Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1903-12-04

from the herd, and ran through
the train. One Of the dogs pursued
the antelope, and the chase lee
across a level plain. The blacl
dog, as he sped on with all hil
might, looked like a crane flying
low along the ground. We were
I all excited, for the dog was gaining
on the antelope at every bound and
would, no doubt, soon overtake
him. The dog thought SO too, fol
when he was within a few yards Of
the antelope and expected in
another bound or two TO sieze his
prey, hegave yelp. But that yelp
seems to have been fatal mistake,
for the antelope in less than one
minute after hearing the bark was
fifty yards away from the dog and
flying over the plain as if he had
been shot out of a gun. He would
actually pass over many yards be-
fore we could see the dust rise be-
hind him. The dog was SO astound-
ed that he stopped short, and, after
gazing at the antelope for a minute,
no doubt amazed beyond expression,
turned about and sneaked back to
the train. They said that dog
would never chase an antelope
afterwards.
cannot now locate the great
sage plains, as we called them, but
they were vast in extent and not
we'll watered. In crossing them at
times we travelled till late at night
to reach water, and few times we
had to camp without water. These
plains were thickly set with sage
brush and greasewood, generally
growing about waist high to a man,
and, as we ha3 no wagon road to
fallnw NE had d ,re foaS
6hrough this sltubbery. II vas
hard service for the teams in the
lead, so the strongest teams were
put in the van, but these were
changed every day. Part of the
time we followed trail for pack
animals and horsemen.
After travelling a long way over a
vast level country, almost without
timber, we saw broken country far
away in the direction we we're
travelling, and I heard it remarked
that somewhere in those hills was
the Sweetwater river. When we
came to the river, we found it to be
a small stream flowing gently over
yellow sands and not deep fording.
1t seems to me that where we
crossed this river, hill slopes not
steep came down near to the river
on the left hand, and the water was
flowing to the right. The color
name Of the next river that comes
to mind interested me somewhat,
and | was anxious to see it. The
name was Green river-but when
we came to it, the water was of a
crystal clearness.
The Soda Springs seem to come
next in the order of my recollection.
We camped near these springs, and
about a quarter of a mile from
'iver-a rapid stream about the
width of Green river. Fremont,
With his party, spread his large
,ent near our encampment. There
vas a soda spring between the
lamps, and Fremont's men were
having high time drinking soda
water. They were so noisy that I !
lave suspected that they had some
beverage stronger than soda water
mixed with the water from the |
pring. Fremont had a cannon
ix-pounder---made of shining brass. |
t was resting on a low carriage, |
md stood between our camp and |
Fremont's, near the soda spring.
fremont was a fine looking young
nan, in fact, all of his party were
Vell-dressed, jolly fellows. 1 don't
emember seeing them at any place
,ther than this soda spring.
While at this camp, some of our
,arty visited the river and found
iear the bank of the stream
pouting spring. Like all geysers,
t threw up water convulsively.
1
his spring would heave up about
very three or four minutes. The
Mouth Of the spring was at the top
SICK HEADACHE ABSOLUTELY and