The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-08-04
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY.
THE AMERICAN DESERT

Editorial Correspondence OF 1 he IrItune
STATION Is, 2. p Express Co, }
June 2, 1859.
The clouds, which threatened rain a,
the Station on Prairie Dog Creek, whence
wrote two days ago, were di,sipated By
violent gale, which threatened to over
turn the heavy wagon 10 which my fellow
passengers and were courting sleep
had it stood broadside 10 the wind, it must
have goue over. 1t is customary, learn,
to stake down the was ons encamped on
the open prairie; in the valleys of the
creeks, where the Conpanys stations are
located, this preaution is deemed super
fuous. But the winds which sweep the
high prsirics of this region are terrible;
tue few trees that grow thinly along the
creek bottoms rarely venture to raise their
heads above the adjacent bluffs. to which
they owe their doubtful hold on exist.
eDce.
For more than hundred miles back
the soil has been steadily degcnerating,
until here. where We strike the Republi-
can, which has been far to the uorth Of
us since We left it at Fort Riley, 800 miles
back, we seem to have reached the acme
of barrenness and desolstion. We left
this morning Station IL Oh little cre"k
entitled Gouler, at least SO miles back.
and did not sec a tree and but one bunch
of low shrubs 10 dry watercourse
throughout our dreary morning ride, till
we came in sight of the Republican, which
has little-a very little-scrubby cot
tonwood nested in aud along its bluffs
just here, but there is none beside for
miles, save little lurking in raviDe
which makes down the river from the
north OF grass there is little, and that
little Of mi-erable quality-either scan
ty furze of course alkaline sort of rush,
less fit for food than physic. Soil there
Is none but an inch or SO Of Intermittent
grass root tangle based on what usually
seems to be thin stratum Of clay, often
washed off so as to leave nothing but a
a slightly argillaceous sand. Aloug the
larger water r-courses-tbis one especially
this sard seems to be as pure as Sahara
can boast.
The dearth Of water is fearful. AL
though the whole region is deeply seam
ed and quilted by watcr-courses now
dry, but in rainy weather nill-streams--I
no springs hurst from their steep sides
We have not passed drop of living wa
ter in all our mornings ride and but a
few pailfulls of muddy moisture at the
bottoms of very few of fast drying
sloughs or sunken holes in the beds of
dried up creeks Yet there has been
much rain here this season, some of it Dot
long ago. Bat this is a region of sterili- /
ty and thirst. II utterly unfed, the grass
OF season would hardly suffice, when
dry, to noarish prairie fire.
Even the animals have deserted US
No Buffalo have been seen this year with
in many miles of US. though their old
paths lead occasionolly across this coun-
try; | presume they pass rapidly through
it, as l should urgently advise them to
do; not Gray Wolf has honored US With
his company to.day--he prefers to lire
where there is something 10 eat--tbe
Prairie-Dog also wisely shuns this land
Of starvation; no animal but the Copper
"a little creature, between a mouse and
grouDd-rquirreD abounds here; and he
burrows deep in the sand and picks up a
living, | cannot guess how; while a few
Hawks and an occasional Prairie Wolf
(ayota) lives by picking here and there a
Copper. They must 6nd him disgusting
ly lean.
[ would match this Station and it's sur
roundipgs against any other scene on our
continent for desolatiou. From the high
prairie over which We approach it, you {
overlook grand sweep of treeless desert,
through the middle of which flows the I
usually in several shallow
streams separated by saDdbars or islets--
its whole volume being far less than that
of the Mohawk at Utics, though it has
drained above this point an area equal to
that of Connecticut. OF the few scrubby
lately covering under the
bluffs at this point, must have been cut
for the uses Of the Station, though logs
for its embryo house are drawn from ]
little clump eight miles distant. A broad i
bed Of sand indicates that the volume of {
water is sometimes hundred fold its S
present amount. though it will doubtless /
Eoon be far less than it now is. It's aV- t