PAWNEE HORSE-THIEVES. 23 



tad selected the very best horses in both trains, all of which, to 

 make the matter worse, happened to be private property. Effec- 

 tive measures should certainly be taken to punish and thereby pre- 

 vent the occurrence of these outrages by a band of savages, who, 

 although receiving a large annuity from the national treasury, 

 take every opportunity to prey upon those under the protection 

 of the government. Several large catfish and some soft-shelled 

 turtle were caught in the stream by the men. The rich bottom in 

 the rear of the camp produces strawberries of fine quality in the 

 utmost profusion ; the men gathered them by hatfuls. Two very 

 large terrapins were also found here on the prairie. 



In the afternoon, the advance of a train from St. Joseph, be- 

 longing to Messrs. Bissonet and Badeau, bound on a trading expe- 

 dition among the Sioux, passed the camp and halted on the blufi" 

 beyond. Mr. Bissonet, who is an old trader and appears to be 

 well acquainted with the country, informed me that the stream 

 called by our guides the Legerette is in fact the Nemaha ; and 

 that the streams called by Fremont, Great and Little Nemahas 

 are the waters of Turkey Creek, and flow into the Blue to the 

 north of the road. A section of about one hundred feet high, in 

 a ravine on the south side of the river, showed the strata to be 

 horizontal from north to south, with a dip of ten degrees to the 

 west. The order of superposition was as follows : — Lower, most visi- 

 ble, red clay and sand ; gray shales ; blue limestone ; gray limestone, 

 and flint; white sandstone. They all contained fossils except the 

 clay. A species of mallow and CEnothera occurred on the bot- 

 toms of the streams, with Digitalis and Loasa nitida. Phlox, once 

 abundant, is becoming scarce. 



Monday, June 11. — Bar. 28.56; Ther. 65°. At half-past five 

 o'clock, a most violent storm of wind and rain set in, and raged 

 with great fury for three hours. The tents were prostrated, and 

 the baggage much wetted by the rain. Several large trees were 

 blown down, and one fell across an emigrant wagon close by us. 

 The owners, who had sought refuge in it from the tempest, narrowly 

 escaped with their lives. About nine, it cleared, and the tents were 

 raised to allow them to dry. Eight miles from the Blue, we struck 

 the emigration road from Independence. Here we found a com- 

 pany of seventy or eighty persons, with some twenty wagons, on 

 their way to California, among whom I recognised several former 

 compagnons de voyage on the Missouri. After crossing Eletchum's 

 Creek, encamped a short distance to the right of the road, 



