32 FROM FOUT KEARNY TO FORT LARAMIE. 



pure sand, and are much higher, and appear to be more wooded, 

 than on the south side of the stream. About twenty miles above 

 the fort, the character of the bluifs on the south side seemed 

 changed, and presented a more gradual slope to the river ; the 

 soil contained more clay, and, at a distance of a mile back from 

 their escarpment, they were cut up by constant ravines with banks 

 precipitous and, in some instances, perpendicular. In one spot, 

 such was the tenacity of the soil, that an upright mass of earth in 

 the form of a column had been left by the waters. Here were 

 found fossils of a character similar to those obtained at the point 

 where we first entered the valley : they were, however, in a very 

 friable and decomposed state. 



Sunday^ June 24. — Bar. 27.56; Ther. 83. Our journey for 

 the last two days has been up the valley of the Platte, which, in 

 some places, is more than a mile in width. From one spot I 

 counted upward of twenty islands, which, being densely covered 

 with green willows and cotton- woods, presented, in contrast with 

 the naked monotonous country through which we were passing, a 

 perfect picture of refreshing beauty. From the fact that the 

 islands in the river are, for the most part, covered with trees, the 

 almost total absence of this feature in the landscape of the valley 

 must be attributed, in part at least, to the fires which periodically 

 sweep over the country in the autumn, destroying every thing be- 

 fore them. On our return by this same route, in the fall of 1850, 

 the country, for more than three hundred miles, had been com- 

 pletely devastated by these conflagrations, insomuch that our ani- 

 mals came near perishing for want of herbage. The north side 

 of the river does not appear to sufi"er so much from this cause; 

 which may, in part, arise from the direction of the prevailing winds. 

 Encamped on the bank of the Platte, fifty-six miles above Fort 

 Kearny. The blufis bounding the valley were of clayey soil, cut 

 up by deep ravines, in many instances nearly perpendicular, their 

 character becoming bolder as we advanced. The soil is richer and 

 contains more clay. The plants seen were Tradescantia, the 

 purple mallow, (the root of which resembles the parsnip, and is 

 used by the Indians for food,) the small yellow (Enothera, and a 

 pretty, small stellate-flowered plant. Over large portions of the 

 bottom, no flowers were met with ; on the high ground, red mallow. 

 Mimosa, Linum, a white Mimulus, and a sort of larkspur. The 

 aloe was flowering in abundance on the face of some very steep 

 blufis. 



