HORSE-SHOE CREEK. 57 



Horse-shoe, we passed some enormous blocks of granite, lying 

 upon the surface, some of which were cubes of twenty feet. 



The road, as usual, was strewn with fragments of broken and 

 burnt wagons, trunks, and immense quantities of white beans, 

 which seemed to have been thrown away by the sackful, their 

 owners having become tired of carrying them farther, or afraid to 

 consume them from danger of the cholera. The commanding 

 officer at Fort Kearny had forbidden their issue at that post on 

 this account. Stoves, gridirons, moulding-planes and carpenters* 

 tools of all sorts, were to be had at every step for the mere trouble 

 of picking them up. 



The next day, being Sabbath, was passed in camp, during which 

 hourly observations both of the thermometer and barometer were 

 made, commencing at six o'clock. We are fifty miles from Fort 

 Laramie. 



In descending the ridge into the valley of Horse-shoe Creek, a 

 section of a stratum of reddish clay was exposed, some distance 

 above the bottom, surmounted by a large and coarse sandstone. 

 On the banks of the Horse-shoe, there was a perpendicular section 

 of about one hundred feet of a stratum of clay and sandy limestone. 

 The rock seemed very fossiliferous, but, owing to its fracturing in 

 all directions, few specimens could be obtained. The peaks to the 

 left seemed to be of reddish clay, so far as could be judged from 

 their appearance and the manner of their disintegration. A con- 

 siderable change has taken place in the flora as the country begins 

 to ascend. Since leaving Fort Laramie, a variety of geranium has 

 been frequent upon the borders of the streams. A small-leaved 

 (Enothera^ white, and the blue Digitalis, were also found. On the 

 north side of the ridge, some plants were seen which we had not 

 met with before; Azalea; a small white (Enothera, on a tall stem, 

 the flowers not more than a line and a-half in diameter ; two spe- 

 cies of Potentilla, J eWow, and two or three Ysnieties of Campanula, 



Monday, July 23. — Ther. 47°. Ascending from the valley of 

 the run where we had encamped, the road winds along a high, un- 

 dulating ridge, for several miles, with very deep, precipitous ra- 

 vines heading on each side, thus rendering our course very sinuous. 

 The road then descends for about a mile and a-half into the broad 

 valley of a run which has been on our left for three or four miles, 

 and follows its dry bed until it strikes another fork coming in 

 from the left, with a fine stream of running water, and a broad 

 bottom, covered with willows of a large size. Our course thi>s 



