21 [174] 
‘dred and eighty yards, and the water nowhere two feet in depth. The 
island bears the name of a man killed on this spot some years ago. His 
party had encamped here, three in:company, and one of the number went 
off to hunt, leawibe Brady and his companion together. These two had 
frequently quarrelled, and on the hunter’s return he found Brady dead, 
and was told that he had shot himself accidental ly.. He was buried. here 
on the bank; but, as usual, the wolves-had se him out, and some human 
“bones that were lying on the ground we supposed were his. Troops of 
wolves, that were hanging on the skirts of the puffale, kept up an aed 
rupted howling during the night, venturing almost into camp. In- 
_— 
3. -8*eH 
morning, they were sitting at a short distance, barking, and fapateals z 
‘waiting our departure, to fall upon the bones 
'2.—The morning was cool*and smoky. Our road led closer to the 
-hills; which here increased in elevation, tear bigs an outline of conical 
‘peaks:three hundred to five-hundred feet high. Some timber, apparently 
" pine, grows in the ravines, and streaks of clay or sand whiten their slopes. 
We crossed during the morning a number of hollows, timbered princi- 
‘pally with box elder, (acer negundo,) poplar, andelm. Brady’s island is 
well wooded, and all the river along which our road led to- E eee may, in 
‘general, be called tolerably well timbered. We passed near ncamp- 
ment of the Oregon emigrants, where they appear to-have reposed sev: 
ys. A variety of household articles were scattered about,and they had ~ 
da 
Speabahly disburdened themselves here of many things not absolutely. ne- 
eessary. T had left the usual road before the mid-day halt, andin the af- 
‘ternoon, having sent several men in advance to reconnoitre, marched di- 
rectly for the mouth of the Sonth fork. On our arrival, the horsemen were 
‘sent in and scattered about the river to search the best. fording et aa 
‘the carts followed immediately. The stream is here divided-by an 
into: two. channels. The southern is four hundred. and fifty feet v 
ption o of afew dry bars, the bed of the river is generally quicksands 
‘in which the carts — to sink rapidly so soon as the mules halted,,s0 
it was necessary to keep them constantly in motion. == | 
northern channel, two thousand two hundred and fifty. feet -wide, 
cwas somewhat deeper, having frequently: three feet.-water in the numer- 
“ous small — with a bed of coarse gravel .The whole breadth of 
ska, immediately below the junction, is five thousand three pap . 
the Nebra 
‘teed and fifty feet. All our equipage had reached theleft bank safely at 
o’clock, having to-day made twenty miles, We encampted at the patat 
of land immediately at the junction of the North and South : 
tween the streams is a low rich prairie, extending from their ‘confluence 
eighteen miles westwardly to the bordering hills, where i “is five and a 
-half miles wide. It is covered with a luxuriant. peach of grass, and 
-along the banks is a slight and seattered fringe of cottonwood and willow. 
In the buffalo trails and wallows, I remarked saline efflorescences, to 
‘which a rapid evaporation in the great heat of the sun probably -contrib- 
utes, as the soil is entirely unprotected by timber. - In the vicinity of these 
places ne wasa bluish grass, which the cattle refuse to eat, called by 
the voy rs “herbe saiée,? (salt grass.) The. latitude of the junction i 
ae oa 0447", rand longitude, by chronometer and lunar deans by 49'43' 
s came in with a fat cow; and, as.we had labored h hard oe 
Ste otal | 5 
