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Fie} 110 ae 
ingly i in keeping. On the opposite side, the broken ridges assumed almost 
a mountainous appearance; and, for he stream, we continued on our 
course among these ridges, and encamped late in the evening at a little pond 
of very bad water, from which we drove away a herd of buffalo that were 
standing in and about it. Our encampment this evening was 2,500 feet 
above the sea. We travelled now for several days through a broken and 
dry sandy region, about 4,000 feet above'the sea, where there were norun- 
ning streams; and some anxiety was constantly felt on account of the un- 
. certainty of water, which was only to be found in small lakes that occur- 
ged occasionally among the hills. The discovery of these always brought 
pleasure to the camp, as around them were generally green flats, which af- 
forded abundant pasturage for our animals; and here were usually collected 
herds of the Neos which now were scattered over all the country in 
el number 
oil of ave ‘anid hot sands supported a varied and exuberant growth 
of planis, which were much farther advanced than we had previously found 
em, and whose showy bloom somewhat relieved the appearance of gene- 
: ral sterility. Crossing the summit of an elevated and continuous range of 
rolling hills, on the afternoon of the 30th of June we found ourselves over- 
looking ‘a broad and misty valley, where, about ten miles distant, and 1,000 
feet below us, the South fork of the Platte was rolling magnificently along, 
swollen with the waters of the melting snows. It was in strong and re 
_ freshing sentra with the parched country from which we had just isenede 
and when, at night, the broad expanse of water grew indistinct, it almost 
seemed ne we had pitched our tents on the shore of the sea. 
Travelling along up the valley of the river, here 4,000 feet above the sea, 
~ in the afterneon of July 1 we caught a far and uncertain view of a faint 
blue mass in the west, as the sun sank behind it; and from our camp in the 
morning, at the mouth of Bijou, Long’s peak and the neighboring moun- 
tains stood out into the anys grand and luminously white, covered to their 
bases with glittering sno 
. On the evening of the 3d, as we were journeying along the partially over- 
flowed bottoms of the Platie, where our passage stirred up swa 
uitoes, we came unexpectedly upon an Indian, who was cereal ona 
bluff, curiously. watching the movements of our caravan. He belonged to 
a village of Oglallah Sioux, who had lost all their animals in the severity 
of the preceding winter, and were now on their way up the Bijou fork to 
horses from the oes, who were hunting buffalo at the head of 
that river. Several came into our camp at noon; and, as they were hungry, 
as usual, they were provided with buffalo meat, of which the hunters had 
brought in an abundant supply. 
_ About noon, on the 4th of July, we arrived at the fort, where Mr. Si. 
: seeoived us les his sary! tindnem, poe, invited us to join him 
e 
Dtaining relief, as I found it ina very impoverished condition ; and 
we were able to procure only a little unbolted Mexican flour, and some 
salt, with a few pounds of powder and lead : 
As regarded ‘isions, it did not much uch matter ina country where rarely . 
the day passed with eing some kind of game, and where it was fre-. 
3 quently abunda | as a rare thing to lie down hungry, and we hadal- 
