Rocky Mountains. 9 



ed situations, and many of the solitary pines, which occupi- 

 ed an elevated position, had evidently been the sport of fu- 

 rious tempests, being rived and seamed by lightning. 



To the right, and easy of access, was a projecting rock, 

 supporting a single humble cedar in one of its fissures, from 

 which a stone let fall was received into the torrent of the 

 river which washed its base. The huge rampart of naked 

 rocks, which had been seen from below to stretch across the 

 valley, was now in nearer view, the river whirling abruptly 

 around the acute angle of its extremity, and offering, at its 

 superior edge, an embattled outline. They ascended a pri- 

 mitive mountain which seemed to be of superior elevation, in 

 order to overlook the western ranges, but they here found their 

 horizon bounded by the succeeding mountain, towering ma- 

 jestically above them. To the east, over the tops of a few 

 inferior elevations, lay expanded, like an ocean, the vast in- 

 terminable prairie, over which we had so long held our mo- 

 notonous mardi. The undulations which vary its surface 

 now disappeared, and the whole lay like a map before the 

 observer. They could trace the course of the Platte, and 

 number the streams they had crossed, and others which they 

 had before passed near, by the slight fringing of timber or 

 bushes which margined their banks, and by an occasional 

 glimpse of their streams, shining like quicksilver, and inter- 

 rupting and varying the continuity of the plain, as they pur- 

 sued their serpentine course. The atmospher& was remark- 

 ably serene, and small clouds were coursing over the surface 

 of the heavens, casting their swiftly-moving shadows upon 

 the earth, and enhancing the beauty of the contrast, which 

 the long lines of timber afforded, to the general glare of 

 light. After contemplating for some time the beauty and 

 extent of the scene, their attention was attracted by a moving 

 point, rendered occasionally visible by reflecting the rays of 

 the retiring sun. This object was our white flag waving m 

 a gentle breeze and revealing the position of our camp, the 



VOL. ir. i2 



