Rocky Mountains. 467 



hardly to diminish, and it would be no exaggeration to say, 

 that at least ten thousand here burst on our sight in the in- 

 stant. Small columns of dust were occasionally wafted by 

 the wind from bulls that were pawing- the earth, and rolling; 

 the interest of action was also communicated to the scene, 

 by the unwieldy playfulness of some individuals, that the 

 eye would occasionally rest upon, their real or affected com- 

 bats, or by the slow or rapid progress of others to and from 

 their watering places. On the distant bluffs, individuals were 

 constantly disappearing, whilst others were presenting them- 

 selves to our view, until, as the dusk of the evening increas- 

 ed, their massive forms, thus elevated above the line of other 

 objects, were but dimly defined on the skies. We retired to 

 our evening fare, highly gratified with the novel spectacle 

 we had witnessed, and with the most sanguine expectations 

 of the future. 



In the morning we again sought the living picture, but 

 upon all the plain, which last evening was so teeming with 

 noble animals, not one remained. We forded the Platte with 

 less delay and difficulty, than we had encountered in cross- 

 ing the North fork. 



It is about nine hundred yards wide, and very rapid, but 

 so shoal that we found it unnecessary to dismount from our 

 horses, or to unpack the mules. We found the plains on the 

 south side of the Platte, more closely depastured, than those 

 we had before seen. The grass is fine and short, forming a 

 dense and matted turf, as in the oldest pastures. 



Meeting with wood at about three o'clock P. M., we re- 

 solved to encamp. On the two preceding evenings, we had 

 found it difficult to collect as much wood as sufficed to kin- 

 dle a fire, which was afterwards kept up with the dung of 

 the bison, though not without some difficulty, as the weather 

 was rainy. 



The dung of the bison is used as fuel in many parts of 

 the woodless country southwest of the Missouri, by the In- 



