Traveling along up the valley of the river, here 4,000 feet above the
sea, in the afternoon of July 1, we caught a far and uncertain view of
a faint blue mass in the west, as the sun sank behind it; and from our
camp in the morning, at the mouth of Bijou, Long's peak and the
neighboring mountains stood out into the sky, grand and luminously
white, covered to their bases with glittering snow.
On the evening of the 3d, as we were journeying along the partially
overflowed bottoms of the Platte, where our passage stirred up swarms
of musquitoes, we came unexpectedly on an Indian, who was perched upon
a bluff, curiously watching the movements of our caravan. He belonged
to a village of Oglallah Sioux, who had lost all their animals in the
severity of the preceding winter, and were now on their way up the
Bijou fork to beg horses from the Arapahoes, who were hunting buffalo
at the head of that river. Several came into our camp at noon; and, as
they were hungry, as usual, they were provided with buffalo-meat, of
which the hunters had brought in an abundant supply.
About noon, on the 4th of July, we arrived at the fort, where Mr. St.
Vrain received us with his customary kindness, and invited us to join
him in a feast which had been prepared in honor of the day.
Our animals were very much worn out, and our stock of provisions
entirely exhausted, when we arrived at the fort; but I was disappointed
in my hope of obtaining relief, as I found it in a very impoverished
condition; and we were able to procure only a little unbolted Mexican
flour, and some salt, with a few pounds of powder and lead.
As regarded provisions, it did not much matter in a country where
rarely the day passed without seeing some kind of game, and where it
was frequently abundant. It was a rare thing to lie down hungry, and we
had already learned to think bread a luxury; but we could not proceed
without animals, and our own were not capable of prosecuting the
journey beyond the mountains without relief.
I had been informed that a large number of mules had recently arrived
at Taos, from Upper California; and as our friend, Mr. Maxwell, was
about to continue his journey to that place, where a portion of his
family resided, I engaged him to purchase for me ten or twelve mules,
with the understanding that he should pack them with provisions and
other necessaries, and meet me at the mouth of the
_Fontaine-qui-bouit_, on the Arkansas river, to which point I would be
led in the course of the survey.
Agreeably to his own request, and in the conviction that his habits of
life and education had not qualified him to endure the hard life of a
voyageur, I discharged here one of my party, Mr. Oscar Sarpy, having
furnished him with arms and means of transportation to Fort Laramie,
where he would be in the line of caravans returning to the States.
At daybreak, on the 6th of July, Maxwell was on his way to Taos; and a
few hours after we also had recommenced our journey up the Platte,
which was continuously timbered with cottonwood and willow, on a
generally sandy soil. Passing on the way the remains of two abandoned
forts, (one of which, however, was still in good condition,) we
reached, in ten miles, Fort Lancaster, the trading establishment of Mr.
Lupton.
His post was beginning to assume the appearance of a comfortable farm:
stock, hogs, and cattle, were ranging about on the prairie--there were
different kinds of poultry; and there was a wreck of a promising
garden, in which a considerable variety of vegetables had been in a
flourishing condition; but it had been almost entirely ruined by the
recent high waters. I remained to spend with him an agreeable hour, and
set off in a cold storm of rain, which was accompanied with violent
thunder and lightning. We encamped immediately on the river, sixteen
miles from St. Vrain's. Several Arapahoes, on their way to the village
which was encamped a few miles above us, passed by the camp in the
course of the afternoon. Night set in stormy and cold, with heavy and
continuous rain, which lasted until morning.
7th.--We made this morning an early start, continuing to travel up the
Platte; and in a few miles frequent bands of horses and mules,
scattered for several miles round about, indicated our approach to the
Arapaho village, which we found encamped in a beautiful bottom, and
consisting of about one hundred and sixty lodges. It appeared extremely
populous, with a great number of children--a circumstance which
indicated a regular supply of the means of subsistence. The chiefs, who
were gathered together at the farther end of the village, received us
(as probably strangers are always received to whom they desire to show
respect or regard) by throwing their arms around our necks and
embracing us.
It required some skill in horsemanship to keep the saddle during the
performance of this ceremony, as our American horses exhibited for them
the same fear they have for a bear, or any other wild animal. Having
very few goods with me, I was only able to make them a meager present,
accounting for the poverty of the gift by explaining that my goods had
been left with the wagons in charge of Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was well
known to them as the White Head, or the Broken Hand. I saw here, as I
had remarked in an Arapaho village the preceding year, near the lodges
of the chiefs; tall tripods of white poles supporting their spears and
shields, which showed it to be a regular custom.
Though disappointed in obtaining the presents which had been evidently
expected, they behaved very courteously; and, after a little
conversation, I left them, and, continuing on up the river, halted to
noon on the bluff, as the bottoms are almost inundated; continuing in
the afternoon our route along the mountains, which were dark, misty,
and shrouded--threatening a storm; the snow peaks sometimes glittering
through the clouds beyond the first ridge.
We surprised a grizzly bear sauntering along the river, which, raising
himself upon his hind legs, took a deliberate survey of us, that did
not appear very satisfactory to him, and he scrambled into the river
and swam to the opposite side. We halted for the night a little above
Cherry creek; the evening cloudy, with many musquitoes. Some
indifferent observations placed the camp in lat. 39° 43' 53", and
chronometric long. 105° 24' 34".
8th.--We continued to-day to travel up the Platte: the morning
pleasant, with a prospect of fairer weather. During the forenoon our
way lay over a more broken country, with a gravelly and sandy surface;
although the immediate bottom of the river was a good soil, of a dark
and sandy mould, resting upon a stratum of large pebbles, or rolled
stones, as at Laramie fork. On our right, and apparently very near, but
probably 8 or 10 miles distant, and two or three thousand feet above
us, ran the first range of the mountains, like a dark corniced line, in
clear contrast with the great snowy chain which, immediately beyond,
rose glittering five thousand feet above them. We caught this morning a
view of Pike's peak; but it appeared for a moment only, as clouds rose
early over the mountains, and shrouded them in mist and rain all the
day. In the first range were visible, as at the Red Buttes on the North
fork, very lofty escarpments of red rock. While traveling through this
region, I remarked that always in the morning the lofty peaks were
visible and bright, but very soon small white clouds began to settle
around them--brewing thicker and thicker as the day advanced, until the
afternoon, when the thunder began to roll; and invariably at evening we
had more or less of a thunder storm. At 11 o'clock, and 21 miles from
St. Vrain's fort, we reached a point in this southern fork of the
Platte, where the stream is divided into three forks; two of these (one
of them being much the largest) issuing directly from the mountains on
the west, and forming, with the eastern-most branch, a river of the
plains. The elevation of this point is about 5,500 feet above the sea;
this river falling 2,800 feet in a distance of 316 miles, to its
junction with the North fork of the Platte. In this estimate, the
elevation of the junction is assumed as given by our barometrical
observations in 1842. On the easternmost branch, up which we took our
way, we first came among the pines growing on the top of a very high
bank, and where we halted on it to noon; quaking asp (_populus
tremuloides_) was mixed with the cottonwood, and there were excellent
grass and rushes for the animals.
During the morning there occurred many beautiful flowers, which we had
not hitherto met. Among them, the common blue flowering flax made its
first appearance; and a tall and handsome species of _gilia_, with
slender scarlet flowers, which appeared yesterday for the first time,
was very frequent to-day.
We had found very little game since leaving the fort, and provisions
began to get unpleasantly scant, as we had had no meat for several
days; but towards sundown, when we had already made up our minds to
sleep another night without supper, Lajeunesse had the good fortune to
kill a fine deer, which he found feeding in a hollow near by; and as
the rain began to fall, threatening an unpleasant night, we hurried to
secure a comfortable camp in the timber.
To-night the camp fires, girdled with _appolas_ of fine venison, looked
cheerful in spite of the stormy weather.
9th.--On account of the low state of our provisions and the scarcity of
game, I determined to vary our route, and proceed several camps to the
eastward, in the hope of falling in with the buffalo. This route along
the dividing grounds between the South fork of the Platte and the
Arkansas, would also afford some additional geographical information.
This morning, therefore, we turned to the eastward, along the upper
waters of the stream on which we had encamped, entering a country of
picturesque and varied scenery; broken into rocky hills of singular
shapes; little valleys, with pure crystal water, here leaping swiftly
along, and there losing itself in the sands; green spots of luxuriant
grass, flowers of all colors, and timber of different kinds--every
thing to give it a varied beauty, except game. To one of these
remarkably shaped hills, having on the summit a circular flat rock two
or three hundred yards in circumference, some one gave the name of
Poundcake, which it has been permitted to retain, as our hungry people
seemed to think it a very agreeable comparison. In the afternoon a
buffalo bull was killed, and we encamped on a small stream, near the
road which runs from St. Vrain's fort to the Arkansas.
10th:--Snow fell heavily on the mountains during the night, and Pike's
peak this morning is luminous and grand, covered from the summit, as
low down as we can see, with glittering white. Leaving the encampment
at 6 o'clock, we continued our easterly course over a rolling country,
near to the high ridges, which are generally rough and rocky, with a
coarse conglomerate displayed in masses, and covered with pines. The
rock is very friable, and it is undoubtedly from its decomposition that
the prairies derive their sandy and gravelly formation. In six miles we
crossed a head-water of the Kioway river, on which we found a strong
fort and _coral_ that had been built in the spring, and halted to noon
on the principal branch of the river. During the morning our route led
over a dark and vegetable mould, mixed with sand and gravel, the
characteristic plant being _esparcette_, (_onobrychis sativa_,) a
species of clover which is much used in certain parts of Germany for
pasturage of stock--principally hogs. It is sown on rocky waste ground,
which would otherwise be useless, and grows very luxuriantly, requiring
only a renewal of the seed about once in fifteen years. Its abundance
here greatly adds to the pastoral value of this region. A species of
antennaria in flower was very common along the line of road, and the
creeks were timbered with willow and pine. We encamped on Bijou's fork,
the water of which, unlike the clear streams we had previously crossed,
is of a whitish color, and the soil of the bottom a very hard, tough
clay. There was a prairie dog village on the bottom, and, in the
endeavor to unearth one of the little animals, we labored ineffectually
in the tough clay until dark. After descending, with a slight
inclination, until it had gone the depth of two feet, the hole suddenly
turned at a sharp angle in another direction for one more foot in
depth, when it again turned, taking an ascending direction to the next
nearest hole. I have no doubt that all their little habitations
communicate with each other. The greater part of the people were sick
to-day, and I was inclined to attribute their indisposition to the meat
of the bull which had been killed the previous day.
11th.--There were no indications of buffalo having been recently in the
neighborhood; and, unwilling to travel farther eastward, I turned this
morning to the southward, up the valley of Bijou. _Esparcette_ occurred
universally, and among the plants on the river I noticed, for the first
time during this journey, a few small bushes of the _absinthe_ of the
voyageurs, which is commonly used for firewood, (_artemesia
tridentata_.) Yesterday and to-day the road has been ornamented with
the showy bloom of a beautiful lupinus, a characteristic in many parts
of the mountain region, on which were generally great numbers of an
insect with very bright colors, (_litta vesicatoria_.)
As we were riding quietly along, eagerly searching every hollow in
search of game, we discovered, at a little distance in the prairie, a
large grizzly bear, so busily engaged in digging roots that he did not
perceive us until we were galloping down a little hill fifty yards from
him, when he charged upon us with such sudden energy that several of us
came near losing our saddles. Being wounded, he commenced retreating to
a rocky piny ridge near by, from which we were not able to cut him off,
and we entered the timber with him. The way was very much blocked up
with fallen timber; and we kept up a running fight for some time,
animated by the bear charging among the horses. He did not fall until
after he had received six rifle balls. He was miserably poor, and added
nothing to our stock of provisions.
We followed the stream to its head in a broken ridge, which, according
to the barometer, was about 7,500 feet above the sea. This is a piny
elevation, into which the prairies are gathered, and from which the
waters flow, in almost every direction, to the Arkansas, Platte, and
Kansas rivers; the latter stream having here its remotest sources.
Although somewhat rocky and broken, and covered with pines, in
comparison with the neighboring mountains, it scarcely forms an
interruption to the great prairie plains which sweep up to their bases.
We had an excellent view of Pike's peak from this camp, at the distance
of forty miles. This mountain barrier presents itself to travelers on
the plains, which sweep almost directly to its bases--an immense and
comparatively smooth and grassy prairie, in very strong contrast with
the black masses of timber, and the glittering snow above them. With
occasional exceptions, comparatively so very 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, (_sesleria dactyloides_.) Between the
Platte and Arkansas rivers, that part of this region which forms the
basin drained by the waters of the Kansas, 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, along our
several lines of travel, will show you 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. In
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 furnishing to the
traveler fuel, and food for his animals. Add to this that the western
border of the plain is occupied by the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne
nations, with the Pawnees and other half-civilized tribes in its
eastern limits, for whom the intermediate country is a war-ground, and
you will have a tolerably correct idea of the appearance and condition
of the country. Descending a somewhat precipitous and rocky hillside
among the pines, which rarely appear elsewhere than on the ridge, we
encamped at its foot, where there were several springs, which you will
find laid down upon the map as one of the extreme sources of the Smoky
Hill fork of the Kansas. From this place the view extended over the
Arkansas valley, and the Spanish peaks in the south beyond. As the
greater part of the men continued sick, I encamped here for the day,
and ascertained conclusively, from experiments on myself, that their
illness was caused by the meat of the buffalo bull.
On the summit of the ridge, near the camp, were several rock-built
forts, which in front were very difficult of approach, and in the rear
were protected by a precipice entirely beyond the reach of a
rifle-ball. The evening was tolerably clear, with a temperature at
sunset of 63°. Elevation of the camp seven thousand and three hundred
feet.
Turning the next day to the southwest, we reached, in the course of the
morning, the wagon-road to the settlements on the Arkansas river, and
encamped in the afternoon on the _Fontaine-qui-bouit_ (or Boiling
Spring) river, where it was fifty feet wide, with a swift current. I
afterwards found that the spring and river owe their names to the
bubbling of the effervescing gas in the former, and not to the
temperature of the water, which is cold. During the morning a tall
species of _gilia_, with a slender white flower, was characteristic;
and, in the latter part of the day, another variety of _esparcette_,
(wild clover,) having the flower white, was equally so. We had a fine
sunset of golden brown; and in the evening, a very bright moon, with
the near mountains, made a beautiful scene. Thermometer, at sunset, was
69°, and our elevation above the sea 5,800 feet.
13th.--The morning was clear, with a northwesterly breeze, and the
thermometer at sunrise at 46°. There were no clouds along the
mountains, and the morning sun showed very clearly their rugged
character.
We resumed our journey very early down the river, following an
extremely good lodge-trail, which issues by the head of this stream
from the bayou Salade, a high mountain valley behind Pike's peak. The
soil along the road was sandy and gravelly, and the river well
timbered. We halted to noon under the shade of some fine large
cottonwoods, our animals luxuriating on rushes, (_equisetum hyemale_,)
which, along this river, were remarkably abundant. A variety of cactus
made its appearance, and among several strange plants were numerous and
beautiful clusters of a plant resembling _mirabilis jalapa_, with a
handsome convolvulus I had not hitherto seen, (_calystegia_.) In the
afternoon we passed near the encampment of a hunter named Maurice, who
had been out into the plains in pursuit of buffalo calves, a number of
which I saw among some domestic cattle near his lodge. Shortly
afterwards, a party of mountaineers galloped up to us--fine-looking and
hardy men, dressed in skins, and mounted on good fat horses; among them
were several Connecticut men, a portion of Wyeth's party, whom I had
seen the year before, and others were men from the western states.
Continuing down the river, we encamped at noon on the 14th, at its
mouth, on the Arkansas river. A short distance above our encampment, on
the left bank of the Arkansas, is a _pueblo_, (as the Mexicans call
their civilized Indian villages,) where a number of mountaineers, who
had married Spanish women in the valley of Taos, had collected together
and occupied themselves in farming, carrying on at the same time a
desultory Indian trade. They were principally Americans, and treated us
with all the rude hospitality their situation admitted; but as all
commercial intercourse with New Mexico was now interrupted, in
consequence of Mexican decrees to that effect, there was nothing to be
had in the way of provisions. They had, however, a fine stock of
cattle, and furnished us an abundance of excellent milk. I learned here
that Maxwell, in company with two other men, had started for Taos on
the morning of the 9th, but that he would probably fall into the hands
of the Utah Indians, commonly called the _Spanish Yutes_. As Maxwell
had no knowledge of their being in the vicinity when he crossed the
Arkansas, his chance of escape was very doubtful; but I did not
entertain much apprehension for his life, having great confidence in
his prudence and courage. I was further informed that there had been a
popular tumult among the _pueblos_, or civilized Indians, residing near
Taos, against the "_foreigners_" of that place; in which they had
plundered their houses and ill-treated their families. Among those
whose property had been destroyed, was Mr. Beaubien, father-in-law of
Maxwell, from whom I had expected to obtain supplies, and who had been
obliged to make his escape to Santa Fé.
By this position of affairs, our expectation of obtaining supplies from
Taos was cut off. I had here the satisfaction to meet our good
buffalo-hunter of 1842, Christopher Carson, whose services I considered
myself fortunate to secure again; and as a reinforcement of mules was
absolutely necessary, I dispatched him immediately, with an account of
our necessities, to Mr. Charles Bent, whose principal post is on the
Arkansas river, about seventy-five miles below _Fontaine-qui-bouit_. He
was directed to proceed from that post by the nearest route across the
country, and meet me, with what animals he should be able to obtain, at
St. Vrain's fort. I also admitted into the party Charles Towns, a
native of St. Louis, a serviceable man, with many of the qualities of a
good voyageur. According to our observations, the latitude of the mouth
of the river is 38° 15' 23", its longitude 104° 58' 30", and its
elevation above the sea 4,880 feet.
On the morning of the 16th, the time for Maxwell's arrival having
expired, we resumed our journey, leaving for him a note, in which it
was stated that I would wait for him at St. Vrain's fort, until the
morning of the 26th, in the event that he should succeed in his
commission. Our direction was up the Boiling Spring river, it being my
intention to visit the celebrated springs from which the river takes
its name, and which are on its upper waters, at the foot of Pike's
peak. Our animals fared well while we were on this stream, there being
everywhere a great abundance of _prele_. _Ipomea leptophylla_ in bloom,
was a characteristic plant along the river, generally in large bunches,
with two to five flowers on each. Beautiful clusters of the plant
resembling _mirabilis jalapa_ were numerous, and _glycyrrhiza lepidota_
was a characteristic of the bottoms. Currants nearly ripe were
abundant, and among the shrubs which covered the bottom was a very
luxuriant growth of chenopodiaceous shrubs, four to six feet high. On
the afternoon of the 17th we entered among the broken ridges at the
foot of the mountains, where the river made several forks. Leaving the
camp to follow slowly, I rode ahead in the afternoon in search of the
springs. In the meantime, the clouds, which had been gathered all the
afternoon over the mountains, began to roll down their sides; and a
storm so violent burst upon me, that it appeared I had entered the
storehouse of the thunder-storms. I continued, however, to ride along
up the river until about sunset, and was beginning to be doubtful of
finding the springs before the next day, when I came suddenly upon a
large smooth rock, about twenty yards in diameter, where the water from
several springs was bubbling and boiling up in the midst of a white
incrustation, with which it had covered a portion of the rock. As this
did not correspond with the description given the by the hunters, I did
not stop to taste the water, but dismounting, walked a little way up
the river, and, passing through a narrow thicket of shrubbery bordering
the stream, stepped directly upon a huge white rock, at the foot of
which the river, already become a torrent, foamed along, broken by a
small fall. A deer which had been drinking at the spring was startled
by my approach, and, springing across the river, bounded off up the
mountain. In the upper part of the rock, which had apparently been
formed by deposition, was a beautiful white basin, overhung by currant
bushes, in which the cold clear water bubbled up, kept in constant
motion by the escaping gas, and overflowing the rock, which it had
almost entirely covered with a smooth crust of glistening white. I had
all day refrained from drinking, reserving myself for the spring; and
as I could not well be more wet than the rain had already made me, I
lay down by the side of the basin, and drank heartily of the delightful
water. The spring is situated immediately at the foot of lofty
mountains, beautifully timbered, which sweep closely round, shutting up
the little valley in a kind of cove. As it was beginning to grow dark,
I rode quickly down the river, on which I found the camp a few miles
below.
The morning of the 18th was beautiful and clear; and, all the people
being anxious to drink of these famous waters, we encamped immediately
at the springs, and spent there a very pleasant day. On the opposite
side of the river is another locality of springs, which are entirely of
same nature. The water has a very agreeable taste, which Mr. Preuss
found very much to resemble that of the famous Selter springs in the
grand duchy of Nassau, a country famous for wine and mineral waters;
and it is almost entirely of the same character, though still more
agreeable than that of the famous Bear springs, near Bear river of the
Great Salt lake. The following is an analysis of an incrustation with
which the water had covered a piece of wood lying on the rock: