96 LODGES OF MOUNTAIN INDIANS. 



and not think of averaging over twenty-five miles per day. They might 

 travel later ; but in such cases, they should always proportionally lengthen 

 their noon halt. 



In the above manner the entire journey from Indpendence to the Pacific 

 may be performed without injury to animals, or the expenses attendant 

 upon a relay. 



Fort Platte, being next to Fort Hall, the most important point on the 

 route to Oregon, calls for a brief description. This post occupies the left bank 

 of the North Fork of Platte river, three-fourths of a mile above the mouth 

 of Larramie, in lat. 42^ 12' 10" north, long. 105° 20' 13" west from Green- 

 wich,* and stands upon the direct waggon road to Oregon, via South 

 Pass. 



It is situated in the immediate vicinity of the Oglallia and Brule divisions 

 of the Sioux nation, and but little remote from the Chyennes and Arapaho 

 tribes. Its structure is a fair specimen of most of the establishments em- 

 ployed in the Indian trade. Its walls are " adobies," (sun-baked brick,) 

 four feet thick, by twenty high — enclosing an area of two hundred and 

 fifty feet in length, by two hundred broad. At the northwest and south- 

 west corners are bastions which command its approaches in all directions. 



Within the walls are some twelve buildings in all, consisting as follows : 

 Office, store, warehouse, meat-house, smith's shop, carpenter's shop, kitchen, 

 and five dwellings, — so arranged as to form a yard and corel, sufficiently 

 large for the accommodation and security of more than two hundred head 

 of animals. The number of men usually employed about the establish- 

 ment is some thirty, whose chief duty it is to promote the interests of the 

 trade, and otherwise act as circumstances require. 



The Fort is located in a level plain, fertile and interesting, bounded upon 

 all sides by hills, many of which present to view the nodding forms of 

 pines and cedars, that bescatter their surface, — while the river bottoms, at 

 various points, are thickly studded with proud growths of cottonwood, ash, 

 willow, and box-elder, thus affording its needful supplies of timber and 

 fuel. 



One mile south of it, upon the Larramie, is Fort John, a station of the 

 American Fur Company. Between these two posts a strong opposition is 

 maintained in regard to the business of the country, little to the credit of 

 either. 



At the time of our arrival at the Fort, two villages of Indians were en- 

 camped near by. Their lodges, being the first I ever saw, proved objects 

 of great interest to me. 



The lodge of a mountain Indian consists of a frame work of light poles, 

 some twenty-five feet long, bound together at the small ends, and raised by 

 planting the opposite extremities aslope, at given distances apart, so as to 

 describe a circle, at the base, converging to a triangular apex, for roof and 

 sides ; — over this is spread a covering of buffalo robes, so nicely dressed 

 and seamed, it readily sheds rain and excludes the fierce winds to which 

 the country is subject. A small aperture at the top, affords passage for th© 



* Obs. Lt. Fremont, in 1842. 



