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masses of timber and the glittering snow above them. With occasional exceptions, comparatively so small as not to require mention, these prairies are everywhere covered with a close and vigorous growth of a great variety of grasses, among which the most abundant is the buffalo grass (seeleria dactyloides). Between the Nebraska and Arkansas rivers, that part of this region which forms the basin drained by the waters of the Kanzas, with which our operations made us more particularly acquainted, is based upon a formation of calcareous rocks. The soil of all this country is excellent, admirably adapted to agricultural purposes, and would support a large agricultural and pastoral population. A glance at the map shows that this plain is watered by many streams. Throughout the western half of the plain these are shallow, with sandy beds, becoming deeper as they reach the richer lands approaching the Missouri river. They generally have bottom-lands, bordered by bluffs varying from fifty to five hundred feet in height. In all this region the timber is entirely confined to the streams. the eastern half, where the soil is a deep, rich vegetable mould, retentive of rain and moisture, it is of vigorous growth, and of many different kinds; and throughout the western half it consists entirely of various species of cottonwood, which deserves to be called the tree of the desert, growing in sandy soils where no other tree will grow; pointing out the existence of water, and furnishir g to the traveller fuel and food for his animals.

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"Turning the next day to the south-west, we reached the wagon-road to the settlements on the Arkansas river; an extremely good lodge-trail which issues by the head of the Fontaine qui bouille, from the bayou Salade (South Park), a high mountain-valley behind Pike's Peak. The soil along the road was sandy and gravelly, and the river well timbered."

The next day brought the party to the Pueblo on the Arkansas river. Here a number of mountaineers, who have married Spanish women in the valley of Taos, have occupied themselves in farming and trading with the Indians. All travellers on the Santa Fé road visit the Pueblo. Mr. Parkman describes the first view of it as a welcome sight. "The Arkansas ran along the valley below, among woods and groves, and closely nestled in the midst of wide cornfields and green meadows, where cattle were grazing, rose the low mud-walls of the Pueblo." There was at that time a Mormon settlement in progress on the south side of the river.

In a subsequent expedition Mr. Frémont passed from the Nebraska to the Arkansas by a course directly through the mountains, crossing the ridge, in fact, three times. He thus visited the New Park, the Old Park, and the South Park, -curious birth-places of rivers. The New or North Park will fall within the limits of Nebraska; the South Park, within Kanzas.

"We changed our course, and turned up the valley of the Platte (Nebraska), instead of going down it. We

crossed several small affluents, and again made a fortified camp in a grove. The country had now become very beautiful, rich in water, grass, and game; and to these were added the charm of scenery and pleasant weather.

"June 14. Our route lay along the foot of the mountain, over the long, low spurs which sloped gradually down to the river, forming the broad valley of the Platte. The country beautifully watered. In almost every hollow ran a clear, cool mountain stream; and, in the course of the morning. we crossed seventeen, several of them being large creeks. forty and fifty feet wide, with a swift current, and tolerably deep. These were variously wooded with groves of aspen and cotton-wood, with willow, cherry, and other scrubby trees. Buffalo, antelope, and elk, were frequent during the day, and in their abundance the latter sometimes reminded us slightly of the Sacramento valley. The next day we continued our journey up the valley, the country presenting much the same appearance, except that the grass was more scanty on the ridges, over which was spread a scrubby growth of sage; but still the bottoms of the creeks were broad, and afforded good pasture ground. Our course in the afternoon brought us to the main Platte river (Nebraska), here a handsome stream, with a uniform breadth of seventy yards, except where widened by frequent islands. It was apparently deep, with a moderate current, and wooded with groves of large willow.

"The valley narrowed as we ascended, and presently

HEAD-WATERS OF THE NEBRASKA.

105

degenerated into a gorge, through which the river passed as through a gate. We entered it, and found ourselves in the 'New Park,' a beautiful, circular valley of thirty miles' diameter, walled in all round with snowy mountains, rich with water and with grass, fringed with pine on the mountain sides below the line, — and a paradise to all grazing animals. The Indian name for it signifies 'cow lodge,' of which our own may be considered a translation; the enclosure, the grass, the water, and the herds of buffalo roaming over it, naturally presenting the idea of a park. Its elevation above the sea is seven thousand seven hundred and twenty feet. From this elevated cove, and from the gorges of the surrounding mountains, and some lakes within their bosoms, the great Platte (Nebraska) river collects its first waters and assumes its first form; and certainly no river could ask a more beautiful origin. The 16th and 17th we continued through the park, and fell into a broad and excellent trail made by buffalo, where a wagon would pass with ease. In the course of the 17th we crossed the summit of the Rocky Mountains, through a pass, which was one of the most beautiful we had ever seen. The trail led us among the aspens, through open grounds, richly covered with grass, and carried us over an elevation of about nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. Descending from the pass, we found ourselves again on the western waters, and halted to noon on the edge of another mountain-valley called the Old Park, in which is formed Grand river, one of the

principal branches of the Colorado of California. The appearance of the country in the Old Park is interesting, though of a different character from the New; instead of being a comparative plain, it is more or less broken into hills, and surrounded by the high mountains, timbered on the lower parts with quaking asp and pines."

In another part of his expedition Lieut. Fremont attempted to cross from St. Vrain's to the South Pass by a new route. His journal of this will give some further idea of the mountain scenery and vegetation.

He was following along the Cache à la Poudre river, a stream which flows northwards from the high mountains around Long's Peak.

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July 29. We were compelled, by the nature of the ground, to cross the river eight or nine times, at difficult, deep and rocky fords, the stream running with great force, swollen by the rains, -a true mountain torrent, only forty or fifty feet wide. Towering mountains rose round about; their sides sometimes dark with forests of pine, and sometimes with lofty precipices, washed by the river; while below, as if they indemnified themselves in luxuriance for the scanty space, the green river-bottom was covered with a wilderness of flowers, their tall spikes sometimes rising above our heads as we rode among them. A profusion of blossoms on a white-flowering vine (clematis lasianthi), which was abundant along the river, contrasted handsomely with the green foliage of the trees. The mountain ap

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