



Yielding to the request of our new friends, we proceeded with them ten 

 or twelve miles further and passed the night in their lodge. 



Our route from Beaver creek led over a tumulous country, interspersed 

 with valleys of a rich soil, and prolific in rank vegetation. The side-hills 

 aflxarded large quantities of pomme hlanc, and the prairies and bottoms a 

 splendid array of choice floral beauties. 



The creeks disclosed wide, sandy beds, often dry and skirted by broad 

 valleys which were passably well timbered. The principal ridges were 

 not high, but surmounted by dense pine forests, with pleasant openings, 

 smiling in all the loveliness of spring. 



Notwithstanding the scanty volumes of the streams, the country presents 

 to the traveller the appearance of being well watered by frequent rains, 

 while ever and anon a gurghng fountain strikes upon his ear with its soft 

 music. 



Stratified rock is usually rare ; the only species noticed were limestone 

 and sandstone. I remarked a great abundance of silex and hornblend, 



