Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-30
d0ortester DAILY Spp,
GREELEYs OVERLAND JOURNEY.
FROM DENVER TO LARAMIE.
Concluded.

biiAliig ittooCu, DdNly -NdtGIGu prairie, ldtuCI
level i'll its general outlines, but badly cut up
by steep banked water-courses, now dry.
Some shallow ponds are also formed here in
the wet season, but the last of them had Just
dried up. We drove fifteen miles, and stopped
for breakfast on a feeble tributary OF Couch
la-Poudre, named Box Elder, from a small tree
which first observed here, and which is poor
er stuff, if possible, than cottonwood. This is
the only tributary which joins the Cache-la-
Poudre before its egress from the mountains.
All the streams of this region are largest
where they emerge from the mountains, unless
reinforced below by other streams having a like
origin the thirsty prairie contributes nothing,
but begins to drink them up from the time
they strike it. The smaller streams are thus
utterly absorbed in the course of five to ten
miles, unless they happen sooner to be lost in
some larger creek. Drouth, throughout each
Summer, is the memorable and desolating ty-
rant of the Plains.
Rising from the valley of Box Elder, we
passed over divide, and were soon winding
our way among the buttes, or irregular loosely
aggregated hills, which form prominent fea-
ture Of the next seventy or eighty miles, and
which | must try to give some idea of.
The soil Of this region, like that of the
Plains generally, is mainly clay, with some
sand and gravel ntermixed-the gravel proba-
not at distance from the mountains loose
water-rounded stones, from the size of a pig.
cons egg up to that of a mans head are Of
ten, though by no means uniformly, intermin-
gled with the soil, especially near the beds of
streams. These stones are of various kinds
and colors, including quartz, indicating a
mountain origin. But there seems to be no
underlying rock in pace-that is, none at any
depth attained by the deepest watercourses-
and the soil, when sodden by the pouring rains
of Winter and early Spring, seems unable to
oppose any resistance to the washing, wearing
influence Of every stream or rill. The aver
age level of the Plains would seem to have
once been at least forty or fifty feet higher
than at present, the greater part OF the earth
having been gradually worn away and carried
down the streams to the Missouri and lower
Mississippi But there are localities which,
from, one cause or another, more or less obsti-
nately resist this constant abrasion; and these
are gradually moulded into hills by the alb
straction annually prosecuted all around them.
Some of them have been washed down to so
gentle slope that grass covers them COM
pletely, and prevents further loss but the
greater number are still being quilted washed
and worn away by the influence of each VIC
lent rain, Others having living streams at
their base, which having once taken sheer
against them, are consequently increasing the
acuteneSs of their angles and gouging more
and more decidedly into their banks, OCCASION
ally hinging down tons of undermined earth
into their channels to be gradually carried off
as so much has already been. In such places
the buttes are nearly perpendicular and square
faced but they are more apt to be clrcu
lar, and sleeper near the summit than below.
In some instances the earth is of bright YER
million color in others, partly thus and partly
w 1ifa oiYyinar tho buttac a Varinnate1 and fao
tastic appearance, like that of the pictured
rocks of Lake Superior. When first seen from
a distance the ensemble of these red buttes is
very striking. But the white clay, as it is
gradually washed away, leaving surfaces al
most or quite perpendicular exposed to the ac-
ton of sun, air, and water, is, by some occult
agency, gradually hardened into a kind of rocl,
of which long ranges of perpendicular b lis
are composed, sometimes miles III eXtei.r, but
broken and disturbed at intervals by the inter-
yention of watercourses or other Influences.
After leaving Box Elder, our road gradually
assembled, winding among the rounded and less
regularly arranged buttea first described above,
but passing no water nut single spring and
little available gr iss, until it descends a long
hill to part o towards Creek, twenty miles
from Box Elder. Here we stopped for dinner
at P. NJ, besides two or three wagons of
Pixies Peakers, from whom we obtained
generous supply Of fresh bread and another an
telope ham, very much to the improvement Of
our edible resources | may as well explain
here that all the emigrants we met going into
the Kansas diggings had started from the Mis-
souri,, on the north side of the Platte, and had
failed to cross at Shinn's ferry, sixty-five miles
up that stream, supposing that they could do
so at Fort Kearney, or some other point be-
low the forks; but in the absence of ferries,
the high water had headed them off and forced
them clear up to Laramie, whence they were
now working southwark, having lost fully two
hundred miles by neglecting to cross the Platte
where they might have done SOL In all this
region it is a settled maxim that you must
cross a stream directly upon reaching it, if
your way lies across it, never camping before
you do so, lest sudden rise should obstruct
your passage for days. Many have lost
fortnght's weary travel by failing to heed this
rule in spirit with regard to the Platte.
We moved again at 5, passing over a high
ridge and into a broad valley, with rounded
hills on the west and a range of such precipi-
tous clay-rock bluffs as l have tried to describe
on the east These bluffs were broken
through at intervals, and the streams that
came down on the hills on the west ran out at
the brooks, after traversing the valley for two
or three miles, and flowed away east to join
Howard's Fork and the South Platte Our
trail here bore considc sably west OF north, evil
IDENTIFY to reach the mouth of the Cheyenne
Pass. We had hoped to make our next camp
at that point, but night fell upon us before
reaching it, and we stopped on little run
whe~a we found water and good grass but
close unGer the mountains, and i'll one of the
loneliest spots ever behed. Not tree nor
shrub was visible, nor had been for miles
yet it was not difficult 20 gather dry sticks
enough to cook our supper, proving what
have elsewhere observed, that wCcd was for
merly more common in all this reglo- than
now We had all turned in by nine, and wee
doing very well, when rush by one Of our
mules appraised us that he was loose, having
broken his lariat; but he was soon caught and
made fast and we all addressed ourselves to
sumber again. In an hour, however, there
was fresh alarm, and not without reason, for
three of our mules had gone we could not tell
whittier. The first impression was that band
of Cheyennes who were known to be encamp-
ed in the mountains very near us, had been
watching our progress from their nights I'M
suspected by us, and had stolen down under
cover of the deep darkness, untastened and
started our mules with intent to run them OIL.
This was not an agreeable view of the case, as
we could hope neither to recover nor replace
our faithful animals for at least n week.
However, little watching Of the mule still
fast convinced our conductor that the Others
had started back on the road we had traversed,
which was route the Cheyennes were most
unlikely to take, while so near their hiding
places in the mountains. So two of our men
started on the back track, but returned in an
hour unsuccessful. Then the remaining mule
was saddled and bridled-and he had to be
thrown down twice before he would submit to
the operation-when our conductor mounted
him, expecting to be instantly thrown by the
perverse beast, unused to the saddle, but he