Ex. Doc. No. 41. 401 



regular ford, which is one-fourth of a mile above us; but lost sev- 

 eral of their horses. To-day, the man who was drowned yester- 

 day was buried, his body having been found by our men engaged 

 in rafting. His friends sent to us for his clothes i^i which to bury 

 him; and, before the sun went down, he was deposited in his long 

 resting place: u requiescat in pace." 



At- 11 o'clock, Colonel Doniphan came to our camp and informed 

 us that General Kearny wished to see us. We afterwards learned 

 that the general had some inquiries to make in regard to the route 

 by the Smoky Hill fork; a" route that Lieutenant Peck and myself 

 had travelled when we were attached to the command of Colonel 

 Fremont; but the roughness of that country, the absence of all 

 roads, and the scarcity of water and wood, and the poverty of the 

 pasturage, render the Arkansas river route much to be preferred. 



At 3 o'clock we commenced our march, and soon struck a road, 

 that we pursued until near 10 o'clock at night, when we encamped 

 near some pools of water, having been made aware of our approach 

 to them some time before they were in sight, by the cry of the kill- 

 deer plovers, (charadrius vociferous.) We soon kindled our fires of 

 " bois de vac-he," and then found we had camped in a prairie 

 dog village; abad place for picketing horses, as the neighborhood 

 is generally destitute of grass. On our march we obtained a sin- 

 gular species of cactus, resembling roundish bodies covered with 

 long protuberances, wnose tips were crowned with stars of white 

 spines, (near mammilarea sulcata.) 



We saw during the day many skylarks; (alanda alpertris;) they 

 allowed us to approach quite close before they took wing and as 

 they flew through f he air sang sweetly. 



Friday^ 17M.— We have now entered that portion of the prairie 

 that well deserves to be considered part of the great desert. The 

 short, curly buffalo grass (sesleria dactyloides) is seen in all di- 

 rections; the plain is dotted with cacti and thistle, (carduus lan- 

 ceolatus.) while only in buffalo wallows one meets the silver mar- 

 gined euphorbia; and in the prairie dog villages, a species of ascle- 

 pias, with truncated leaves. 



We saw several wild horses; in one group there were three, and 

 with our spyglasses we had a fine opportunity for examining them. 

 There was a bay, a roan, and a black; they stood for some time 

 gazing at us as if completely absorbed in looking at the strange 

 sight, when, as we approached, they raised their long flowing tails 

 and dashed off with their long manes waving round their necks, and 

 with a speed that soon carried them out of view. Unlike the mus- 

 tangs, these looked to be large and beautifully proportioned. 



Buffaloes seemed as if trying to surround us. We saw scarcely 

 anything else far or near. The whole horizon was lined with them 

 and their figures would sometimes shoot up to an immense height 

 as their change of position caused the visual rays to pass through 

 mediums of different refracting power, while seeming lakes would 

 spring into existence, whose farthest shore seemed widely sepa- 

 lated from us by the broad volume of water that intervened. 



There were many dusky wolves (canis nubilus) prowling around 



