converted into solid land. The air is fresh and wholesome. As one rises with the elevations of the soil, the graceful undulation of the alternating vale and hill contrast admirably with the waving lines of walnut trees, oaks and poplars
which mark the course of each little river. The banks of each stream are generally more or less thickly wooded. We ascended the valley of the Little Blue for three days, making
a distance of fifty-three miles. The names of the principal plants which attract the attention of the botanist in the plains of Kansas, are: the anothera, with its brilliant yellow flowers, the amorpha and artemisia, the commelina, the blue and purple lupin, different forms and species of cactus, the tradescantia, the mimosa, and the white mimu lus. The waters of the Little Blue are left at a distance of 275 miles from Fort Leavenworth.
Continuing the route from that point, you cross elevated prairies for a distance of twenty-six miles, and enter the great valley of the Nebraska or Platte river, at a distance of fifteen miles from Fort Kearney. This river, up to its two forks, is about 3,000 yards wide; its waters are yellowish and muddy in the spring freshets, and resemble those of the Missouri and the Mississippi; it is not so deep as those streams; its current is very rapid. Fort Kearney is rather
insignificant. It consists of three or four frame houses and several made of adobes, a kind of coarse brick baked in the sun. The Government has a military post there for the tranquillity of the country, and to provide for the safety of travelers crossing the desert to go to California, Oregon and the Territories of Utah and Washington.
A great number of Pawnee Indians were encamped at a little distance from the fort. I came near witnessing a battle between them and a war-party of Arapahos, who, favored by the night, had succeeded in approaching the camp unseen
almost forty strong. The Pawnees had just let their horses loose at break of day, when the enemy, with loud cries, rushed into the drove, and carried away many hundreds with them at full gallop. The alarm immediately spread through46