116 _ NOTES TAKEN. 
distance, and it ran at right angles to our course every mile 
or two. ‘The bed of the stream near shore was all quick- 
sands, and every time we crossed more or less accident 
occurred, happily none serious. 
My horse sank to the haunches.in one instance, and in his 
plunges threw me off, but as the landing was soft, a plentiful — 
bedaubing of red clay and mud was all the injury I received. 
Our horses and mules suffered very much from this service. 
Every plunge. was made with a groan, and the strain — 
legs and loins was very p eptible aft d 
P Waluss 
For many miles along the north shore, extended a meadow 
a mile wide, which in the rainy season must be entirely sub- 
merged, from the water marks, making a broad lake, where 
now no water could be seen, the grass very thin and coarse, 
like that in salt marshes. In crossing this, the Captain shot 
a doe, and we had a specimen of the dexterity and rapidity 
with which an Indian can skin a deer and prepare it for 
transportation. “I timed Jacobs during the operation, and 
“he was just fifteen minutes from the time the deer was shot 
until he had it prepared and packed on a mule. 
The south shore now began to be bounded by arange of high : 
bluffs, and hoping to find water there, we crossed at the first 
opening and bivouaced on top of a bluff, one hundred feet 
above the stream, giving us a level plateau, with grass for 
our animals and a good place to keep look-out for Indians. 
- Ina ravine, a quarter of a mile off, Conner dug into the 
bank and found water, slightly impregnated with salt and 
