DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. D 



posed wants of thirteen men for six months, no addition tO' 

 their number could be made with safety, but a satisfactory place 

 was found for Gambel in a Virginia Company of five men, one 

 wagon and eight mules, which had been admitted for mutual 

 protection to travel with the Company, and was glad to receive 

 an additional recruit. 



"After some necessary time in camp near Independence, occu- 

 pied in completing preparations, breaking in teams, securing 

 spare poles, axles and covers, etc. , the two parties, of whom only 

 Gambel exceeded the age of twenty-two years, made their de- 

 parture on May 1st and crossed the frontier line on the 2d. 

 The journey through the territory constituting the present 

 States of Kansas and Nebraska, then an unbroken wilderness 

 uninhabited except by Indians, was pursued with the usual 

 incidents of Indian attacks (from Pawnees), stampedes, diflGi- 

 cult streams and the other numerous obstacles of that early day, 

 till June 2d, when at a point on the Platte River some hundred 

 miles above Grand Island the party overtook a large ox-train of 

 70 or 80 men led by the well-known Captain Boone, of Ken- 

 tucky. This train, like many others, had suffered severely and 

 lost several men from cholera, which closely pursued the immi- 

 gration across the plains, and did not cease its ravages till the 

 highlands near the base of the Rocky Mountains were reached. 

 They were anxious to secure the permanent company of a med- 

 ical man, and proposed to associate Gambel with them, accepting 

 his medical services as full equivalent for his proportion of guard 

 mounting and the usual labor in camp and with the teams. 

 The proposal was eagerly accepted by Gambel, who thus saw 

 his way open, not only to a less arduous and laborious life, but 

 for the better prosecution of his researches in natural history. 

 The oxen traveled more deliberately, the men were generally 

 older and less ardent, and he hoped for, and was promised, a 

 considerable increase of his leisure time. The Virginians readily 

 agreed to his wish, gave him His just proportion of the common 

 outfit, and commended him warmly to his new friends, who 

 seemed to be a substantial and agreeable lot of men. 



' ' On June 3d, having the faster or more active teams, the 

 Georgia and Florida Company, accompanied by the Virginians, 



