Crossing on the way several Pawnee roads to the Arkansas, we reached, in
about twenty-one miles from our halt on the Blue, what is called the coast
of the Nebraska, or Platte river. This had seemed in the distance a range
of high and broken hills; but on a nearer approach was found to be
elevations of forty to sixty feet into which the wind had worked the sand.
They were covered with the usual fine grasses of the country, and bordered
the eastern side of the ridge on a breadth of about two miles. Change of
soil and country appeared here to have produced some change in the
vegetation. _Cacti_ were numerous, and all the plants of the region
appeared to flourish among the warm hills. Among them the _amorpha_,
in full bloom, was remarkable for its large and luxuriant purple clusters.
From the foot of the coast, a distance of two miles across the level
bottom brought us to our encampment on the shore of the river, about
twenty miles below the head of Grand Island, which lay extended before us,
covered with dense and heavy woods. From the mouth of the Kansas,
according to our reckoning, we had traveled three hundred and twenty-eight
miles; and the geological formation of the country we had passed over
consisted of lime and sand stone, covered by the same erratic deposits of
sand and gravel which forms the surface rock of the prairies between the
Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Except in some occasional limestone
boulders, I had met with no fossils. The elevation of the Platte valley
above the sea is here about two thousand feet. The astronomical
observations of the night placed us in longitude 98 deg. 45' 49", latitude 40 deg.
41' 06".

27th.--The animals were somewhat fatigued by their march of yesterday,
and, after a short journey of eighteen miles along the river bottom, I
encamped near the head of Grand Island, in longitude, by observation, 99 deg.
05' 24", latitude 40 deg. 39' 32". The soil was here light but rich, though in