ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 67 



southern view for the past two days. The summits of the cliffs 

 are covered with patches of snow, and the contrast of the 

 dazzling white and brick-red produces a very pretty effect. 



The next day, we left the Platte river, and crossed a wide, 

 sandy desert, dry and desolate ; and on the 9th, encamped at 

 noon on the banks of the Sweet-water. Here we found a large 

 rounded mass of granite, about fifty feet high, called Rock Inde- 

 pendence. Like the Red Butes, this rock is also a rather re- 

 markable point in the route. On its smooth, perpendicular sides, 

 we see carved the names of most of the mountain bourgeois, 

 with the dates of their arrival. We observed those of the two 

 Sublette's, Captains Bonneville, Serre, Fontinelle, &c., and after 

 leaving our own, and taking a hearty, but hasty lunch in the 

 shade of the rock, and a draught from the pure and limpid 

 stream at its base, we pursued our journey. 



The river is here very narrow, often only twelve or fifteen 

 feet wide, shallow, and winding so much, that during our march, 

 to-day, we crossed it several times, in order to pursue a straight 

 course. The banks of the stream are clothed with the most 

 luxuriant pasture, and our invaluable dumb friends appear per- 

 fectly happy. 



We saw here great numbers of a beautiful brown and white 

 avocet, (the Recurvirostra americana of ornithologists.) These 

 fine birds were so tame as to allow a very near approach, run- 

 ning slowly before our party, and scarcely taking wing at the 

 report of a gun. They frequent the marshy plains in the neigh- 

 borhood of the river, and breed here. 



On the 10th, about ninety miles to the west, we had a striking 

 view of the Wind-river mountains. They are almost wholly of 

 a dazzling whiteness, being covered thickly with snow, and 

 the lofty peaks seem to blend themselves with the dark clouds 

 which hang over them. This chain gives rise to the sources of 

 the Missouri, the Colorado of the west, and Lewis' river of the 



