rough which the trail of
'52 led us. Landscapes, waterscapes, rocks, and skies and atmosphere
were here found in the perfection of light, shadow, perspective, color,
and effect. Added to these fixed features were those of life and
animation, contributed by herds of buffalo grazing on the plains, here
and there a bunch of antelope galloping about, and everywhere wolf,
coyote, and prairie dog, while a quaint and picturesque charm came from
the far-reaching line of covered wagons and the many groups of campers,
each with its own curl of ascending smoke, which, to the immigrant,
always indicated that upon that particular patch of ground, for that
particular time, a home had been established.

In this connection I find myself thinking about the various modes of
travel resorted to in those primitive days, when roads and bridges as we
have them today were still far in the future. The wagons were generally
drawn by cattle teams, from two to five yokes to the wagon. The number
of wagons would be all the way from one to one hundred. The larger
trains were difficult to pass, as they took up the road for so long a
distance that sometimes we would move on in the night in order to get
past them. Among the smaller teams we would frequently notice that one
yoke would be of cows, some of them giving milk right along. The cattle
teams as a rule started out earlier in the morning and drove later at
night than did the horse and mule teams; hence, we would sometimes see a
certain train for two or three days before we would have an opportunity
to get ahead of them. This was the cause of frequent quarrels among
drivers of both cattle and horse teams; the former being largely in the
majority and having the road, many of them seemed to take delight in
keeping the horse teams out of the road and crowding them into narrow
places. These little pleasantries were indulged in generally by people
from Missouri, as many of them seemed to think their State covered the
entire distance to California.

As to classes and conditions constituting the immigration, they might be
divided up somewhat as follows: There were the proprietors or partners,
owners of the teams and outfits; then there were men going along with
them who had bargained with the owners before leaving home, some for a
certain amount paid down, some to work for a certain time or to pay a
certain amount at the journey's end. This was to pay for their grub and
use of tents and wagons. These me