ay after they reached the Platte, looking toward a distant swell, they
beheld a multitude of little black specks in motion upon its surface.

"Take your rifles, boys," said Kearslcy, "and we'll have fresh meat for
supper." This inducement was quite sufficient. The ten men left their
wagons and set out in hot haste, some on horseback and some on foot, in
pursuit of the supposed buffalo. Meanwhile a high grassy ridge shut the
game from view; but mounting it after half an hour's running and riding,
they found themselves suddenly confronted by about thirty mounted
Pawnees! The amazement and consternation were mutual. Having nothing but
their bows and arrows, the Indians thought their hour was come, and
the fate that they were no doubt conscious of richly deserving about
to overtake them. So they began, one and all, to shout forth the most
cordial salutations of friendship, running up with extreme earnestness
to shake hands with the Missourians, who were as much rejoiced as they
were to escape the expected conflict.

A low undulating line of sand-hills bounded the horizon before us. That
day we rode ten consecutive hours, and it was dusk before we entered the
hollows and gorges of these gloomy little hills. At length we gained the
summit, and the long expected valley of the Platte lay before us. We
all drew rein, and, gathering in a knot on the crest of the hill, sat
joyfully looking down upon the prospect. It was right welcome; strange
too, and striking to the imagination, and yet it had not one picturesque
or beautiful feature; nor had it any of the features of grandeur, other
than its vast extent, its solitude, and its wilderness. For league after
league a plain as level as a frozen lake was outspread beneath us;
here and there the Platte, divided into a dozen threadlike sluices, was
traversing it, and an occasional clump of wood, rising in the midst like
a shadowy island, relieved the monotony of the waste. No living thing
was moving throughout the vast landscape, except the lizards that darted
over the sand and through the rank grass and prickly-pear just at our
feet. And yet stern and wild associations gave a singular interest to
the view; for here each man lives by the strength of his arm and the
valor of his heart. Here society is reduced to its original elements,
the whole fabric of art and conventionality is struck rudely to pieces,
and men find themselves suddenly brought back to the wants and resources
of their o