WOXDERFUL EECOYERIES. 65 



how their soldiers were treated 



tlie plains. 



•ht 



in idleness at Fort Wallace. The hospital tents were 

 and I must say that I never saw better snrirerv 



moT 



mana 



officer 



especially 



proud of, and certainly with reason. One was a Mexican, 

 the other a soldier ; both had been shot thi'ough the 

 body, by an arrow. They both recovered without a bad 

 symptom. The soldier I watched from the extraction of the 

 arrow until he w^as able to walk about. The arrow had 

 entered the back two inches from ihe ^x^ine, and the point 

 had reappeared just below, and about two inches from, the 

 navel. It had^ probably, passed quite through the liver, 

 without touching any other organ; still, fom- layers of 

 peritoneum must have been pierced^ and the recoveries, in 

 both cases, say as much for the healthiness of the, climate as 

 for the skill of the surgeon. 



General Wright did not think it advisable to leave Fort 

 Wallace with so small a force to guard it. His chief reason, 

 however, for remaining, was the hope of obtaining a larger 

 escort for himself on General Hancock's return from the West. 



As, however, we were 



abundance 



ammum 



and were supplied by the Government 



succeed 



in stopping or delaying us, this inactivity was by no means 

 popular with the majority of the party. 



One day I examined Pond Creek Station, and as it is a 

 very good specimen of one of those fortified stage stations 

 which are to be foimd along the overland routes, a short 

 description may not be uninteresting. 



