14 
INDIAN GUIDES.—UNIONTOWN. 
Wahkarrussi, and had a grand panoramic view of the adjacent country. The forest at the junc¬ 
tion of the streams, and on both sides, will furnish oak, hickory, walnut, and other timber, for 
many miles of railroad; and the level bottom of the Kansas appears to advantage, inviting the 
theodolite and level of the engineer on its E.N.E. and W.S.W. course, for the track of the 
Central Pacific railroad. The fertility of these valleys, on either side, capable of supporting 
great numbers of people, is too obvious to mention. 
“ At a mile from the escarpment of limestone rock, on the left-hand side of the road, there 
issues a fine, cool spring, a curiosity on the top of this narrow ridge, one hundred feet above 
the bed of the stream. At sixteen miles from camp we came to a wooded dell, called Coon 
Point, the proper place to take wood for a march to Big spring. Twenty-one miles along the 
ridge brought us to this spring, which is on the north side of the road, and two hundred yards 
from the main track. It is situated in a hollow, and there are several small jets from the bank. 
Indeed, in all the ravines we entered, a short distance from the brows on either side, water can 
be had by clearing out the oozy mud at the edge of the thin strata of limestone which crop 
out. Some portions of the road to-day were covered with loose stones. 
“ At 11 a. m., barometer 28.80; thermometer 81°. At sundown, barometer 28.70 ; thermometer 
77° ; dew-point 70°. 
11 June 28.—The water of Big spring seems to have affected badly more than one of the party. 
The wind blew a gale all night, and this morning we had a little rain, and it remianed cold and 
cloudy all day, with lightning in the south. The country was very rolling on the higher table¬ 
land, from which we descended shortly after leaving the Big spring, and steered our course 
towards a hill fifteen miles from camp, and made, opposite to it, Stinson’s trading-house, oh 
Shunga Munga creek. Here the road to California branches off to the middle ferry, which is 
three miles to the northwest. The valley of the Kansas was visible a part of the way; or rather 
the Kansas bottom, for people in this region make a difference in this matter. The level 
meadow, or prairie, in which the river winds from hill to hill, is called the ‘ bottomand all the 
land, hill and meadow, drained by the stream, is called ‘the valley.’ The river is said to impinge 
frequently against the bluff hills on the south, in this part of its course. We nooned for'half an 
hour at a small creek, heavily wooded, by a fringe one hundred yards wide, with the usual varie¬ 
ties of timber. On the west side are boulders of granite, serpentine, and red quartz rock. At 3 
o’clock p. m. we arrived at Mission creek, where there are all the requisites of wood, water, and 
grass, for encampments, for a long time to come. Day’s march twenty-three miles. Some 
Indian log-houses were passed at a distance to the right; and fine fields of corn, wheat, and 
potatoes, on Shunga Munga creek, give promise of what can be expected when these rich lands 
are cultivated ‘in the sweat of the brow,’ according to the dispensation of the order of nature. 
Just at our supper-dinner, Entho-kipe and Wah-hone, the guide and hunter of the Smoky Hill 
Fork trip, came to camp. They have been waiting two days on a creek two miles ahead, and 
were starting to look us up. The guide speaks a little English, but it is difficult for him to 
understand us; he has therefore brought another Delaware with him, who speaks English well. 
As soon as they had satisfied their appetites and taken a stock for to-morrow, they returned to 
their camp to await our arrival. I have this evening a severe attack of my old illness on the 
Plains. 
“ June 29.—Very cloudy and warm. Theimometer at 6 a. m., 62°. I passed a bad night. 
At Uniontown, to which we came after a ride of 7£ miles, there is a street of a dozen houses, 
where the traders reap their harvests at the time of the national payments. We could get no 
information about our route here. At Six Mile creek we stopped a few minutes only, as it began 
to rain. We have here an abundance of wood. At fourteen miles we crossed a fine, swift stream 
from southwest, 100 feet across, and averaging one foot in depth ; timber and grass abundant. 
Il-a-heek-con-a-sa is the Indian name of the creek. Thence for three miles we travelled west¬ 
ward ly on a beautiful bottom which borders the stream. The prairie is purple with rich flowers, 
