The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-08-18
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY
XII.
THE PLAINS-THE MOUNTAINS.
DENVER. June Is, 1859

DENVER, June l5, 1859.
A know few greater contrasts than tha
between the region which stretches hun
dreds of miles eastward from the epo
toward the Missouri, aud is known as IHt
Plains, and that which overlooks US OF
the West, and. like by its abrupt and
sharp ridged foot hills seeming just al
hand, and its gltteriug peaks of suOw in
the blue distance, vindicates its current
designation, Tile MountatmS. Let US elu'
cidate:
The Plans are nearly destitute of hu'
man inhabitants. Aside from the Buffa-
10 ranCe-Which has been steadily mar
rowing ever since Daniel Boone uade
his home in Kentucky. and is now
hardly two hundred niles wide--it af-
fcrds little sustenance and less shelter to
Man The Antelope are seldom seen 10
herds--three is the highest Duu.b Der | OBJ
served together, while one, or at u ost two,
is nore comuon. Que TO each mile
square would be large estimate for all
that exist on the Plains Elk are scarce
ly seen at all, even where they have hard
Iy ever been hunted or scared. OF Deer
there are none, or next to none. For the
Plains are the favorite haunt of beasts
and birds of prey-of the ravcnous aud
fearless Gray Wolf, of the Coyote, the
Raven and the Hawk-the first hanging
on the fspks of every great heard of Buff
falo. ready to waylay any foolish calf or
needless heifer that may chance to stray
for water or fresher grass beyond the pro-
lection of the hard headed aud chiva!rous
patriarcbs, behind whose vi gilant ranks
there is comparative safety. aud counting
as their property any bull, even, whom
wounds or disease or decrepitude shall COM
pei to fall behind in the perpetual march.
For, u xhile stray Buffalo, or two, or three
may inger in some lonely valley for
mouths-for all winter, perhaps-the
great herds which olscken the earth for
miles in extent cannot afford to do So
they are SO Immensely numerous and find
their safety in travelling so compactly that
they must keep moving or 1tarve. A
voidiug. SO far as possible, the wooded
ragines of the slender water courses,
where experience has taught them to
dread tue lauce-like arrow Of the lurking
Indian, they keep the high divides" or
only feed in the valleys while they have
these well covered by sensitive bulls to
give warning of any foes approacb.-
Take away the Buffalo and the Plains will
be desolate FAR beyond the present desola-
tiou; aud | cannct tut regard with sad
Dess the inevitable and not distant fate Of
these noble and harmless brutes, already
crowded into breadth of country too nar-
row for them, aud continually hunted,
slaughtered. decima ated, by the Wolf, the
Iudian the White nan. They could have
stood their ground ag Ainst II 10 absence of
Firearms, bot "villainOus saltpetre" is too
much for then. They arc bound to per-
isb; trust it may be rather by sudden
shot than by slow starvation.
Wood and Water-the prime neces.
sites of the traveller as of the settler-are
In adequate though not abundant supply
for a hundred miles aud more on this a.
they are throughout on the other side of
the Buffalo range; at length they grsdu-
ally fail, and We are 10 desert indeed.
No spring, no brook. for distance of thir-
thirty to sixty miles (Which would be
stretched to more than hundred" if the
few tracks called roads were DOT all run
so as to secure water so far as possible)
rivers which have each had Fifty to a
hundred miles of its course gradually
parched up BY force of sun aud wind and
its waters lost in their own sands, so that !
the weary, dusty traveller yainly digs for
hours in their dry beds in quest of water
for bis thirsty cattle-riyers which dare
not rise again till some friendly brook,
having its source in some specially favor
ed region, pours in its small but steady |
tribute, moistens the sands of the river
bed, and encourages its waters to rise to
the surface again. In one case an emf
grant assures me that be dug down to the
bed rock of one of these rivers, yet found
all dry sand.
know that | can satisfactorily account
even to myself, for the destitution of wood
which the Plains every where present, es-
Since writing the above, learn by
newly arrived Pixies Peaker that the wa
serless stretch of desert is already hun
ired miles long, aud that every days sun
s extending it