[ 174] 282 
speseened to history. We therefore changed our course, and turned tip 
_ We crossed several small affluents, and again made a fortified camp in 
a grove, The country had now become very beautiful—rich in water, 
grass, and game; and to these were added the charm of scenery and pleas- 
ant Weather. ~ “tiga che 
June 14.—Our route this morning lay along the foot of the mountain, 
over the long low ois which sloped gradually down te the river, forming 
the broad valley of the Platte. Ty i ifully watered. In al- 
most every hollow ran a clear,coo! mountain stream; and in the course of 
the morning we crossed seventéen, several of them being large creeks, forty 
to fifty feet wide, with a swift current, and tolerably deep. These were 
variously wooded with groves of aspen and cottonwood, with willow, 
cherry, and other shrubby trees. Buffalo, antelope, and elk, were frequent 
during the day ;#and, in their abundance, the latter sometimes reminded 
us slightly of the Sacramento valley. 
We halted atnoon on Potter’s fork—a clear and swift stream, forty yards 
wide, and in many places deep enough to swim our animals; and in the 
evening encamped on a pretty stream, where there were several beaver 
dams, and many trees recently cut down by the beaver. We gave to this 
the name of Beaver Dam creek, as now they are becoming sufficiently rare 
to distinguish by their name the streams on which they are found. In this 
mountain they occurred mofe abundantly than elsewhere in all our journey, 
in which their vestiges had been scarcely seen. 
_ The next day we continued our journey up the valley, the*country pre- 
Senting much the same appearance, except that the grass was more scanty 
on the ridges, over which was spread a serubby growth of sage ; but still 
the bottoms of the creeks were broad, and afforded good pasture grounds, 
. gorge, through which the river passed as through a We entered it, 
and found o ves in the New Park—a beautiful circular valley of thirty 
niles diameter, walled in all round with snowy mountains, rich with water 
and with grass, fringed with pine on the mountain sides the snow 
line, and a paradise to all grazing animals. The Indian name for it signi- 
_ Bes “ cow lodge,” of whi be idered a translation ; the 
lo roaming over it, 
mountains, and some lakes within their bosoms, that the Great Platte river 
collects its first waters, and assumes its first form; and certainly no river 
~~ dune 16.—In the en our way through the Park, follow- 
Ol &: ASS bee Sto: a 2 
