white oak here and there among the cotton-wood and willow; and at length
caught a sight of some wild horses on the distant prairies.

The weather was various; at one time the snow lay deep; then they had
a genial day or two, with the mildness and serenity of autumn; then,
again, the frost was so severe that the river was sufficiently frozen to
bear them upon the ice.

During the last three days of their fortnight's travel, however, the
face of the country changed. The timber gradually diminished, until they
could scarcely find fuel sufficient for culinary purposes. The game
grew more and more scanty, and, finally, none were to be seen but a few
miserable broken-down buffalo bulls, not worth killing. The snow lay
fifteen inches deep, and made the travelling grievously painful and
toilsome. At length they came to an immense plain, where no vestige of
timber was to be seen; nor a single quadruped to enliven the desolate
landscape. Here, then, their hearts failed them, and they held another
consultation. The width of the river, which was upwards of a mile, its
extreme shallowness, the frequency of quicksands, and various other
characteristics, had at length made them sensible of their errors with
respect to it, and they now came to the correct conclusion, that they
were on the banks of the Platte or Shallow River. What were they to do?
Pursue its course to the Missouri? To go on at this season of the year
seemed dangerous in the extreme. There was no prospect of obtaining
either food or firing. The country was destitute of trees, and though
there might be drift-wood along the river, it lay too deep beneath the
snow for them to find it.

The weather was threatening a change, and a snowstorm on these boundless
wastes might prove as fatal as a whirlwind of sand on an Arabian desert.
After much dreary deliberation, it was at length determined to retrace
their three last days' journey of seventy-seven miles, to a place which
they had remarked where there was a sheltering growth of forest trees,
and a country abundant in game. Here they would once more set up their
winter quarters, and await the opening of the navigation to launch
themselves in canoes.

Accordingly, on the 27th of December, they faced about, retraced their
steps, and on the 30th, regained the part of the river in question. Here
the alluvial bottom was from one to two miles wide, and thickly
covered with a forest of cotton-wood trees; while herds of buffalo wer