44 FROM FOET KEARNY TO FORT LARAMIE. 



proaclied and looked into this lodge while the forsaken being was 

 yet alive, and able partially to raise herself up and look at them, 

 but who, with a heartlessness that disgraces human nature, turned 

 away, and, without an effort for her relief, left her alone to die ! 

 Which company deserved the epithet of savages, the terrified and 

 flying red men, or the strong-hearted whites who thus consummated 

 their cruel deed ? 



Leaving this melancholy scene, we recrossed the river and re- 

 turned to our encampment, where preparations had been made for 

 a Fourth of July dinner. Although deprived of the vegetable luxu- 

 ries upon which our Eastern friends were doubtless feasting, still our 

 bill of fare would not have been unacceptable even to an epicure. 

 Buffalo-soup, buffalo-ribs, tender-loin, and marrow-bones roasted, 

 boiled ham, stewed peaches, and broiled curlew, relished with a couple 

 of bottles of cool claret, (which had beeen carefully preserved for 

 the occasion,) and crowned by a cup of coffee and a segar, made a 

 meal which, notwithstanding the cup was of tin and our table the 

 greensward, we thought not entirely unworthy of the day. In the 

 evening two men came into camp and requested our hospitality : 

 they had been emigrants, but were on their return to the States 

 disgusted, having fallen out with their company by the way. 



Thursday^ July 5th. — Bar. 26.67. Ther. bQ°. We commenced 

 our journey to-day up the North Fork of the Platte. The road 

 winds along the bottom under the bluffs. The lower stratum con- 

 sists of yellow clay, capped by cliffs of sandstone and silicious 

 limestone, about two hundred feet in height. This formation was 

 traced uninterruptedly for about twenty miles. The limestone 

 appeared to contain no fossils — at least, none were discovered. To- 

 ward the end of the day's march the clay was left uncovered by 

 the limestone, presenting bald eminences destitute of the least 

 vegetation, which, from the action of the weather, had been worn 

 into various curious and isolated peaks, of forms extremely pic- 

 turesque. Encamped on the bank of the river, after a tedious 

 march of twenty-three miles. Just above us, was a village of 

 Sioux, consisting of ten lodges. They were accompanied by Mr. 

 Badeau, a trader ; and, having been driven from the South Fork by 

 the cholera, had fled to the emigrant-road, in the hope of obtaining 

 medical aid from the whites. As soon as it was dark, the chief 

 and a dozen of the braves of the village came and sat down in a 

 semicircle around the front of my tent, and, by means of an in- 

 terpreter,, informed me that they would be very glad of a little 



