in honor to the discoverer. Our camp is on the top of a very high
hill, and the spring--the only place from which we can obtain water--is
situated at its base, the descent being long, steep, and very rough.
The water is pure, cold, and clear as crystal.

To-day a new disposition was made, a working party being detailed, and
the remainder of the Company carrying arms. At every place requiring
improvements the Company and train halted and waited until the working
party was finished.

A fine, large buffalo was shot, and the tool wagon was dispatched to
bring in the spoils. In the evening the game was divided.

Two expressmen, accompanied by Allen, our chief guide, left us this
afternoon for Fort Bridger, to execute some important business and to
bring back the mail.

_July 18_ (Sunday). In the morning a road was to be cut around the base
of the hill. The task was accomplished by noon, the excavation being
carried to a depth of seven feet on the upper side, through alternate
strata of magnesian limestone and sandstone. We then struck camp and
moved on, going only three miles, however, as water could not be
obtained within nine or ten miles beyond this place, and it was too
late to attempt to reach it. We camped at Banner Bluff, on Bitter
Creek.

The bluff is a grand and curious geological formation, about twelve
hundred feet in height, the side almost vertical and composed of
alternate horizontal layers of protozoic and red sandstone, reminding
one of the stripes of the American flag.

_July 19_ (Monday). We marched only ten and a half miles, but did not
reach our new camp ground, which is again on Bitter Creek, until quite
late, some obstacle or other presenting itself every few hundred yards
to arrest our progress. The country was of the worst possible
description, barren and sandy; the surface of the ground was baked to a
hard crust, and broken by a network of deep fissures, some of them two
or three inches across, resembling the gaps of a miniature earthquake.
No vegetation, except a stunted growth of artemisia.

_July 20_ (Tuesday). We again encamped on Bitter Creek, after a march
of fifteen miles. There is no improvement in the aspect of the country,
although there was not so much labor, required in the construction of
the road, the country being for the most part level or rolling. A great
deal of poor coal is scattered over the ground, which is covered,
throughout the latter six or eight miles of our march w