On the morning of the 3d September we bade adieu to our kind friends at
the fort, and continued our homeward journey down the Platte, which was
glorious with the autumnal splendor of innumerable flowers in full and
brilliant bloom. On the warm sands, among the _helianthi_, one of the
characteristic plants, we saw great numbers of rattlesnakes, of which
five or six were killed in the morning's ride. We occupied ourselves in
improving our previous survey of the river; and, as the weather was
fine, astronomical observations were generally made at night and at
noon.
We halted for a short time on the afternoon of the 5th with a village
of Sioux Indians, some of whose chiefs we had met at Laramie. The water
in the Platte was exceedingly low; in many places, the large expanse of
sands, with some occasional stunted tree on its banks, gave it the air
of the seacoast; the bed of the river being merely a succession of
sandbars, among which the channel was divided into rivulets of a few
inches deep. We crossed and recrossed with our carts repeatedly and at
our pleasure; and, whenever an obstruction barred our way in the shape
of precipitous bluffs that came down upon the river, we turned directly
into it, and made our way along the sandy bed, with no other
inconvenience than the frequent quicksands, which greatly fatigued our
animals. Disinterring on the way the _cache_ which had been made by our
party when they ascended the river, we reached without accident, on the
evening of the 12th of September, our old encampment of the 2d of July,
at the junction of the forks. Our _cache_ of the barrel of pork was
found undisturbed, and proved a seasonable addition to our stock of
provisions. At this place I had determined to make another attempt to
descend the Platte by water, and accordingly spent two days in the
construction of a bull boat. Men were sent out on the evening of our
arrival, the necessary number of bulls killed, and their skins brought
to the camp. Four of the best of them were strongly sewed together with
buffalo sinew, and stretched over a basket frame of willow. The seams
were then covered with ashes and tallow, and the boat left exposed to
the sun for the greater part of one day, which was sufficient to dry
and contract the skin, and make the whole work solid and strong. It had
a rounded bow, was eight feet long and five broad, and drew with four
men about four inches water. On the morning of the 15th we embarked in
our hide boat, Mr. Preuss and myself, with two men. We dragged her over
the sands for three or four miles, and then left her on a bar, and
abandoned entirely all further attempts to navigate this river. The
names given by the Indians are always remarkably appropriate; and
certainly none was ever more so than that which they have given to this
stream--"The Nebraska, or Shallow river." Walking steadily the
remainder of the day, a little before dark we overtook our people at
their remaining camp, about twenty-one miles below the junction. The
next morning we crossed the Platte, and continued our way down the
river bottom on the left bank, where we found an excellent,
plainly-beaten road.
On the 18th we reached Grand Island, which is fifty-two miles long,
with an average breadth of one mile and three-quarters. It has on it
some small eminences, and is sufficiently elevated to be secure from
the annual floods of the river. As has been already remarked, it is
well timbered; with an excellent soil, and recommends itself to notice
as the best point for a military position on the Lower Platte.
On the 22d we arrived at the village of the Grand Pawnees, on the right
bank of the river, about thirty miles above the mouth of the Loup fork.
They were gathering in their corn, and we obtained from them a very
welcome supply of vegetables.
The morning of the 24th we reached the Loup fork of the Platte. At the
place where we forded it, this stream was four hundred and thirty yards
broad, with a swift current of _clear_ water; in this respect,
differing from the Platte, which has a yellow muddy color, derived from
the limestone and marl formation, of which we have previously spoken.
The ford was difficult, as the water was so deep that it came into the
body of the carts, and we reached the opposite bank after repeated
attempts, ascending and descending the bed of the river, in order to
avail ourselves of the bars. We encamped on the left bank of the fork,
in the point of land at its junction with the Platte. During the two
days that we remained here for astronomical observations, the bad
weather permitted us to obtain but one good observation for the
latitude--a meridian altitude of the sun, which gave for the latitude
of the mouth of the Loup fork, 41° 22' 11".
Five or six days previously, I had sent forward C. Lambert, with two
men, to Bellevue, with directions to ask from Mr. P. Sarpy, the
gentleman in charge of the American Company's establishment at that
place, the aid of his carpenters in constructing a boat, in which I
proposed to descend the Missouri. On the afternoon of the 27th we met
one of the men, who had been dispatched by Mr. Sarpy with a welcome
supply of provisions and a very kind note, which gave us the very
gratifying intelligence that our boat was in rapid progress. On the
evening of the 30th we encamped in an almost impenetrable undergrowth
on the left bank of the Platte, in the point of land at its confluence
with the Missouri--315 miles, according to our reckoning, from the
junction of the forks, and 520 from Fort Laramie. From the junction we
had found the bed of the Platte occupied with numerous islands, many of
them very large, and all well timbered; possessing, as well as the
bottom lands of the river, a very excellent soil. With the exception of
some scattered groves on the banks, the bottoms are generally without
timber. A portion of these consist of low grounds, covered with a
profusion of fine grasses, and are probably inundated in the spring;
the remaining part is high river prairie, entirely beyond the influence
of the floods. The breadth of the river is usually three-quarters of a
mile, except where it is enlarged by islands. That portion of its
course which is occupied by Grand island has an average breadth, from
shore to shore, of two and a half miles.