The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California | Page 6

it is
variously called, is increasing in size, and glittering like silver, as the
southern breeze turns up its leaves to the sun. All these plants have
their insect inhabitants, variously colored--taking generally the hue of
the flower on which they live. The artemisia has its small fly
accompanying it through every change of elevation and latitude; and
wherever I have seen the asclepias tuberosa, I have always remarked,
too, on the flower a large butterfly, so nearly resembling it in color as
to be distinguishable at a little distance only by the motion of its wings.
Traveling on, the fresh traces of the Oregon emigrants relieve a little
the loneliness of the road; and to-night, after a march of twenty-two
miles, we halted on a small creek which had been one of their

encampments. As we advanced westward, the soil appears to be getting
more sandy; and the surface rock, an erratic deposite of sand and gravel,
rests here on a bed of coarse yellow and gray and very friable sandstone.
Evening closed over with rain and its usual attendant hordes of
mosquitoes, with which we were annoyed for the first time.
22d.--We enjoyed at breakfast this morning a luxury, very unusual in
this country, in a cup of excellent coffee, with cream, from our cow.
Being milked at night, cream was thus had in the morning. Our
mid-day halt was at Wyeth's creek, in the bed of which were numerous
boulders of dark, ferruginous sandstone, mingled with others of the red
sandstone already mentioned. Here a pack of cards, lying loose on the
grass, marked an encampment of our Oregon emigrants; and it was at
the close of the day when we made our bivouac in the midst of some
well-timbered ravines near the Little Blue, twenty-four miles from our
camp of the preceding night. Crossing the next morning a number of
handsome creeks, with water clear and sandy beds we reached, at 10
A.M., a very beautiful wooded stream, about thirty-five feet wide,
called Sandy creek, and sometimes, as the Ottoes frequently winter
there, the Otto fork. The country has become very sandy, and the plants
less varied and abundant, with the exception of the amorpha, which
rivals the grass in quantity, though not so forward as it has been found
to the eastward.
At the Big Trees, where we had intended to noon, no water was to be
found. The bed of the little creek was perfectly dry, and, on the
adjacent sandy bottom, cacti, for the first time made their appearance.
We made here a short delay in search of water; and, after a hard day's
march of twenty-eight miles, encamped, at 5 o'clock, on the Little Blue,
where our arrival made a scene of the Arabian desert. As fast as they
arrived men and horses rushed into the stream, where they bathed and
drank together in common enjoyment. We were now in the range of the
Pawnees, who were accustomed to infest this part of the country,
stealing horses from companies on their way to the mountains; and,
when in sufficient force, openly attacking and plundering them, and
subjecting them to various kinds of insult. For the first time, therefore,
guard was mounted to-night. Our route the next morning lay up the
valley, which, bordered by hills with graceful slopes, looked
uncommonly green and beautiful. The stream was about fifty feet wide,

and three or four deep, fringed by cotton-wood and willow, with
frequent groves of oak, tenanted by flocks of turkeys. Game here, too,
made its appearance in greater plenty. Elk were frequently seen on the
hills, and now and then an antelope bounded across our path, or a deer
broke from the groves. The road in the afternoon was over the upper
prairies, several miles from the river, and we encamped at sunset on
one of its small tributaries, where an abundance of prele (_equisetum_)
afforded fine forage to our tired animals. We had traveled thirty-one
miles. A heavy bank of black clouds in the west came on us in a storm
between nine and ten, preceded by a violent wind. The rain fell in such
torrents that it was difficult to breathe facing the wind; the thunder
rolled incessantly, and the whole sky was tremulous with
lightning--now and then illuminated by a blinding flash, succeeded by
pitchy darkness. Carson had the watch from ten to midnight, and to him
had been assigned our young compagnons de voyage, Messrs. Brant
and R. Benton. This was their first night on guard, and such an
introduction did not augur very auspiciously of the pleasures of the
expedition. Many things conspired to render their situation
uncomfortable; stories of desperate and bloody Indian fights were rife
in the camp; our position was badly chosen, surrounded on all sides