Year: 1859

publican small but steady stream, aide,
by which, the river begins to reappear


first in pools and soon in an insignificant


but gradually increasing current. At tn


bead Of this sink, the stream disappear


10 like manner to that of its emergence


Here is station %, and. here are so


called spring and one or two considera


bic 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 with


out water on the Express Company's


Road, are met by those which have come
up tie longer and more southerly route
by the Smoky Hill, and which nave trav.
eled sixty miles since they last found wa.
ter or shade. This is sore trial for
weary, gaunt, heavy.laden cattle, and
doubtless proved fatal to many of them.
The Pixies Peakers from the Smoky Hull
| met here with OK teams, had driven
through the sixty miles at one stretch.
the time required being two days and the
Intervening night. From this point. west
ward, the original Smoky Hill route is
abandoned for that we had been travel
ing which follows the Republican some
twenty five miles farther, its bed is often
dry, or only moistened by little pools
from the meagre current which filters
slow y through the deep sands below
Where the bed is narrow and the channel
under one bank, the petty stream is seen
creeping away to the Kansas, the Nilsson
ri, the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico
or course, there are seasons when the riv-
er 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
greater scarcity of wood and water. The
bluffs are usually low, and the dry creeks
which seperate them are often wide reach
es Of heavy sand, most trying to the i'll
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 lit
tie that is green but thin, while the river
bottom half mile wide is some
times tolerably grassed, and sometimes
sandy and sterile. Of wood. there is
none for stretches of forty or fifty miles:
the corrals are made of earth, and con.
sist of a trench and mud or turf wall;
one or two statiop-bouses are to be built
of turf if ever built at all; and at one sta
tion 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 some 200
miles back-grows common, but is dwarf
ed by the prevailing steriity: the Span
Ssh Nettle ard Prickley Pear are abund-
ant further on. But lit.le rock is seen,
and that looks like volcanic conglome-
rate. Yet the river, such as it is, is the
life of this region; the Ground Squirrel
of the prairies digs his holes profusely in
is yiciDago; the Hawk and the Raven
circle and swoop in pursuit of him; the
Antelope often looks down from the ridges.
aud is hunted with success; the bark of the
Coyote is heard, and the Gray Wolf
,rowls fearless and ferocious, and does
rot hesitate to rob cows of their young
calves in spite af the desperate m maternal
resistance, and even to attack and disa-
,le ponies. The harness of the mules
which draw the Express wagons have
'een often gnawed and injured as they
lung up beside the tents, in which half a
lozen men were sleeping, by these impu.
lent miscreants. They may easily be
hot by any one who will bait and pa
iently, skillfuly hunt them.


A ride over rolling divide Of some
wenty miles brought us to the Big San
y. running southwest to become tributary
when it has anything to contrbute) to
be Arkansas. Like the Republican, it
5 sometimes running stream, sometimes


succession of shallow pools, sometimes


waste Of deep, scorching sand. A few
altry cotton woods, few bunches of
ow willow, may have graced its banks
r those of some dry creek running into
t, in the course of twenty miles or SO that
'e followed up its northern bank, but
o not now remember any. l reccollect
My that the grass at intervals along it's
arrow bottoms seemed a little better
han on the upper course of the Republi-
an. One popularity of the Big Sandy


bad not before obseryed-tbat of thin
lkaline incrustation-mainly of soda,
elieve-coVering many acres of the
moother sands of its dry bed. OF course,
be water of its stagnant pools must be
rejudicial to man or beast. At length,
&c crossed its deep, trying sand and left


behind US, passing over high divide,
luch cut up by gullies through which
le water of the wet seasons flows and
,ars its way to the Arkansas on the south
r the Platte on the north, until we. struck,
last evening, the 6rst living tributa-
: to the Platte-a little creek called
easer, which | have not seen Oh any