on the lookout for us, discovered our flag as we wound among the hills.
The fort saluted us with repeated discharges of its single piece, which we
returned with scattered volleys of our small-arms, and felt the joy of a
home reception in getting back to this remote station, which seemed so far
off as we went out.



SEPTEMBER.


On the morning of the 3d September we bade adieu to our kind friends at
the fort, and continued our homeward journey down the Platte, which was
glorious with the autumnal splendor of innumerable flowers in full and
brilliant bloom. On the warm sands, among the _helianthi_, one of the
characteristic plants, we saw great numbers of rattlesnakes, of which five
or six were killed in the morning's ride. We occupied ourselves in
improving our previous survey of the river; and, as the weather was fine,
astronomical observations were generally made at night and at noon.

We halted for a short time on the afternoon of the 5th with a village of
Sioux Indians, some of whose chiefs we had met at Laramie. The water in
the Platte was exceedingly low; in many places, the large expanse of
sands, with some occasional stunted tree on its banks, gave it the air of
the seacoast; the bed of the river being merely a succession of sandbars,
among which the channel was divided into rivulets of a few inches deep. We
crossed and recrossed with our carts repeatedly and at our pleasure; and,
whenever an obstruction barred our way in the shape of precipitous bluffs
that came down upon the river, we turned directly into it, and made our
way along the sandy bed, with no other inconvenience than the frequent