jsO FROM THE WES J TO THE WEST
XXI
AX VSEXPECTED ESCOl'STER
H. thll wonderful Western ccuntrr!" wrote Jean in her diarj-, tmdcr date of nudiiigfat, Ju] V 4^ *• After travelling so long on the banks of the Platte that we had come to look \xpoa it as a 12xmluiT friend, we left it to the southward and turned our course up the \-alley of the Sweet Water, through a succession of low, wooded hills. This little river, though not more than a hundred feet wide, is quite deep, and runs like a mill-race. The water is as clear as ether, and agreeably cold.
"XoIxkIv can conceive the \-astnc5s of this countrv, or imagine its future possibilities, tmtil he has crossed the great unsettled, part of this continent to the westward and seen it for himself.
"Some days we move for many hours over great stretches of alluvial soil, which only needs the impulse of cultivation to make it vield of the fruits of the earth like magic. Again, we are in the midst of big fields of crude saleratus, or salt, or sulphur. Now and then our cattle are compelled to wade through an alkali swamp, suggesting more foot-ail; but our Little Doctor says that danger is past for this year; she has not stated why, and fnayl)e she doesn't know.
^* We encamped last night near Independence Rock, — a huge pile of gray basalt, covering an area of perluil>» ten acres, and looking to be about three hundred feet high. Its sides are formed of great irregular iK/wlders, worn smooth by the warring elements of ages,
"July 5. Yesterday was Independence Day, an
