ughly; and the four days spent here, waiting for the river
to fall, accomplished the work satisfactorily, although at times the sky
was overcast and threatened rain, while the nights were damp.

Some of the more impetuous travelers urged that time would be saved if
bullboats were made by stretching buffalo hides over the wagon boxes and
floating them across. This had been done more than once, but with only a
day or so to wait, and no pressing need for speed, the time saved would
not be worth the hard work and the risk of such ferrying. At last the
repeated soundings of the bottom began to look favorable and word was
passed around that the crossing would take place as soon as the camp
was ready to be left the next morning, providing that no rain fell
during the night.

Daylight showed a bright sky and a little lower level of the river and
it was not long before the first wagon drawn by four full teams, after a
warming-up drive, rumbled down the bank and hit the water with a splash.
The bottom was still too soft to take things easy in crossing and the
teams were not allowed to pause after once they had entered the water. A
moment's stop might mire both teams and wagons and cause no end of
trouble, hard work, and delay. All day long the wagons crossed and at
night they were safely corralled on the farther bank, on the edge of the
Dry Route and no longer on United States soil.

That evening the leaders of the divisions went among their followers and
urged that in the morning every water cask and container available for
holding water be filled. This flat, monotonous, dry plain might require
three days to cross and every drop of water would be precious. Should
any be found after the recent rains it would be in buffalo wallows and
more fit for animals than for human beings. Again in the morning the
warning was carried to every person in the camp and the need for heeding
it gravely emphasized; and when the caravan started on the laborious and
treacherous journey across the fringe of sand-hills and hillocks which
extended for five or six miles beyond the river, where upsetting of
wagons was by no means an exception, half a dozen wagons had empty water
casks. Their owners had been too busy doing inconsequential things to
think of obeying the orders for a "water scrape," given for their own
good.

The outlying hilly fringe of sand was not as bad as had been expected
for the heavy rains had wetted it well and packed the sand som