The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California Part 6

"NEW YORK, May 5, 1842 "Chronometer No. 7,810, by French, is this day at noon-- "_Slow_ of Greenwich mean time, 11' 4"

"_Fast_ of New York mean time, 4_h._ 45' 1"

"Loses per day 2".7 "ARTHUR STEWART, 74 Merchants' Exchange."

An accident among some rough ground in the neighborhood of the Kansas river, strained the balance of this chronometer, (No. 7,810) and rendered it useless during the remainder of the campaign. From the 9th of June to the 24th of August, inclusively, the longitudes depend upon the Brockbank pocket chronometer; the rate of which, on leaving St. Louis, was fourteen seconds. The rate obtained by observations at Fort Laramie, 14".05, has been used in calculation.

From the 24th of August until the termination of the journey, No. 4,632 (of which the rate was 35".79) was used for the same purposes. The rate of this watch was irregular, and I place little confidence in the few longitudes which depend upon it, though, so far as we have any means of judging, they appear tolerably correct.

_Table of Lat.i.tudes and Longitudes, deduced from Observations made during the Journey._

Date Station Lat.i.tude. Longitude.

1842 Deg. min. sec. Deg. min. sec.

May 27 St. Louis, residence of Colonel Brunt,.......38 37 34 June 8 Chouteau's lower trading-post; Kansas river,..................39 05 57 94 25 46 16 Left bank of Kansas river. 7 miles above the ford,...............39 06 40 95 38 05 18 Vermilion creek.........39 15 19 96 04 07 19 Cold springs, near the road to Laramie,..39 30 40 96 14 49 20 Big Blue river, ........39 45 08 96 32 35 25 Little Blue river, .....40 26 50 98 22 12 26 Right bank of Platte river,..................40 41 06 98 45 49 27 Right bank of Platte river...................40 39 32 99 05 24 28 Right bank of Platte river, .................40 39 51 30 Right bank of Platte river...................40 39 55 100 05 47 July 2 Junction of north and south forks of the Nebraska or Platte river,..................41 05 05 100 49 43 4 South fork of Platte river, left bank, 6 South fork of Platte river, island...........40 51 17 103 07 7 South fork of Platte river, left bank........40 53 26 103 30 37 11 South fork of Platte river, St. Vrain's fort ,..................40 22 35 105 12 12 12 Crow creek,.............40 41 59 104 57 49 13 On a stream, name unknown ................41 08 30 104 39 37 14 Horse creek. Goshen's hole? ..................41 40 13 104 24 36 16 Fort Laramie, near the mouth of Laramie's fork, ..................42 12 10 104 47 43 23 North fork of Platte river...................42 39 25 104 59 59 24 North fork of Platte river...................42 47 40 25 North fork of Platte river, Dried Meat camp..42 51 35 105 50 15 26 North fork of Platte river, noon halt........42 50 08 26 North fork of Platte river, mouth of Deer creek,..................42 52 24 106 08 24 28 North fork of Platte river, Cache camp,......42 50 53 106 38 26 29 North fork of Platte river, left bank........42 38 01 106 54 32 30 North fork of Platte river, Goat island......42 33 27 107 13 29 Aug. 1 Sweet Water river, one mile below Rock Independence,...........42 29 56 107 25 23 4 Sweet Water river.......42 32 31 108 30 13 7 Sweet Water river.......42 27 15 109 21 32 8 Little Sandy creek, tributary to the Colorado of the West,...42 27 34 109 37 59 9 New fork, tributary to the Colorado,...........42 42 46 109 58 11 10 Mountain lake,... ......42 49 49 110 08 03 15 Highest peak of the Wind River mountains, 19 Sweet Water, noon halt,...................42 24 32 19 Sweet Water river,......42 22 22 20 Sweet Water river,......42 31 46 22 Sweet Water river, noon halt,..............42 26 10 22 Sweet Water river, Rock Independence,......42 29 36 23 North fork of Platte river, mouth of Sweet Water, .................42 27 18 30 Horse-shoe creek, noon halt,..............42 24 24 Sept 3 North fork of Platte river, right bank,......42 01 40 4 North fork of Platte river, near Scott's bluffs..................41 54 38 5 North fork of Platte river, right bank, six miles above Chimney rock,...........41 43 36 8 North fork of Platte river, mouth of Ash creek,..................41 17 19 9 North fork of Platte river, right bank.......41 14 30 10 North fork of Platte river, Cedar bluff,.....41 10 16 16 Platte river, noon halt....................40 54 31 16 Platte river, left bank, ..................40 52 74 17 Platte river, left bank,...................40 42 38 18 Platte river, left bank, ..................40 40 21 19 Platte river, left bank....................40 39 44 20 Platte river, noon halt, left bank, .......40 48 19 20 Platte river, left bank,...................40 54 02 21 Platte river, left bank ...................41 05 37 23 Platte river, noon halt, left bank.........41 20 20 23 Platte river, left bank ...................41 22 52 25 Platte river, mouth of Loup fork,...........41 22 11 28 Platte river, mouth of Elk Horn river.......41 09 34 29 Platte river, left bank,...................41 02 15 Oct. 2 Bellevue, at the post of the American Fur Company, right bank of the Missouri river......41 08 24 95 20 4 Left bank of the Missouri, opposite to the right bank of the mouth of the Platte.....41 02 11 5 Missouri river,.........40 34 08 6 Bertholet's island, noon halt,..............40 27 08 6 Missouri river, mouth of Nishnabatona river, .40 16 40 8 Missouri river, left bank ...................39 36 02 10 Missouri river, mouth of the Kansas river.....39 06 03

A REPORT

OF

THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION

TO

OREGON AND NORTH CALIFORNIA, IN THE YEARS 1843-'44.

Washington City, March 1, 1845

To Colonel J.J. ABERT, _Chief of the Corps of Top. Engineers:_

SIR:--In pursuance of your instructions, to connect the reconnoisance of 1842, which I had the honor to conduct, with the surveys of Commander Wilkes on the coast of the Pacific ocean, so as to give a connected survey of the interior of our continent, I proceeded to the Great West early in the spring of 1843, and arrived, on the 17th of May, at the little town of Kansas, on the Missouri frontier, near the junction of the Kansas river with the Missouri river, where I was detained near two weeks in completing the necessary preparations for the extended explorations which my instructions contemplated.

My party consisted princ.i.p.ally of Creole and Canadian French, and Americans, amounting in all to thirty-nine men; among whom you will recognise several of those who were with me in my first expedition, and who have been favorably brought to your notice in a former report. Mr.

Thomas Fitzpatrick, whom many years of hardship and exposure, in the western territories, had rendered familiar with a portion of the country it was designed to explore, had been selected as our guide; and Mr.

Charles Preuss, who had been my a.s.sistant in a previous journey, was again a.s.sociated with me in the same capacity on the present expedition.

Agreeably to your directions, Mr. Theodore Talbot, of Washington city, had been attached to the party, with a view to advancement in his profession; and at St. Louis had been joined by Mr. Frederick Dwight, a gentleman of Springfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, who availed himself of our overland journey to visit the Sandwich Islands and China, by way of Fort Vancouver.

The men engaged for the service were: Alexis Ayot, Francis Badeau, Oliver Beaulieu, Baptiste Bernier, John A. Campbell, John G. Campbell, Manuel Chapman, Ransom Clark, Philibert Courteau, Michel Crelis, William Creuss, Clinton Deforest, Baptiste Derosier, Basil Lajeunesse, Francois Lajeunesse, Henry Lee, Louis Menard, Louis Montreuil, Samuel Neal, Alexis Pera, Francois Pera, James Power, Raphael Proue, Oscar Sarpy, Baptiste Tabeau, Charles Taplin, Baptiste Tesson, Auguste Vasquez, Joseph Verrot, Patrick White, Tiery Wright, Louis Zindel, and Jacob Dodson, a free young colored man of Washington city, who volunteered to accompany the expedition, and performed his duty manfully throughout the voyage. Two Delaware Indians--a fine-looking old man and his son--were engaged to accompany the expedition as hunters, through the kindness of Major c.u.mmins, the excellent Indian agent. L. Maxwell, who had accompanied the expedition as one of the hunters in 1842, being on his way to Taos, in New Mexico, also joined us at this place.

The party was generally armed with Hall's carbines, which with a bra.s.s twelve-pound howitzer, had been furnished to me from the United States a.r.s.enal at St. Louis, agreeably to the orders of Colonel S.W. Kearney, commanding the third military division. Three men were especially detailed for the management of this piece, under the charge of Louis Zindel, a native of Germany, who had been nineteen years a non-commissioned officer of artillery in the Prussian army, and regularly instructed in the duties of his profession. The camp equipage and provisions were transported in twelve carts, drawn each by two mules; and a light covered wagon, mounted on good springs, had been provided for the safer carriage of instruments.

These were:

One refracting telescope, by Frauenhofer.

One reflecting circle, by Gambey.

Two s.e.xtants, by Troughton.

One pocket chronometer, No. 837, by Goffe, Falmouth.

One pocket chronometer, No. 739, by Brockbank.

One syphon barometer, by Bunten, Paris.

One cistern barometer, by Frye and Shaw, New York.

Six thermometers, and a number of small compa.s.ses.

To make the exploration as useful as possible, I determined, in conformity to your general instructions, to vary the route to the Rocky mountains from that followed in 1842. The route was then up the valley of the Great Platte river to the South Pa.s.s, in north lat.i.tude 42; the route now determined on was up the valley of the Kansas river, and to the head of the Arkansas river, and to some pa.s.s in the mountains, if any could be found, at the sources of that river.

By making this deviation from the former route, the problem of a new road to Oregon and California, in a climate more genial, might be solved; and a better knowledge obtained of an important river, and the country it drained, while the great object of the expedition would find its point of commencement at the termination of the former, which was at that great gate in the ridge of the Rocky mountains called the South Pa.s.s, and on the lofty peak of the mountain which overlooks it, deemed the highest peak in the ridge, and from the opposite side of which four great rivers take their rise, and flow to the Pacific or the Mississippi.

Various obstacles delayed our departure until the morning of the 29th, when we commenced our long voyage; and at the close of a day, rendered disagreeably cold by incessant rain, encamped about four miles beyond the frontier, on the verge of the great prairies.

Resuming our journey on the 31st, after the delay of a day to complete our equipment and furnish ourselves with some of the comforts of civilized life, we encamped in the evening at Elm Grove, in company with several emigrant wagons, const.i.tuting a party which was proceeding to Upper California, under the direction of Mr. J.B. Childs, of Missouri. The wagons were variously freighted with goods, furniture, and farming utensils, containing among other things an entire set of machinery for a mill which Mr. Childs designed erecting on the waters of the Sacramento river, emptying into the bay of San Francisco.

We were joined here by Mr. Wm. Gilpin of Mo., who, intending this year to visit the settlements in Oregon, had been invited to accompany us, and proved a useful and agreeable addition to the party.

JUNE.

From Elm Grove, our route until the third of June was nearly the same as that described to you in 1842. Trains of wagons were almost constantly in sight; giving to the road a populous and animated appearance, although the greater portion of the emigrants were collected at the crossing, or already on their march beyond the Kansas river. Leaving at the ford the usual emigrant road to the mountains, we continued our route along the southern side of the Kansas, where we found the country much more broken than on the northern side of the river, and where our progress was much delayed by the numerous small streams, which obliged us to make frequent bridges. On the morning of the 4th we crossed a handsome stream, called by the Indians Otter creek, about 130 feet wide, where a flat stratum of limestone, which forms the bed, made an excellent ford. We met here a small party of Kansas and Delaware Indians, the latter returning from a hunting and trapping expedition on the upper waters of the river; and on the heights above were five or six Kansas women, engaged in digging prairie potatoes, (_psoralea esculenta_.) On the afternoon of the 6th, whilst busily engaged in crossing a wooded stream, we were thrown into a little confusion by the sudden arrival of Maxwell, who entered the camp at full speed at the head of a war party of Osage Indians, with gay red blankets, and heads shaved to the scalp lock. They had run him a distance of about nine miles, from a creek on which we had encamped the day previous, and to which he had returned in search of a runaway horse belonging to Mr. Dwight, which had taken the homeward road, carrying with him saddle, bridle, and holster-pistols. The Osages were probably ignorant of our strength, and, when they charged into the camp, drove off a number of our best horses; but we were fortunately well mounted, and, after a hard chase of seven or eight miles, succeeded in recovering them all. This accident, which occasioned delay and trouble, and threatened danger and loss, and broke down some good horses at the start, and actually endangered the expedition, was a first fruit of having gentlemen in company--very estimable, to be sure, but who are not trained to the care and vigilance and self-dependence which such an expedition required, and who are not subject to the orders which enforce attention and exertion. We arrived on the 8th at the mouth of the Smoky-hill fork, which is the princ.i.p.al southern branch of the Kansas; forming here, by its junction with the Republican, or northern branch, the main Kansas river. Neither stream was fordable, and the necessity of making a raft, together with bad weather, detained us here until the morning of the 11th; when we resumed our journey along the Republican fork. By our observations, the junction of the streams is in lat. 39 30' 38", long. 96 24' 36", and at an elevation of 926 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. For several days we continued to travel along the Republican, through a country beautifully watered with numerous streams, and handsomely timbered; and rarely an incident occurred to vary the monotonous resemblance which one day on the prairies here bears to another, and which scarcely require a particular description. Now and then, we caught a glimpse of a small herd of elk; and occasionally a band of antelopes, whose curiosity sometimes brought them within rifle range, would circle round us and then scour off into the prairies. As we advanced on our road, these became more frequent; but as we journeyed on the line usually followed by the trapping and hunting parties of the Kansas and Delaware Indians, game of every kind continued very shy and wild. The bottoms which form the immediate valley of the main river were generally about three miles wide; having a rich soil of black vegetable mould, and, for a prairie country, well interspersed with wood.

The country was everywhere covered with a considerable variety of gra.s.ses, occasionally poor and thin, but far more frequently luxuriant and rich. We had been gradually and regularly ascending in our progress westward, and on the evening of the 14th, when we encamped on a little creek in the valley of the Republican, 265 miles by our traveling road from the mouth of the Kansas, we were at an elevation of 1,520 feet. That part of the river where we were now encamped is called by the Indians the _Big Timber_. Hitherto our route had been laborious and extremely slow, the unusually wet spring and constant rain having so saturated the whole country that it was necessary to bridge every water-course, and, for days together, our usual march averaged only five or six miles. Finding that at such a rate of travel it would be impossible to comply with your instructions, I determined at this place to divide the party, and, leaving Mr. Fitzpatrick with twenty-five men in charge of the provisions and heavier baggage of the camp, to proceed myself in advance, with a light party of fifteen men, taking with me the howitzer and the light wagon which carried the instruments.

Accordingly, on the morning of the 16th, the parties separated; and, bearing a little out from the river, with a view of heading some of the numerous affluents, after a few hours' travel over somewhat broken ground, we entered upon an extensive and high level prairie, on which we encamped towards evening at a little stream, where a single dry cottonwood afforded the necessary fuel for preparing supper. Among a variety of gra.s.ses which to-day made their first appearance, I noticed bunch-gra.s.s, (_festuca_,) and buffalo-gra.s.s, (_sesleria dactlyloides_.) Amorpha canescens (_lead plant_) continued the characteristic plant of the country, and a narrow-leaved _lathyrus_ occurred during the morning, in beautiful patches. _Sida coccinea_ occurred frequently, with a _psoralea_ near _psoralea floribunda_, and a number of plants not hitherto met, just verging into bloom. The water on which we had encamped belonged to Solomon's fort of the Smoky-hill river, along whose tributaries we continued to travel for several days.

The country afforded us an excellent road, the route being generally over high and very level prairies; and we met with no other delay than being frequently obliged to bridge one of the numerous streams, which were well timbered with ash, elm, cottonwood, and a very large oak--the latter being occasionally five and six feet in diameter, with a spreading summit.

_Sida coccinea_ is very frequent in vermilion-colored patches on the high and low prairie; and I remarked that it has a very pleasant perfume.

The wild sensitive plant (_schrankia angustata_) occurs frequently, generally on the dry prairies, in valleys of streams, and frequently on the broken prairie bank. I remark that the leaflets close instantly to a very light touch. _Amorpha_, with the same _psoralea_, and a dwarf species of _lupinus_, are the characteristic plants.

On the 19th, in the afternoon, we crossed the p.a.w.nee road to the Arkansas, and traveling a few miles onward, the monotony of the prairies was suddenly dispelled by the appearance of five or six buffalo bulls, forming a vanguard of immense herds, among which we were traveling a few days afterwards. Prairie dogs were seen for the first time during the day; and we had the good fortune to obtain an antelope for supper. Our elevation had now increased to 1,900 feet. _Sida coccinea_ was the characteristic on the creek bottoms, and buffalo gra.s.s is becoming abundant on the higher parts of the ridges.

21st.--During the forenoon we traveled up a branch of the creek on which we had encamped, in a broken country, where, however, the dividing ridges always afforded a good road. Plants were few; and with the short sward of the buffalo-gra.s.s, which now prevailed everywhere, giving to the prairies a smooth and mossy appearance, were mingled frequent patches of a beautiful red gra.s.s, (_aristida pallens_,) which had made its appearance only within the last few days.

We halted to noon at a solitary cottonwood in a hollow, near which was killed the first buffalo, a large old bull.

Antelope appeared in bands during the day. Crossing here to the affluents of the Republican, we encamped on a fork, about forty feet wide and one foot deep, flowing with a swift current over a sandy bed, and well wooded with ash-leaved maple, (_negundo fraxinifolium_,) elm, cottonwood, and a few white oaks. We were visited in the evening by a very violent storm, accompanied by wind, lightning, and thunder; a cold rain falling in torrents. According to the barometer, our elevation was 2,130 feet above the gulf.

At noon, on the 23d, we descended into the valley of a princ.i.p.al fork of the Republican, a beautiful stream with a dense border of wood, consisting princ.i.p.ally of varieties of ash, forty feet wide and four deep. It was musical with the notes of many birds, which, from the vast expanse of silent prairie around, seemed all to have collected here. We continued during the afternoon our route along the river, which was populous with prairie dogs, (the bottoms being entirely occupied with their villages,) and late in the evening encamped on its banks. The prevailing timber is a blue-foliaged ash, (_fraxinus_, near _F. Americana_,) and ash- leaved maple. With these were _fraxinus Americana_, cottonwood, and long-leaved willow. We gave to this stream the name of Prairie Dog river.

Elevation 2,350 feet. Our road on the 25th lay over high smooth ridges, 3,100 feet above the sea; buffalo in great numbers, absolutely covering the face of the country. At evening we encamped within a few miles of the main Republican, on a little creek, where the air was fragrant with the perfume of _artemisia filifolia_, which we here saw for the first time, and which was now in bloom. Shortly after leaving our encampment on the 26th, we found suddenly that the nature of the country had entirely changed. Bare sand-hills everywhere surrounded us in the undulating ground along which we were moving, and the plants peculiar to a sandy soil made their appearance in abundance. A few miles further we entered the valley of a large stream, afterwards known to be the Republican fork of the Kansas, whose shallow waters, with a depth of only a few inches, were spread out over a bed of yellowish white sand 600 yards wide. With the exception of one or two distant and detached groves, no timber of any kind was to be seen; and the features of the country a.s.sumed a desert character, with which the broad river, struggling for existence among the quicksands along the treeless banks, was strikingly in keeping. On the opposite side, the broken ridges a.s.sumed almost a mountainous appearance; and fording the stream, we continued on our course among these ridges, and encamped late in the evening at a little pond of very bad water, from which we drove away a herd of buffalo that were standing in and about it.

Our encampment this evening was 3,500 feet above the sea. We traveled now for several days through a broken and dry sandy region, about 4,000 feet above the sea, where there were no running streams; and some anxiety was constantly felt on account of the uncertainty of water, which was only to be found in small lakes that occurred occasionally among the hills. The discovery of these always brought pleasure to the camp, as around them were generally green flats, which afforded abundant pasturage for our animals; and here we usually collected herds of the buffalo, which now were scattered over all the country in countless numbers.

The soil of bare and hot sands supported a varied and exuberant growth of plants, which were much farther advanced than we had previously found them, and whose showy bloom somewhat relieved the appearance of general sterility. Crossing the summit of an elevated and continuous range of rolling hills, on the afternoon of the 30th of June, we found ourselves overlooking a broad and misty valley, where, about ten miles distant, and 1,000 feet below us, the South fork of the Platte was rolling magnificently along, swollen with the waters of the melting snows. It was in strong and refreshing contrast with the parched country from which we had just issued; and when, at night, the broad expanse of water grew indistinct, it almost seemed that we had pitched our tents on the sh.o.r.e of the sea.