176 PLAINS OF LARAMIE. 



The Fort gates being closed against them, they demanded admittance 

 on the plea of wishing to trade. 



" What would you buy ?" asked the commandant. 



« Tobacco." 



" What have you brought to pay for it ?" 



" A white man." 



" A white man ?" exclaimed the former; " at what price?" 



" Oh, he is not worth much. A plug of tobacco is his full value !" con- 

 tinued the warriors. 



The commandant now bogan to understand the joke; and, on recognizing 

 the prisoner as an employee of the other Fort, he told them they might 

 possibly find a market for him at the next post, but for his own part he was 

 not disposed to purchase. 



The Indians then paraded around the Fort, and, after saluting its in- 

 mates with three deafening whoops, proceeded at full charge towards Fort 

 Platte. 



When arrived, having prostrated two scaffolds of dead Sioux by the 

 way, they informed the person in charge, that they had brought back one 

 of his men, and claimed from him a plug of tobacco for their trouble. 

 The circumstances attending this request were of so comical a nature, the 

 commandant felt disposed to humor the joke, and gave the tobacco, upon 

 which they immediately left in pursuit of their enemies. 



Having remained prisoners to the hospitality of these Indians for two 

 days and a half, we were at length permitted again to resume our journey. 



Following the creek downwards for the two days next succeeding, and 

 then bearing to the left, after a ride of some twelve miles, we struck Lara- 

 mie river at a point which presented broad bottoms upon each side v\ ith an 

 abundance of timber; here we remained encamped till the subsequent day. 



In journeying thus far, we passed over a sufficient extent of this broad 

 expanse to give a general descriptioji of it, from personal observation coup- 

 led with information derived from others more experienced. 



The Plains of Laramie are bounded north and east by the Black Hills, 

 south by a ridge of naked elevations, (composed of soft, arenaceous rock 

 and terrene limestone, embedded in marl and white clay, sterile and almost 

 entirely destitute of vegetation,) and west by the Medicine Bow Moun- 

 tain. s. 



This section includes an area one hundred and sixty miles long by 

 seventy broad. 



The northern portion of it is a high plateau, almost destitute of springs 

 or sircanis of water, having a mixed soil of clay and sand, producing the 

 grass and other peculiarities incident to the grand prairies. Westerly, it 

 is composed of red sand and gravel, tolerably ll^rtile and abundant in rocky 

 fragments. The southern portion is watered by a number of streams that 

 rise in the Medicine Bow Mountains and flow eastward ; some of them 

 pouring their waters into Laramie river, and others losing themselves in 

 the sand. 



Towards the southwestern extremity, at the base of a lofty, isolated 

 mountain, is a salt lake of considerable dimensions. Several other lakes 



