Year: 1859




My last, believe, was written at Sta
tion 81, 80 miles up the Republican from
the point at which the Leavenworth Ex-
press Company's Road strikes the river in
the great American desert Six miles fur
ther up the stream disappears in the deep,
thirsty sands of its wide bed, and is not
seen again for twenty-five miles, Even a
mile or two below its point Of disappear
ance | learn that excavations in its bed to
depth of eight feet have failed to reach
water. Its temperance below this point
is marked, and seems to be caused by the
timely junction of small tributary from
the south, which seems to flow over less
thirsty bed, and flows into the devourng
sands of the Republican a small but steady
stream, aided by which, the river begins
to reappear, first in pools and soon an in-
significant but gradually increasing current.
At the head of this sink the stream dis
appears in like manner to that of it's emer-
gency. Here is Station %, and here are o
so called spring and one or two considera-
BILE pools, not visibly connected with the
sinking river, but doubtless sustained by
it, And here the thirsty men and teams
which have been twenty-five miles without
water on the Express Company's Road, are
met by those which have come up the long
er and more southerly route by the Smoky
Hill, and which have Travelled sirty miles
since they last found water or shade. This
is sore trial for weary, gaunt, heavy-laden
cattle, and doubtless proves fatal to many
Of them. The Pixies Peakers from the
Smoky Hill met here with ox-teams, had
through the sixty miles at one stretch, the
time required being two day and the inter-
vening night. From this point, westward,
the original Smoky Hill route is abandon
ed for that we had been travelling, which
follows the Republican some twenty, five
miles further, its bed is often dry, or only
moistened by little pools from the meagre
current which filters slowly through the
deep sands below. Where the bed is mar
row and the channel under one bank, the
petty stream is seen creeping away to the
Kansas, the Missouri, the Mississippi, the
Gulf of Mexico OF course, there are
seasons when the river runs above ground
throughout, and Others when the sink is far
longer than now.


The face of the country remains as
have already described it, save in the great
er scarcity of wood and water The bluffs
are usually low, aud the dry creeks which
separate them are often wide reaches of
heavy sand, most trying to the il-fed teams
There is little grass on the rolling prairie
above the bluffs, and that little generally
thin, dead, worthless. Some of the dry
creek valleys have little that is green but
thin, while the river bottom-often half a
mile wide-is sometimes tolerably grassed,
and sometimes sandy and sterile. OF wood
there is none for stretches of forty or fifty
miles the cOrrGlS are made of earth, and
consist of trench and a mud or turf wall !;
one or two station-houses are to be built
of turf if eyer built at all and at one
station the fuel is brought sixty miles from
the pineries further west. Even the
grasses are often coarse and rushy, or so
alkaline as to be injurious to cattle the
more common plants seem to be wild sage
and wild wormwood the Cactus-which
had begun to appear SONS 200 miles back
grows common, but is dwarfed by the
pervading sterility the Spanish Nettle
and Prickly Pear are abundant further on.
But little rock is seen, and that like vol
cauic cOnglemerate Yet the river, such
as it is the life of this region the Ground
Squirrel of the prairie digs his holes pro
fusely In its Vicinage the Hawk and the
Raven circle and swoop in pursuit of him
the Antelope often looks down from the
ridges and is hunted with success the
bark of the Coyote is heard, and the Gray
Wolf prowls fearless and ferocious, and
does not hesitate to rob cows of their young
calves in spite of the desperate maternal
resistance, and even to attack and disable
ponies. The harness of the mules which
draw the express wagons have been Otter
gnawed aud injured as they hung up be-
side the tents, in which half dozen meT
we're sleeping, by these impudent. miscre
ants. They may easily be shot by any
one who will bait and patiently, skiIlfuly
hunt them.


A ride over a rolling divide of some
twenty miles brought us to the Big Sandy,
running southwest TO become tributary
(when it has anything to contribute) tc
the Arkansas. Like the Republican, it Ii
sometimes a running stream, sometimes
succession of shallow pools, sometimes {
waste of deep scorching sand. A few pal
try cotton-woods few punches OF low will
low, may have graced its banks or those 0
some dry creek running into it, in tho cours
of the twenty miles or SO that we followet
up its northern bank, but do not now re