r called the cotton-wood tree. Keeping up
along the course of this river for several days, they were obliged,
from the scarcity of game, to put themselves upon short allowance,
and, occasionally, to kill a steer. They bore their daily labors and
privations, however, with great good humor, taking their tone, in all
probability, from the buoyant spirit of their leader. "If the weather
was inclement," said the captain, "we watched the clouds, and hoped
for a sight of the blue sky and the merry sun. If food was scanty,
we regaled ourselves with the hope of soon falling in with herds of
buffalo, and having nothing to do but slay and eat." We doubt whether
the genial captain is not describing the cheeriness of his own breast,
which gave a cheery aspect to everything around him.

There certainly were evidences, however, that the country was not always
equally destitute of game. At one place, they observed a field decorated
with buffalo skulls, arranged in circles, curves, and other mathematical
figures, as if for some mystic rite or ceremony. They were almost
innumerable, and seemed to have been a vast hecatomb offered up in
thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for some signal success in the chase.

On the 11th of June, they came to the fork of the Nebraska, where
it divides itself into two equal and beautiful streams. One of these
branches rises in the west-southwest, near the headwaters of the
Arkansas. Up the course of this branch, as Captain Bonneville was well
aware, lay the route to the Camanche and Kioway Indians, and to the
northern Mexican settlements; of the other branch he knew nothing. Its
sources might lie among wild and inaccessible cliffs, and tumble and
foam down rugged defiles and over craggy precipices; but its direction
was in the true course, and up this stream he determined to prosecute
his route to the Rocky Mountains. Finding it impossible, from
quicksands and other dangerous impediments, to cross the river in this
neighborhood, he kept up along the south fork for two days, merely
seeking a safe fording place. At length he encamped, caused the bodies
of the wagons to be dislodged from the wheels, covered with buffalo
hide, and besmeared with a compound of tallow and ashes; thus forming
rude boats. In these, they ferried their effects across the stream,
which was six hundred yards wide, with a swift and strong current. Three
men were in each boat, to manage it; others waded across pushing the
barks before th