The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Prairie Traveler, by Randolph Marcy

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Title: The Prairie Traveler
A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions

Author: Randolph Marcy

Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23066]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRAIRIE TRAVELER ***

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Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have
been retained.

[Illustration: FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS.]

THE PRAIRIE TRAVELER.

A HAND-BOOK FOR OVERLAND EXPEDITIONS.

WITH MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND ITINERARIES OF THE
PRINCIPAL ROUTES BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE PACIFIC.

By

RANDOLPH B. MARCY,
CAPTAIN U. S. ARMY.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1859.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
the Southern District of New York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The different Routes to California and Oregon. Their respective
Advantages. Organization of Companies. Elections of Captains.
Wagons and Teams. Relative Merits of Mules and Oxen. Stores
and Provisions. How packed. Desiccated and canned Vegetables.
Pemmican. Antiscorbutics. Cold Flour. Substitutes in case of
Necessity. Amount of Supplies. Clothing. Camp Equipage. Arms. 15

CHAPTER II.

Marching. Treatment of Animals. Water. Different methods of
finding and purifying it. Journadas. Methods of crossing them.
Advance and Rear Guards. Selection of Camp. Sanitary Considerations.
Dr. Jackson's Report. Picket Guards. Stampedes. How to prevent
them. Corraling Wagons. 44

CHAPTER III.

Repairing broken Wagons. Fording Rivers. Quicksand. Wagon Boats.
Bull Boats. Crossing Packs. Swimming Animals. Marching with loose
Horses. Herding Mules. Best Methods of Marching. Herding and
guarding Animals.