48 FROM FORT KEARNY TO FORT LARAMIE. 



ber of springs of soft, cold, sandstone water, which proved very 

 grateful after the hot and dusty journey of the day. 



The banks on this side of the river have presented little of inte- 

 rest, the surface generally consisting of rolling prairie, gradually 

 rising to the summit of the hills, which are at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the stream. On the opposite side, the cliffs are pre- 

 cipitous, displaying sections of horizontal beds of apparently the 

 same rock already noticed. About two miles from our noon halt 

 the rock was exposed close to the river and but little above its 

 level. It consisted of layers of sandstone, with detritus, magne- 

 sian limestone, sand, and clay. Some fossils were collected and 

 remains of encrinites were observed. On entering the bottom of 

 the North Fork, we found the white (EnotJiera, a large flower, grow- 

 ing with but a single flower-stem. Lupines are still found in con- 

 siderable numbers, together with phlox and some species of sun- 

 flower. The heads of the ravines were clothed with pine and 

 cedar. The growth of the latter tree appears to be diminishing ; 

 for while numerous dead trees lay strewn along the bottoms, but 

 few living ones were found growing on the hills. 



Saturday/, July 7. — Ther. at sunrise, 59° ; Bar. 26.55. This 

 morning we caught a view of the celebrated " Chimney Rock," and 

 also of the " Court-house," which latter consisted of two bald eleva- 

 tions, similar in formation to that already passed, to which the 

 voyageurs, most of whom are originally from St. Louis, had given 

 this name, from a fancied resemblance to a well-known structure in 

 their own city. 



In riding out from the road to visit this curious formation, we 

 found the main blufi" of the river to be about five miles distant, the 

 intervening country consisting of rolling hillocks covered with 

 grass. In our ride we crossed the dry sandy bed of a stream, 

 about two hundred and fifty feet in width, which, in the rainy 

 season, must discharge a large quantity of water. It had little or 

 no bank, and, from the appearance of drift-wood far out on the 

 prairie, must overspread a large sm^face in the spring. A mile 

 and a-half from this creek we came upon another, called on the 

 maps " Dry Creek," but known among the mountain-men as " Law- 

 rence's Fork," from the fact that a man of that name had been 

 killed on it by the Sioux. The Court-house was but a few 

 hundred yards beyond this stream, which was about thirty feet 

 wide and two or three feet deep, flowing with a free, bold, and 

 tolerably rapid current : it had cut its bed through the blue clay, 



