New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-12-28

afternoon at the camp, where we had
been lyirs for more than week. The last
of the supply trains had come up the day before,
and to.dsy the mass has moved forward ten miles.
Such IN array Of wagons and cattle has seldom
been seen on the Plains. The whole train moving
in close order will be six miles long. To-day it
has been scattered over the entire line of march,
so that the head Of the column reached our present
camp two hours before the rear guard began TO
move. Capt Magraw arrived with hi, company of
volunteers A. in number, about the same time with
the Dragons. Including his wagons, which are
those employed on his expedition, there are twelve
trains moving en- masse, and the number Of wagons
ia nearly 400. In this aggregate are included the
train of Col. Johnston and those Of the Dragons,
volunteers and Col. Smiths battalion, four supply
trains the suffers trains Of the Fifth and Tenth
Infantry and Second Dragons, and private train
freighted with goods consigned to firm in Salt
Lake City.
I'm the short march to-day We have crossed the
dividing ridge between the waters Of the Atlantic
and those Of the Pacific, striking our tents in the
morning ON the banks Of the Sweetwater-which
finds its way through the Platte, Missouri and Mis-
sissippi, into the Gulf Of MeIicO-and pitching
them tonight along this little creek, which trickles
into Green River and at last, through the Colo.
rsdo into the Gulf of California. Every mile has
helped TO unroll the glorious panorama of the Wind
River Mountains. or twin snow fakes that have
iuttered down on them to-day, one may melt
southwards into the region Of tropic calm and YER
dure, and the other flow az last beneath the icy
covering of the Arctic Ocean. But tho scenery,
Notwithstanding its grandeur, is not fascinating 1t
lacks the charm Of contrast which the landscapes
Of Mexico possess. There is no rose blooming next
TO the glacier, no belt Of blossoms and green leaves
upon the mOuntain-side. The tablc-land, whose
horizon is bounded by the snowy ridge, is as bleak
and barren as the drcariest of the distant peaks.
The wild sage aud gressewood which checker it's
sanip disappear on the lower summts among piles
Of rocks, which, on the higher, sink under can
opy of eternal snow. 1t is a scene, the recol-
lection of which will be ineffaceable, but the desc.
lation 10 monOtonOus. The same white ridge has
bounded the horizon and tho same desert has
stretched along the road for a hundred and fifty
miles. 1t s the mOnOtony of all the scenery from
Fort LeavenwOrth to Green River which renders
the journey along this great Oregon Trail so te-
dious. Up to Fort Kearney the eye rests on
nothing but long swells of the prairie, almost as
unyarying as waves of the ocean. There the road
strikes the Platte, and runs between the river and
it's monotonOus bluffs for more than three hundred
miles, to Fort Laramie, varied only by the fam
tastic sand hills of Ash Hollow, and the curious
formations beginning near Chimney Rock and end
ing with Scott's Bluffs. 1t is at Fort Lara
mic that the Rocky Mountain scenery may be
said fairly to commence, and although there
is q difference of character between the ranges
below which the road runs, there s no such
difference within any range itself. The Black
Hills are all steep mounds, dotted with dark
pines and cedars. The Rationale Mountains are
huge excrescences of solid rock blisterng out from
q barren plain. The Sweetwater Mountains, OppO.
site them are little else than an exaggeration Of the
bluffs along the Platte. In single view the eye
all the features of each range, and soon
becomes tired of the monotonous landscape.
To-day We have caught our first glimpse Of the
Wahsatch Mountains, behind which lies our goal
the City of the Great Salt Lake. They glitter in
the western horizon, bold symmetrical peaks, all
shrouded in white.
The Utah Indians accompany us on our march,
and COL Johnston has directed ratiOns to be served
to them daily. Autro's squaw follows him, tied
firmly astraddle upon q crop-eared pony, and bear
ing his spear. They have with them little Pyde
girl hardly ten years DID, prisoner, who is mount
cd like the squaw, and s loaded with all the cook.
ing utensils of the band. She is worth perhaps
four pairs of blankets. am told that many Pylde
children are sold by the Utahs to the Mornons, who
hold them as servants till they become Of age. The
prices for boys from ten TO sixteen years old range
from $40 to $50. The value Of girls of marriage
able years is greater for there is demand for them
among the Navajo Indians, TO whom numbers are
sold annually. 1t is said that in the Navaja'tribe
the males outnumber the females. The Pyides are
the most degraded tribe of Indians in the Territory.
They live chiefly on roots and are often reduced to
e1tremities by famine. II may Judge by the little
girl with our Utah band, they are not fastidous in
their appetites, even in times Of plenty. saw her
to-day devour part Of the entrails of an OK, raw,
with their contents. 1t was by the Pyides that
Lieut. Glllpison Vas murdered
CAMP ON THE Big SANDY,
UTAH TERRITORY, Oct. 80, 1875
We camped last night within 600 yards of the
spot where one of the supply trains was burned on
the night of 5. What little wood remained was
u